Report: Berger Deliberately Hid Archive Documents

From a July 20, 2004 Fox News story:

"I deeply regret the sloppiness involved, but I had no intention of withholding documents from the commission, and to the contrary, to my knowledge, every document requested by the commission from the Clinton administration was produced," Berger said in a statement.

Sandy Berger, who was Bill Clinton's national security advisor, finally plead guilty to improperly removing the documents. He got a fifty grand fine and 100 hours of community service. Oh, and he can't handle classified documents any more - for three years.

Berger's lawyer assures us that the information in all of the materials that Sandy stole and destroyed were available to the 9/11 Commission.

Yesterday, the National Archives inspector general's office issued a report about their investigation of the incident. The report includes notes from an interview with Berger:

"He headed toward a construction area. ... Mr. Berger looked up and down the street, up into the windows of the Archives and the DOJ (Department of Justice), and did not see anyone," the interview notes said.

He then slid the documents under a construction trailer, according to the inspector general. Berger acknowledged that he later retrieved the documents from the construction area and returned with them to his office.

"He was aware of the risk he was taking," the inspector general's notes said. Berger then returned to the Archives building without fearing the documents would slip out of his pockets or that staff would notice that his pockets were bulging.