Freeh said he took the action after an intensive FBI internal inquiry showed that the Bureau has failed to adequately safeguard such records against negligent or intentional misuse.
"The inquiry shows the FBI gave inadequate protection to the privacy interests of persons in FBI files," Freeh said. "The inquiry also found the Bureau failed to make certain that agencies receiving files followed exacting privacy procedures."
Freeh said that the inquiry's discovery of "egregious violations of privacy" required that the FBI move promptly and firmly to reform procedures and solve the problems. The new protective measures are being put into place at once.
The FBI inquiry has also discovered, Freeh said, that the White House has identified 408 files sought and received by the White House "without justification." Freeh said those files have been voluntarily surrendered by the White House to the FBI, including: 333 files on June 6; and, following "a further query from the FBI," 71 more improperly-sought files yesterday, June 13. The status of 17 other White House file requests is still to be determined.
Freeh said the results of the FBI inquiry are being given to Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr, who is investigating matters related to the White House Travel Office. Since part of the file problem relates to the Travel Office, the FBI could not question White House employees about the files and thus limited its inquiry to FBI personnel, Freeh said.
It is important to note, Freeh said, that the FBI report contains this finding on the files requested by and given to the White House: "Among the unquestionably unjustified acquisitions were reports relating to discharged Travel Office employees Billy Ray Dale and Barnaby Brasseux."
Freeh ordered the inquiry on learning a week ago that the White House requested and received the background file of Dale, a former White House Travel Office director, months after he was fired. Dale was later acquitted of charges of wrongdoing in the Travel Office position.
The FBI inquiry was expanded when it was learned that the White House, early in the Clinton Administration, also requested and received a large number of files on officials in the previous Bush Administration and other persons. In addition, the FBI learned the White House requested and received the FBI file on a second, discharged Travel Office employee, Brasseux.
FBI General Counsel Howard M. Shapiro directed the inquiry and wrote the report that was submitted to Freeh today. Deputy Attorney General Jamie S. Gorelick concurred with Freeh's new measures to prevent further privacy abuses.
Freeh said he has scrapped the long-standing former system where the White House submitted a file-request form that merely contained the typed-in name of the White House Counsel, with no indication who actually sought the information and who approved the request.
Freeh said the now-scrapped system of providing files to the White House dated back to the Johnson and Nixon Administrations and for decades and through many Presidents it presumably appeared that there was compliance with the law. Freeh said he believes that over the years the FBI complied with various federal laws governing FBI release of background files to the White House and other federal agencies for security clearances and other legitimate functions.
However, Freeh said, it is now clear that the system was very vulnerable to misuse and that government officials over several decades, including himself, had not provided adequate oversight of the system, resulting now in violations of privacy.
Freeh said "As FBI Director since September of 1993, I am responsible for the FBI problems and shortcomings since then, and I fully accept that responsibility. I pledge to make certain that no such problems occur again while I hold this post.
"While I only learned about these problems a week ago, I do not stand on any technical defense or make any excuses," Freeh said. "I was not vigilant enough."
Freeh said "The prior system of providing files to the White House relied on good faith and honor. Unfortunately, the FBI and I were victimized. I should have known before last week about a decades old system that failed. The FBI and I fell victim to my lack of vigilance, and this failure to exercise proper management controls also affected the privacy rights of many persons. I deeply regret those problems and pledge that they will not occur again on my watch. Like the report on which I based my comments, I have not reached any conclusions regarding the motivation of any White House employee."
Freeh said he also wanted to stress that no blame should be attached to the FBI research analysts who processed requests and forwarded files to the White House.
Freeh said "I agree completely with this finding from the FBI report: '...these employees have in no way failed the FBI...the FBI has surely failed them, and has failed in a larger sense to institute sufficient protections to effectively safeguard the very real privacy interests that we, as custodians of so many people's files, are responsible for protecting.'"
Freeh said that Howard Shapiro, the FBI's Counsel, deserves great credit for conducting a thorough internal inquiry and writing a comprehensive report that pulls no punches.
The report said that "As the events which prompted this inquiry reveal...while we have complied with all applicable law, we have failed to afford sufficient protection to the privacy interests of those whose files we maintain.
"There is, of necessity, a tradeoff between effectively serving the needs of the executive agencies for the prompt provision of reliable information and ensuring the vigilant protection of privacy," the report said.
"In our drive to maximize our productivity and responsiveness to client agencies, we have not been sufficiently attentive to our own responsibilities to safeguard our files against negligent or intentional misuse, nor have we been sufficiently exacting of the executive agencies we serve," the report said.
"We are, in some respects, fortunate that the recent discovery of the egregious violations of privacy which occurred here has focussed our attention upon an operation which has received far too little management or executive oversight," the report said.
The report emphasized that the FBI's inquiry began with the discovery of the Dale file being sent to the White House, and added: "It has subsequently been admitted by the White House that Dale's file was one of many, in excess of four hundred, sought from the FBI and relating to employees, some quite prominent, of previous administrations."
Among other things, the report said, the inquiry on FBI file practices found that "It appears that over time a tradition of considerable deference to the White House has developed."
The report took a close look at White House requests for copies of previous reports in the period from December 6, 1993, to February 3, 1994. During this time, the report said, the Bureau "received no fewer than 481 requests which bear the characteristics of a single series.
"These requests, when parsed out from the normal traffic of requests, arrived in nearly perfect alphabetical order--from Aa to Go--all seeking copies of previous reports and all providing the same justification--'ACCESS (S),'" the report said.
The report said that "We now know that many of these 481 requests, while facially valid, were without justification and served no official purpose. In recognition of this fact, the White House Counsel's Office has voluntarily surrendered to the FBI more than 400 folders containing FBI records since June 6, 1996.
"Folders relating to three hundred and thirty-three individuals were returned on June 6, 1996," the report said. "Apparently, these were folders that had already been segregated and shipped to the White House archives because an employee of OPS [Office of Personnel Security] had determined, over time, that these materials had been inappropriately gathered.
"One file of FBI material was returned separately on Monday, June 10, 1996," the report said. "Another had previously been provided to the IC [Independent Counsel]. In response to a further query from the FBI, folders relating to 71 additional individuals were identified as having been improperly sought and were turned over to the FBI on June 13, 1996.
"...As of June 14, 1996, then, requests relating to 408
individuals have been identified by the White House as having
been sought without justification...In addition, the status of an
additional seventeen requests has not yet been resolved," the
report said.
Documents Relating to the White House
FBI Home Page