Despite the apologies and [explanations for Fitegate — “Inexcusable!” said Leon Panetta — we know that senior officials inside the White House long knew about the illicit activity and did . . . nothing about it. Is that excusable, Mr. Panetta?
The whole sorry story broke, you will recall, when congressional investigators discovered a White House form requesting Billy Dale’s FBI file, dated seven months after Dale’s dismissal. The form was one of 1,000 pages of documents the White House finally surrendered to the Congress 18 months after being served with a subpoena. The White House had made a bizarre claim that the documents were covered by “executive privilege” (a privilege usually extended to documents affecting national security) — a claim it continues to make for another 2,000 pages still inside the White House.
In other words, someone in the White House counsel’s office went through all these papers — and claimed executive privilege for the Billy Dale request. What was the justification for this claim, which delayed exposure of Filegate for at least a year? Who made the claim? Did this White House lawyer not realize something was amiss? And what about the remaining 2,000 pages for which executive privilege is still being claimed?
So the questions are: Who knew about the files? When? And what is still being withheld?
