Date: 1993-10-04
Speaker: NANCY KINGSBURY (republican)
Chamber: S

Director. Federal Human Resource Management Issues. United States General Accounting Office. General Government Division. Washington. DC. DEAR MS. KINGSBURY. The Department of Justice is making every effort to cooperate with your review of the treatment of the employees of the White House Travel Office. and I believe that you will be able to make a great deal of progress in your investigation without compromising our ongoing investigations. I understand that the FBI and the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division have made arrangements for you to review documents of the White House Travel Office. and that your review of those documents is already underway. We are also prepared to make the following documents available to you: 1. Policy Statements or Operating Procedures: All documents requested. if they exist. will be provided to you by the FBI. 2. Documents related to the FBIs interaction with the White House at the time of the dismissal of the Travel Office employees: a. Copies of correspondence between the FBI and Members of Congress concerning the Travel Office will be provided. b. The May 24. 1993 letter from Mr. Heymann to Senator Biden stating the Department of Justice policy regarding contacts between the White House and the Department will be provided. o. Copies of the following documents prepared by the FBI concerning its interaction with the White House will be provided: 1. FBI "Chronology" regarding the Travel Office matter. (This internal FBI document apparently was not transmitted to the Attorney General. but formed the basis for the FBI "Management Review" which also will be provided to you.) 2. FBI "Management Review" submitted to the Attorney General will be provided. 3. Copies of any FBI statements to the press about the White House Travel Office will be provided. 3. A copy of the final report of the Office of Professional Responsibility about the White House Travel Office matter will be provided when it is c6mpleted and submitted to the Deputy Attorney General. The following documents that you have requested do not exist: 1. Copies of any records in FBI files concerning press inquiries. The FBI has advised me that no such records are kept. 2. Copies of any documents associated with the processing of a GAO Hotline complaint about the White House Travel Office filed in December 1988 by GAO with the White House Legal Counsels office. It appears that GAO did not report this allegation to the FBI. A review of the FBI indices has been conducted and there is no record of anyone else having reparted it to the FBI. Consistent with Department of Justice policy. we are not able to provide internal FBI and Justice Department documents relating to the criminal investigation at this time. Similarly. any written correspondence with persons involved in the Travel Office investigation or their attorneys will not be released at this time. In the event that you have a specific compelling need for any particular document. please let me know and we will consider your request. We have no objection to your request to interview the officials of the Department of Justice named in your letter about their interaction with White House officials during the early stages of the Travel Office investigation. However. we do request that you begin those interviews no earlier than October 8 so that the Office of Professional Responsibility may complete its interviewing process. I am not aware of what involvement the FBI special agent based in Nashville. Tennessee had in theTravel Office matter. He is nota Special Agent in Charge. and I ask that you defer any request to interview him until I can determine what if any involvement he had. I understand that the Public Integrity Section has already agreed that you may proceed to interview all but 2 of the 18 White House staff members and 1 of the 20MB employees mentioned in your letter. In the category of "other" individuals. the Public Integrity Section has removed its objection to one of the persons listed and requested that you defer interviews of the others. Also. the Public Integrity Section has agreed to notify you when it determines that any particular inteiview no longer presents a program for the criminal investigation. After a thorough review. it is my considered judgment that premature interviews of the remaining persons whose interviews the Public Integrity Section has requested that you postpone would create the risk of compromising an ongoing criminal investigation. As you know. GAO traditionally has deferred to the Department of Justice when actions by GAO might interfere with ongoing investigations. However. I understand your legitimate need to comply with your statutory obligation and ask only that you postpone certain interviews until the criminal investigation has progressed to the point at which there would be no undue interference. If an urgent need develops to conduct any particular interview as your investigation proceeds. we will reconsider any requests on a casebycase basis. As we discussed. it is important that GAO agree to disclose the results of any interviews that you conduct in the event that such disclosure is required by a court pursuant to the Jencks Act in any future prosecution. We are trying to move expeditiously to complete our criminal investigation. I appreciate your understanding and look forward to working with you in an effort 1o accommodate your interests. Sincerely.