Clinton Administration Sanctioned & Fined
    (c) The Associated Press
    AP-NY-12-19-97
    WASHINGTON (AP) -- Holding that the Clinton administration deliberately
    misled the court about Hillary Rodham Clinton's health-care task
    force, a federal judge is ordering the government to pay $285,864 in
    sanctions.
    U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth held Thursday that government
    lawyers directed by high government officials misrepresented the
    composition of a working group to shield its records from public
    scrutiny.
    "The Executive Branch of the government, working in tandem, was
    dishonest with this court, and the government must now face the
    consequences of its misconduct," Lamberth said Thursday in a scathing
    opinion.
    He ordered the money paid to the Association of American Physicians
    and Surgeons, Inc., which sued the Clinton administration to get
    access to the task force's deliberations.
    Courts relied on the Clinton administration's "dishonest explanation"
    of the working group, Lamberth said. But what he found "most
    outrageous" was the government's failure to correct the statement when
    it became clear it was erroneous.
    "It seems that some government officials never learn that the cover-up
    can be worse than the underlying conduct," Lamberth said.
    The White House declined comment.
    But Justice Department spokesman Bert Brandenburg said, "The
    government has consistently maintained that sanctions are not
    appropriate. We disagree with Judge Lamberth's conclusion but we take
    his opinion seriously. We are reviewing the decision and considering
    what action is appropriate."
    The judge found that the erroneous statement, sworn to by White House
    aide Ira Magaziner, was drafted by high government officials to
    mislead the court into believing that the working group was exempt
    from public disclosure of its records.
    Magaziner, who led the task force that drafted President Clinton's
    failed health-insurance initiative, swore that "only federal
    government employees serve as members of the interdepartmental working
    group" even though many members were not federal employees.
    "This court is convinced that Mr. Magaziner, and the drafters of his
    declaration, in an effort to avoid discovery and block live testimony,
    improperly represented as a fact that all 'members' of the working
    group were federal employees," the judge wrote.
    A federal appeals court ruled that because Mrs. Clinton was a de facto
    full-time government employee the task force was not an advisory
    commission and its records were not open to public scrutiny.
    But the panel sent the case back to Lamberth to determine whether the
    working group Magaziner headed also was exempt from the Federal
    Advisory Commission Act.
    "That is when we got in to the trenches firing at each other," recalls
    Thomas R. Spencer, a Miami lawyer who represented the doctors' group.
    "They knew if we saw those documents and they complied with discovery
    we would find out they lied."
    Lamberth also held that the Clinton administration during that phase
    of the case had "improperly thwarted ... legitimate discovery
    requests."
    The government "thereafter produced a great deal of information, but
    they still took no steps to correct Mr. Magaziner's sworn deposition,"
    Lamberth said.
    The false affidavit, Lamberth noted, was drafted by White House
    lawyers, including the late Vincent Foster, deputy White House
    counsel. It was also reviewed by then-Associate Attorney General
    Webster Hubbell, who later went to prison for defrauding his former
    Arkansas law firm and some of its clients.
    "It is clear that the decisions here were made at the highest levels
    of government," the judge said. "There were no rogue lawyers here
    misleading this court."
    A 1995 criminal investigation initiated at Lamberth's request
    concluded Magaziner could not be prosecuted for perjury. But the judge
    concluded that "such dishonesty is sanctionable and was not good faith
    dealing with the court or plaintiffs' counsel."
    "But the most outrageous conduct by the government in this case is
    what happened when it never corrected or updated the Magaziner
    declaration," Lamberth said. "That was a determination not made
    individually by Mr. Magaziner, but by the government through its
    counsel."
    "Most shocking to this court, and deeply disappointing, is that the
    Department of Justice would participate in such conduct," said
    Lamberth, a career Justice Department lawyer before President Reagan
    appointed him to the federal bench in 1987.
    "We've been saying there is a cover-up for three years," said Kathryn
    Serkes, spokeswoman for the physicians' group. "This is a
    vindication."
    "What is unfortunate is that the government's misconduct means it
    costs the taxpayers money."
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