Samuel R. Berger, a national security adviser to President Bill Clinton, has
agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge and give up his security
clearance for three years for removing classified material from a government
archive, the Justice Department and associates of Mr. Berger's said
Thursday....
When the issue surfaced last year, Mr. Berger insisted that he had removed the classified material inadvertently. But in the plea agreement reached with prosecutors, he is expected to admit that he intentionally removed copies of five classified documents, destroyed three and misled staff members at the National Archives when confronted about it, according to an associate of Mr. Berger's who is involved in his defense but who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plea has not been formalized in court.
...
It is unclear what impact the case will have on Mr. Berger's future in government. While the plea agreement requires him to give up his secret security clearance for three years, it allows him to have it reviewed and restored within that time if the government asks him to serve on a panel or in another position with access to secret material, associates said. But some political analysts said the case against him, which Republican leaders seized on last year in accusing him of imperiling national security, may have made him unemployable in government in the short term. He is currently chairman of a global business strategy firm.
Do you think you or I would get that sort of a deal had we done the deed? Methinks no!
Labels: Pantsgate, Sandy Berger
