Amid Probe, Berger Cuts Ties With Kerry Camp

Former national security advisor Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger withdrew Tuesday as an advisor to the presidential campaign of Sen. John F. Kerry after the disclosure that he was being investigated for the mishandling of classified documents from his years in the Clinton administration.

Berger’s lawyer acknowledged that the FBI was looking into an episode last year in which his client removed copies of classified documents from the National Archives while preparing to testify before the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The unauthorized documents included handwritten notes that Berger had taken while reviewing materials at the archives, and what his lawyer said were copies of drafts of a secret Clinton administration analysis of its handling of a terrorist bombing plot surrounding the millennium celebration, which targeted Los Angeles International Airport.

Berger returned most of the materials after National Archives officials complained, although one or more versions of the draft report could not be located and were probably thrown away, attorney Lanny Breuer said. Breuer ascribed the episode to inadvertence and “sloppiness.”

Berger is “a workaholic ... but not the most organized person,” Breuer said. “He was reviewing thousands of documents at the request of the government. He was doing it alone. It was hard work.”

In a statement released late Monday, Berger had said, “When I was informed by the archives that there were documents missing, I immediately returned everything I had, except for a few documents that I apparently had accidentally discarded.”

The idea of a seasoned national-security expert running afoul of procedures for handling classified materials struck many observers as highly unusual. Breuer also acknowledged that Berger had walked out of the archives with some of the classified notes in the pockets of his pants and coat.

But the disclosure of an FBI investigation into a Kerry advisor as the Sept. 11 commission prepared to issue its final report Thursday, and immediate attacks on Berger by Republican leaders, underscored the political dimensions of the case.

And the speed with which Berger parted ways with the Kerry campaign pointed out how the investigation threatened to become a political problem for the presumed Democratic nominee a week before his nominating convention in Boston.

“Mr. Berger does not want any issue surrounding the 9/11 commission to be used for partisan purposes,” Breuer said.

In a statement released Tuesday, Kerry called Berger his friend, adding, “He has tirelessly served this nation with honor and distinction. I respect his decision to step aside as an advisor to the campaign until this matter is resolved objectively and fairly.”

Berger, an unpaid advisor to Kerry’s campaign, has been speaking with the Massachusetts senator’s aides several times a week, and with the candidate several times a month. He has been considered a possible secretary of State in a Kerry administration.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said he was “profoundly troubled” by the allegations and said he found Berger’s explanation suspicious. He also questioned whether it was part of an effort to conceal information from the commission.

“What information could be so embarrassing that a man with decades of experience in handling classified documents would risk being caught pilfering our nation’s most sensitive secrets?” Hastert asked. “Did these documents detail simple negligence, or did they contain something more sinister?”

Democrats, meanwhile, questioned whether the leak was timed to deflect attention from the substance of the Sept. 11 commission’s final report Thursday. The findings are expected to be highly critical of the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism efforts before the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Sandy has served his country very ably and very, very well. He deserves certainly the benefit of the doubt here. He’s cooperating,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.). “But I do think the timing is very curious.”

Al Felzenberg, a spokesman for the Sept. 11 commission, said the panel had been given access to all copies of drafts that were missing, and thought that the integrity of its work had not been compromised. “We had access to copies of everything we are reading about,” he said.

Berger visited the archives three times last summer and fall, reviewing thousands of pages of documents as he prepared to testify before the commission about the Clinton administration’s anti-terrorism efforts. According to Breuer, archives officials contacted Berger last October, saying that documents he had reviewed were missing.

Berger began searching his home and office and discovered several versions of the classified memo in a leather portfolio he had taken to the archives. He returned the memos, and the papers on which he had taken notes, but was unable to locate one or more missing versions of the memo, Breuer said.

Breuer said the Justice Department considered Berger the subject of a criminal investigation, meaning that he had information of interest but that he was not a target, and so charges were not likely. FBI agents have searched his home and office but have not interviewed Berger, who has offered to cooperate with investigators, the lawyer said.

Breuer said archives officials permitted Berger to take notes during his visits but had not authorized him to remove those notes. He said Berger acknowledged that the move violated archives procedures but said it helped him make a full presentation to the commission, and that prosecutors were not concerned with that part of the case.

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Times staff writer Matea Gold in Nantucket, Mass., contributed to this report.