Clinton Refuses to Give Committee Documents

Invoking principles of executive privilege and confidentiality, President Clinton’s lawyer refused Tuesday to provide a congressional panel with subpoenaed documents that could reveal embarrassing aspects of the administration’s anti-drug and immigrant naturalization programs.

Clinton’s refusal to comply with the congressional subpoenas was immediately criticized by a spokeswoman for GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole. “Bill Clinton should be ashamed of hiding behind the shield of executive privilege,” said Christina Martin. “It’s wrong, it’s secretive and it reeks of guilt.”

The documents were being sought by Republican members of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, which, for the last year, has battled with the White House over documents related to White House supervision of its travel office and FBI files.

Democrats called the subpoenas politically motivated. Dole and other Republicans have frequently criticized Clinton’s policies toward immigration and drug abuse.

Although the White House surrendered some documents sought by the committee, Jack Quinn, counsel to the president, said that granting the other requests would violate the confidentiality of advice given to Clinton by Vice President Al Gore and top administration appointees.

The documents in dispute between the White House and the committee include:

* A memo to the president from FBI Director Louis J. Freeh and Drug Enforcement Administration chief Thomas Constantine said to warn that the administration’s anti-drug policy is “dangerously adrift.” Quinn denied the request on grounds that it violated executive privilege, which protects the confidentiality of communications between the president and his advisors.

* Two draft memorandums from Gore to Clinton that committee investigators believe would demonstrate that the administration’s drive to naturalize 1.3 million immigrants this year as citizens was motivated by a desire to boost the number of Democratic voters in states important to the president’s reelection. Quinn said that request has been referred to U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to determine whether the document also should be protected by executive privilege.

* The files of every immigrant with a criminal record who has became a citizen over the last year. That demand was denied not under the umbrella of executive privilege but because Immigration and Naturalization Service officials said that the request was too broad.

The committee requested the Freeh-Constantine memo as part of an investigation into the alleged weaknesses of the administration’s anti-drug program, which committee Chairman William F. Clinger (R-Pa.) has called “a major policy failure.” Republicans said the White House has chosen to keep the memo secret because it supports their view.

Quinn’s letter to the committee said the memorandum “in question is a deliberative and confidential document, discussing various law enforcement options and strategies, prepared by senior law enforcement officials directly for the president and the president alone.”

In response, committee spokesman Ed Amerosi said Freeh, as director of the FBI, is a law enforcement officer, not a confidential advisor to the president who would be covered by the principle of executive privilege.

Speaking for Dole, Martin said Clinton, by invoking executive privilege, is demonstrating his embarrassment about his record in the war against drugs. “This White House has said time and again that Bill Clinton bears no real responsibility for the massive increase in teen drug use under his watch,” she said. “Now, they’ve suppressed a ‘smoking’ memo that shows otherwise.”

The requests for the Gore memo and the files on naturalized citizens who are criminals stem from a committee investigation into Citizenship USA, a special administration program to naturalize immigrants.

According to committee sources who have seen the memo, it suggests that Clinton can gain political advantage in the election by easing restrictions on naturalization of immigrants. It is based on the assumption that most of the new citizens would vote Democratic.

Times staff writer John M. Broder contributed to this story.