Pentagon Officials Violated Tripp’s Privacy, Report Says

An internal investigation by the Defense Department has concluded that two Pentagon officials violated the privacy rights of Linda Tripp, the employee who instigated the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal, when they released details from Tripp’s confidential personnel file two years ago.

A long-awaited report by the Pentagon inspector general, released Thursday, said that disclosures from Tripp’s file “constituted a clearly unwarranted invasion of her privacy” and amounted to a violation of the federal Privacy Act.

The report, the delay of which was criticized by a federal judge earlier this year, strengthens the hand of Tripp’s lawyers in a multimillion-dollar invasion of privacy damage suit filed against the Pentagon last year.

It also comes a day after Maryland prosecutors announced that they were dismissing state charges of illegal wiretapping against Tripp, who launched the scandal when she revealed her secretly recorded telephone conversations with Lewinsky.

Targeted in the inspector general’s report were Kenneth H. Bacon, the Defense Department’s chief spokesman, and a top assistant, Clifford Bernath, who were held responsible for the disclosure.

Defense Secretary William S. Cohen, responding to the report, sent formal letters to Bacon and Bernath expressing “disappointment” at their judgment in providing confidential details about Tripp’s background to a reporter for the New Yorker magazine as former independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr was beginning his investigation into Lewinsky’s relationship with President Clinton.

Cohen criticized Bacon and Bernath for “hasty and ill-considered” action in their disclosures from Tripp’s confidential file, which is used to grant security clearances to Pentagon employees. Both Tripp and Lewinsky worked in the Defense Department’s public affairs office after they met while Tripp was employed in the White House counsel’s office and Lewinsky was a White House intern.

Defending his action, Bacon said Thursday that he believed “the balance weighed in favor of responding to a specific question involving a public arrest record [and] ultimately my conduct will be found lawful.”

Bernath said he had “believed from the start that my actions were not only legal but also ethical and correct.”

The Justice Department has declined to prosecute either official on grounds there is insufficient evidence that they knowingly violated the federal Privacy Act.

In a statement released Thursday, Tripp’s lawyers said that Bacon and Bernath were told in advance that releasing information from Tripp’s personnel files “was covered by the Privacy Act and could not be released without her consent.” Her attorneys characterized the letters as insufficient.

“President Clinton should immediately revoke the action taken today concerning the illegal releases of information concerning Mrs. Tripp, and order proper punishment and remedial actions in this matter,” the statement said.

Tripp’s lawsuit, and an intervening petition by the conservative legal foundation Judicial Watch, has charged that confidential information was released to reporter Jane Mayer of the New Yorker in an effort by the administration to smear Tripp’s reputation.

Officials said Thursday that Cohen has been considering what action to take since receiving the inspector general’s report on May 5. He plans no disciplinary action against Bacon and Bernath and considers the matter closed, officials said.

The controversy began in March 1998 when Defense officials, responding to a request from reporter Mayer, disclosed that Tripp, in an apparent violation of reporting rules, had failed to tell her superiors about her arrest in New York state for alleged shoplifting in 1969 when she was a teenager.

Tripp was arrested on suspicion of theft of $263 in cash and a $600 watch. She claimed the items were planted in her handbag by friends as part of a teenage prank. The case was resolved in a plea bargain.