Contact: Dave Marin / Brian McNicoll (202)225-5074
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger agreed to take a polygraph test as part of his guilty plea for removing highly classified documents from the National Archives, and that test should be administered promptly, say 18 Members of Congress, led by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., in a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Davis, ranking Republican on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released a report on Jan. 9 that characterized the Justice Department’s investigation of Berger’s admitted document theft as “remarkably incurious.”
Specifically, Berger was sentenced to community service and probation and fined $50,000 plus court costs in September 2005 for removing documents from the Archives that he had examined to prepare himself and others to respond to inquiries from the 9/11 Commission. He also agreed to undergo a polygraph examination as part of the agreement, but the Justice Department never administered one, according to two Justice officials closely connected to the case – John Dion, chief of the counterespionage section, and Bruce Swartz, deputy assistant attorney general for the criminal division.
Berger said at the time that the 9/11 Commission “has made clear that it received all the documents that it sought, all the documents that it needed.” But some of the documents Berger examined were originals for which there were no copies or inventory, and Davis’ investigation revealed there is no way to know if Berger returned all of those documents. The Davis report stated that several Commission members and staffers have expressed grave concerns about whether they received all relevant information about Clinton administration anti-terror activities.
As such, the Members who signed the letter said, it is essential the Justice Department perform the polygraph on Berger to see what else he may be hiding.
“It is extraordinarily important that the Justice Department avail itself of its rights under the plea agreement and administer a polygraph examination to Mr. Berger to question him about the extent of his thievery,” the letter states. “This may be the only way for anyone to know whether Mr. Berger denied the 9/11 Commission and the public the complete account of the Clinton administration’s actions or inactions during the lead-up to the terrorist attacks on the United States.”
The letter to Attorney General Gonzales is available under Related Information (right sidebar).
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