Civic Economics - Page A1
March 21, 1997
CLINTON TRIED TO GET SECRET FBI FILES ON CHINESE
By Staff Investigative Journalists
WASHINGTON DESK - President Bill Clinton told reporters he was not told about the June 1996 FBI warnings of Communist Chinese involvement in the 1996 presidential election. However, it was learned on Tuesday that president Clinton may have actually known and that he subsequently made a thwarted attempt to obtain the counterintelligence information about what the FBI had learned of the Communist Chinese influence on the presdidential election last November.
President Clinton's legal counsel, Charles Ruff, made the FBI contact. Ruff contacted Janet Reno's deputy Jamie Gorelick and wanted to know what federal investigators knew or suspected about Chinese illegal contributions to the presidential campaign.
However, when FBI director Freeh learned of the White House probe by Gorelick, he ordered the information not be provided to Clinton, federal law enforcement officials said.
In a New York Times story Ruff is quoted as telling Gorelick he was seeking the information on behalf of the National Security Council.
Ruff, said Monday that there was nothing improper about his contacts with the Justice department.
The Times story depicted Clinton's probe to obtain the secured FBI files as a written request marked TOP SECRET. Ruff said in an interview Monday, 'This was a matter being dealt with by the National Security Council in its capacity as adviser to the president.'
However, law enforcement officials pointed out that Ruff's request was received only after FBI director Freeh had left Washington on a trip to the Middle East.
In his absence, attorney general Janet Reno and Gorelick quickly moved to obtain the secret FBI files. Before the Justice Department turned over the FBI files to Clinton's legal counsel, Robert Bryant, then head of the FBI national security division, picked up the telephone and informed Freeh of Clinton's probe for the secret files on the Chinese investigation.
Freeh ordered the files withheld.
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