Berger Investigation Reveals Hypocrisy

Misleader: It has been a longstanding policy of the Justice Department not to comment on ongoing investigations. For example, when Deputy Attorney General James Comey, Jr. was asked to comment on the Justice Department investigation into the outing of Joe Wilson's wife as an undercover CIA operative, he said, "I can't tell you about the details of any ongoing criminal investigation because our goal is to make sure ... anyone who might not be charged with a crime isn't unfairly smeared."1 Now, in an effort to undermine the credibility of former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, the Justice Department has abruptly changed its policy.
Initially, career prosecutors handling the Berger investigation advised employees at the National Archives of their policy: Don't discuss the details of an ongoing case. But according to a letter by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), on July 27, Republican staff members of the House Government Oversight Committee "contacted the Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legislative Affairs and asked him to intervene to overrule the judgment of the career prosecutors."2 Days later, the Justice Department reversed their policy and advised archive employees they were "in no way constrained" from discussing any details of the Berger case.
In short order, Republican Chairman of the Oversight Committee, Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) has requested all written or electronic communications about Berger from the archive staff. Members of the staff have also been asked to submit to interviews by the committee. Berger admits he inadvertently removed some photocopies of classified documents from a government reading room. But Davis has decided to launch his expedition despite public statements by the 9/11 Commission General Counsel Daniel Marcus that Berger did not withhold any original material from the Commission.