Truman Arnold - DNC Finance Chairman, responsible for fundraising
http://www.justfacts.com/whodb.htm

* 18 U.S.C. 641 - It is against the law to steal or knowingly covert government
property for private use. Penalties include up to 10 years of prison and fines.

* The Clinton Administration prosecuted Peter Collins (D.C. Cir. 1995) for using
government photocopiers and paper to make 76,500 newsletters and calendars to
support the United States Amateur Ballroom Dancing Association.

* 5 U.S.C. 7324 (The Hatch Act) - It is against the law for government employees
to use government property or resources for political activities.

* In a June of 1996 letter to the Subcommittee, Jack Quinn wrote:

"The database is for White House use only; we prohibit distribution
to outside entities or political organizations -- including the
Democratic National Committee or the Clinton-Gore '96
Committee."


* In a January of 1994 memo to Marsha Scott, Cheryl Mills wrote:

"Therefore, data from the database system may be provided to a
source outside the federal government only for authorized purposes.
5 C.F.R. § 2635.704."


* 18 U.S.C. 1505 - It is against the law to obstruct a Congressional investigation
by withholding documents.

* It is against the law to knowingly make false statements in a Congressional
investigation.



WHAT THEY GAVE

* A file labeled, "Democratic National Committee, FINANCE SUPPORTERS" was found
in the White House Chief of Staff's Office. A page in it states:

"The DNC is not aware of who has been taken care
of to date. only recently have we been able to send a
staffer to the Social Office to look up Trustee
involvement for the past year. Having this information
in a timely fashion is important to our fundraising
efforts."


"DNC solicitation is subverted due to major donors
being invited to high level White House events
regardless of the date or amount of contribution. This
is a disincentive especially for the Trustee level
contributor."



* "Trustee" is a term used by the DNC to designate people who have raised or given more
than $100,000 to the DNC.

* Another page in this folder contains handwritten notes. The notes read:

"30% managing trustees not been to WH."


"list of who has been here."




* A March of 1995 DNC internal memo labeled "NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION" states:

"Each agency and WH department should have a list
of supporters and a staff person identified and
devoted to handle matters related to reaching out to
our donors."


"Through the new approach, we might be able to
work out a situation with the Social Office for us to
get a copy of invited guests after WH affairs have
occurred. If there’s a problem sending it to finance
then perhaps it could be sent to the Chairman’s office
and then routed to finance."



* Truman Arnold testified that the DNC wanted to obtain prior attendance information from
the White House, "to reactivate the people who had stopped contributing."

* A March of 1994 DNC memo labeled "Finance needs" states:

"Per our conversation and meeting with Truman, the
following notes are a sketch of some of the
improvements we need between the finance division
of the DNC and The White House."


"A designate staffer in Harold Ickes or Erskine
Bowles office should be dedicated to the requests of
the DNC. The only way we can get the things we
need to have done is through the [Chief of Staff's]
office. This person is critical to our abilities."




* Truman Arnold testified that he met with Erskine Bowles and Ann Stock(the White House
Social Secretary) in March of 1995 to discuss DNC access to White House Social Office
information. Erskine Bowles and Ann Stock testified that they had no recollection of the
meeting. Prior to his deposition, it was requested that Erskine Bowles bring his calendar
from 1995 for use during the questioning. Bowles did not bring his calendar. He testified, "I
don’t know where it is."

* Four days after the date that Truman Arnold had specified this meeting took place, Erskine
Bowles wrote a memo to White House staff asking them to verify the data in the White
House Database. The memo states:

"The success of our future outreach efforts will be
directly impacted by the quality of this data."


"Furthermore, coding these records will allow us to
drastically speed up the list creation process by giving
us the ability to identify and target individuals."


"This clean-up project is one of the highest priorities
for the President and your office should treat it as
such."


* Jerry Carlsen, a career employee of the White House, who was asked to lead the White
House Database development team, testified that Marsha Scott told him that the Database
was a top priority for the President, and that he had never heard the President’s authority
invoked with respect to another project at the White House.

* A draft memo from Paul Antony and Brian Bailey to Erskine Bowles dated October 25,
1994 is entitled, "Update on White House Database Project." The first heading reads,
"WILL IT MEET THE NEEDS OF POTUS AND THE FIRST LADY?" Under this
heading, the memo cites accurate records of individuals' contributions as one of those needs.


* Notes were found in Brian Bailey's handwriting which state:

"HAROLD AND DEBORAH DELEE WANT TO
MAKE SURE WhoDB IS INTEGRATED W/DNC
DATABASE — SO WE CAN SHARE —
EVIDENTLY, POTUS WANTS THIS TO!" [sic]


* A February of 1995 draft memo written by Marsha Scott to the White House Chief of
Staff reads:

"The President identified a need for reaching out to his
friends and supporters."



"GOALS:
A. To identify and contact the key early supporters
in all 50 states.....
B. To put in WhoDB the names and relevant information
about those early supporters in order to make their names
available to other White House outreach offices."



"PLAN:
Outreach:
2. To establish a database to hold and work these
names.(WhoDB will be fully functional by January.)"



"Follow-up:
Advocacy:
6. Establish solid links with the White House
staffs, White House liaisons, DLC, DNC, and government
agencies so that we can get information and resources quickly."



"RESOURCES NEEDS:
1. More Staff...
2. Office Space...
4. Phones and Computers...
5. File Cabinets...
8. Pagers and Cell Phones..."



"SUMMARY:
This is the President's idea and it's a good one...
Because there is very little outreach to early supporters
coming from the DNC, I am having to do more than I originally
estimated. When they are better organized, my work can focus
more clearly on strictly White House functions. However,
until that time the need is still there and the job must
be done."




* In May of 1996, Bill Clinton approved a new job description for Marsha Scott,
authorizing her to involve the President’s supporters in fundraising.





* Marsha Scott transmitted a "CONFIDENTIAL" memo on June 28, 1994 to Harold
Ickes, Bruce Lindsey, and Hillary Clinton. The subject of the memo is a recommendation for
the design of a new database for the Clinton/Gore Campaign. In the memo, Marsha Scott
refers to the White House Database team as "my staff" and "my team." The memo states:

"My team and I are also engaged in conversations
with the DNC about the new system they are
proposing. We have asked that their system be
modeled after whatever system we decide to use
outside the White House. I need you to make very
clear to them that their system must be
technologically compatible, if not the same, as
whatever system we decide to use for political
purposes later on."


"Therefore, I suggest that instead of continuing with
an old outdated system (PeopleBase) that does not
meet our current demands, let my team work with the
DNC to help them design a system that will meet our
needs and technical specifications. We can show
them what to do and then clone another system for
our specific uses later on."


* Hillary Clinton responded to this memo with a handwritten comment at the top of the page:

"This sounds promising. Please advise. HRC"




WHAT THEY GOT

* Ari Swiller testified that he and others at the DNC Finance Division wanted to
obtain from the White House lists of people who had attended White House
events. According to Swiller, this information was used as a factor to prioritize who
the DNC would recommend for invitations to the White House.

* Richard Sullivan testified that he obtained lists of attendance at White House
events, and that he used those lists to raise money.

* Truman Arnold testified:

"...we would call the White House to see, after we screened them,
how many times they had attended, as a part of prioritizing ."

* Truman Arnold told the L. A. Times in regards to obtaining attendance data from
the White House, "I started checking back with the White House just as a routine
matter." He confirmed this statement in a deposition.




* Standard protocol is that the political party of the President pays for the
purchase and distribution of White House holiday cards. Lists of recipients and
their addresses are obtained from the White House and political organizations
affiliated with the President.

* The standard procedure is to use an outside contractor to merge the lists, and to
address and mail the cards. This is done to prevent White House data, which is
government property, from falling into the hands of political organizations.

* Handwritten notes made by Marsha Scott's assistant (Erich Vaden) contain the
words:

"Christmas list as vehicle to get out?"


* The same contractor who maintained the database for the Clinton/Gore
Campaign was used to process the 1993 White House Holiday Card list.

* Interviews were done in April of 98 with employees of this contractor.
According to the sworn affidavit of a company staff member, the Holiday Card
List was entered into a ICL DRS 6000 computer and moved to the offices of the
Clinton/Gore Campaign.

* Found in the possession of Clinton/Gore Campaign was the White House 1993
Holiday Card list installed in the Clinton/Gore computer system.

* The computer file containing this data was compressed so that it would take up
less space on the hard drive. The date-tag on the file showed that the file had not
been decompressed since the computer was moved to the Clinton/Gore
Campaign.

* It is not possible to view or print the file without decompressing it, but it is
possible to copy the file.

* As of October of 1998, the 1993 White House Holiday Card list (which
contains over 33,000 names and addresses) remains in the possession of the
Clinton/Gore campaign.



* As of August of 1994, at least 3 people at the White House were aware that the
DNC had possession of the 1994 White House Holiday Card list.

* In January of 1997, at a White House press briefing, the White House
spokesman (Barry Toiv) stated that at no time did the DNC ever get to see any list
from White House computers for the Holiday Card project.

* In February of 1997, Charles Ruff addressed a letter to Congress stating, that
the 1994 Holiday Card list was "inadvertently" sent to the DNC and returned
"immediately" upon the White House’s discovery that it was in the possession of
the DNC.

* Documents and testimony show that the full 1994 White House Holiday Card list
was received by the DNC on 2 separate occasions.

* At the DNC, a 5 foot thick printout of the full list and two computer copies of
the partial list were made.

* The DNC was unable to locate the 5 foot thick printout of the full list.

* The DNC was unable to locate a printout of a partial list that they received.

* The DNC was unable to locate two computer tapes of the partial list that were
last seen at the DNC.

* As of October of 1998, one computer copy of a partial list remains in possession
of the DNC.




* White House employees who worked on the White House Database were sent
to the DNC for a meeting, contacted by beeper, and ordered back. One stated,
"The sense was that it wasn’t appropriate for Federal employees to have direct
contact with DNC."

* White House career employees were sent to the DNC by White House officials.
A career employee testified:

"[I]t just didn’t look right for us to go to the DNC. We were Federal
employees . . ."

"[M]y entire team was questioning us going to the DNC when we
went..."

* Found in the possession of the DNC :
1) A White House list of Asian Pacific American leaders
2) White House calligrapher’s lists containing hundreds
of names and addresses
3) Lists of invitees to the White House Arts and Humanities
Dinner in October of 1995
4) The list of invitees to the White House Economic Conference
in 1994
5)Data from the 1994 White House Christmas card list
(which contained more than 76,000 names and addresses)



OBSTRUCTION/COVER UP

* June 28,1996 - Jack Quinn sends a letter to the Subcommittee in which he
writes, "The database is for White House use only..."

* October 3, 1996 - The Subcommittee writes to the White House and asks, "Has
the White House has ever provided any data from the WhoDB to an outside
organization or individual?" An answer is requested by October 9th.

* October 28, November 30, 1996, and January 10, 1997 - The White House
does not respond, and the Subcommittee repeats their request.

* January 29, 1997 - The White House Press Secretary (Mike McCurry) returns
a call to Truman Arnold. Arnold asks McCurry for guidance as to how to respond
to a number of press inquiries related to the WhoDB.

* January 30, 1997 - The L.A. Times runs a story containing new evidence
regarding the possible illegal use of the WHODB and quotes Truman Arnold as
saying, "I started checking back with the White House just as a routine matter."

* January 30, 1997 - White House Press Briefing -

Reporters begin questioning Mike McCurry about the information
contained in the L.A. Times story.

McCurry responds, "I think Barry [Toiv] has looked into that. If you
don't mind I'm going to let him take that."

Barry Toiv (the Deputy Press Secretary) is asked if anyone in the
White House has spoken with Truman Arnold and he responds, "I
don't know."

Four questions later, reporters ask Toiv, "Don't you think you might
want to talk to him about that?" "Given all the reports you all haven't
talked to him yet?"

McCurry interjects, "Barry, the Counsel's Office has--"

Toiv cuts in, "That's true. The Counsel's Office has contacted him..."

At no point does McCurry reveal the fact that he had spoken to
Truman Arnold the night before.

* February 21 and 27, 1997 - The White House has yet to respond to the
Subcommittee's October 3rd question regarding whether or not any data from the
WhoDB was provided to an outside organization or individual. The Subcommittee
repeats their request.

* February 28, 1997 - Charles Ruff responds to the Subcommittee. His letter
states, "the DNC occasionally called the White House to inquire whether specific
individuals had been to prior events, such as state dinners. Staff would sometimes
consult WhoDB to answer a specific question."

* In sworn testimony, Truman Arnold confirmed his statement made to the L.A.
Times: "I started checking back with the White House just as a routine matter."

* Three DNC employees testified they received lists of attendance information
from the White House.

* Three DNC employees testified they received attendance information from the
White House over the phone.

* Two White House employees testified that they gave attendance information to
the DNC.

* Weekly "list creation meetings" were held at the White House where the DNC
and Clinton/Gore Campaign were participants.

* Brook Stroud, the DNC employee who attended these meetings, was
questioned as to the whereabouts of files containing attendance lists from the White
House. She responded, "I might have thrown them away, I might have kept them. I
don't really know."




* In August of 1996, the majority members of the Subcommittee wrote a memo to
Bill Clinton requesting, "All communications related to the WhoDB..."

* In September of 1996, Cheryl Mills came into possession of handwritten notes
made by Brian Bailey which read, "HAROLD AND DEBORAH DELEE WANT
TO MAKE SURE WhoDB IS INTEGRATED W/DNC DATABASE — SO
WE CAN SHARE — EVIDENTLY, POTUS WANTS THIS TO!" [sic]

* Cheryl Mills did not turn this document over to the Subcommittee.

* The document was found by other members of the White House Counsel's office
in files created by Cheryl Mills, and was given to the Subcommittee more than a
year after Cheryl Mills came into possession of it.

* Cheryl Mills testified under oath that she did have possession of this document in
September of 1996, but determined it was not responsive to the Committee's
request.

* The Republicans and Democrats on the Subcommittee wrote separate reports
about the White House Database and related manners. The Republicans' report
referred Cheryl Mill's to the Department of Justice for an investigation of possible
perjury and obstruction of the investigation.

* The Democrats' report states that Cheryl Mill's non- production of this document
can be attributed to a "difference in judgment" and "honest mistakes".

* "WhoDB" is written at the top of the page in the first statement of the document.

* Cheryl Mills wrote memos where she stated that sharing information from White
House databases for political purposes was prohibited by law, and Brian Bailey
testified that he "heard Cheryl say that a hundred times."

* Another document which Cheryl Mills came into possession of in September of
1996 was the Marsha Scott memo, to which Hillary responded in handwriting,
"This sounds promising. Please advise. HRC"

* Cheryl Mills did not turn this document over to the Subcommittee.

* The memo was found by other by other members of the White House Counsel's
office in files created by Cheryl Mills, and was given to the Subcommittee in
February of 1997.




* The Democrats' report asserts that the "integration" of the WhoDB and DNC
database referred to in the Bailey notes, was for the purpose of making the
WhoDB capable of receiving information from the DNC, which they say is
"appropriate" and "a logical source of data."

* The Democrats' report asserts that Marsha Scott's team (which included
government paid employees) was to work with the DNC not to help the DNC, but
for the purpose of allowing the WhoDB to be able to receive information from the
DNC.

* To make this point, the Democrats' report quotes Marsha Scott's memo, "let my
team work with the DNC to help them design a system that will meet our needs
and technical specifications."

* Absent from the Democrats' report is the first half of the quoted statement. The
full statement reads:

"Therefore, I suggest that instead of continuing
with an old outdated system (PeopleBase) that
does not meet our current demands, let my
team work with the DNC to help them design
a system that will meet our needs and technical
specifications."


* Absent from the Democrats' report is the subject of the memo, which is the
design of a database for the Clinton/Gore Campaign.

* Absent from the Democrats' report are the next 2 sentences which follow the half
of a sentence which they quoted:

"We can show them what to do and then
clone another system for our specific uses later
on. Any information stored with PeopleBase
could be dumped into the new system and
made available, when deemed necessary, to
the DNC or other entities we choose to work
with for political purposes."





* The opening summary of the Democrats' report states that violations of the theft
statute include both stealing and "knowingly" converting. The summary is less than
3 pages long and uses the words stole, stealing, and steal 5 times, not including the
discussion of the statute. Example:

"...they were not stealing government
property."



* The 6 page long opening summary of the Republicans' report never uses the
words "stole", "stealing", or "steal". It uses the words "convert", "converted" and
"conversion" a total of 11 times.

* Regarding the event attendance information given to the DNC, the Democrats'
report states, "Nothing in these actions reflects any intent to wrongfully deprive the
government of property."

* No accusation of "depriving" was made in the Republicans' report.

* The Democrats' report cites the testimony of Richard Sullivan (DNC Finance
Director) as evidence that "fundamentally contradicts the [Republicans'] claims."
They quote him as answering "No" to the question of:

"You never contacted anybody who had been invited or attended an
event, asked for a contribution and reminded them of their having
been invited or having attended?"

* The Republicans' report doesn't make this accusation.

* The Democrats' report asserts that White House event attendance data was
given to the DNC was for "legitimate" reasons. The report states, "The White
House did not want to invite the same people repeatedly to White House events."

* The White House is capable of achieving this "want" without giving event
attendance information to the DNC, as this information is stored in the White
House.




* Three documents responsive to the Subcommittee's request for "all
communications related to the WhoDB" were not produced for periods ranging
from 5 months to over a year.

* Parts of 2 documents were "whited out" when first produced to the
Subcommittee. Some of the redacted material reads:

"This is the President's idea and it is a good
one."


"However, I feel there is a need for a
designated White House Liaison with the
DNC who keeps this task on the front
burner."


* As of October of 1998, there are 7 documents and a computer tape (all referred
to by other documents or mentioned in witness testimony) which the White House
and DNC say they are unable to locate.

* DNC office sign-in/sign-out records were requested for a period of time of
interest to the Subcommittee. The records had been destroyed.



SOURCES

INVESTIGATION OF THE CONVERSION OF THE $1.7 MILLION
CENTRALIZED WHITE HOUSE COMPUTER SYSTEM, KNOWN AS THE
WHITE HOUSE DATABASE, AND RELATED MANNERS, FIFTH
REPORT BY THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM AND
OVERSIGHT together with MINORITY AND SUPPLEMENTAL VIEWS,
October 30, 1998

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