The mystery of how the Justice Department operates becomes more baffling the more I read. “Scooter” Libby was found guilty of failing to remember events correctly, or failing to correctly tell investigators what he knew. He was sentenced to 30-37 months in jail followed by two years of probation and fined $250,000. Sandy Berger stole classified documents from the National Archives, and was sentenced to two years of probation and fined $50,000 after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor.  Berger was supposed to be finding information that would be important to the 9/11 Commission. I speculate that he instead took the opportunity to remove documents that might be embarrassing to him or perhaps the Clinton legacy. One would think that stealing documents from the National Archives would be a serious crime, and that the crime would be even more serious if the purpose was to obstruct the work of the 9/11 Commission.  It apparently was a mere misdemeanor.

Clinton had asked Berger, who had been his National Security Advisor, to testify to the Commission. Berger was allowed access to classified documents in a secure reading room during four visits to the National Archives to prepare for his testimony. He was caught in the act of stealing documents. The incident was reported to the Justice Department by Paul Brachfield, the Inspector General of the National Archives. Brachfield became concerned about a lack of action from DOJ, and arranged a meeting with a DOJ trial attorney to emphasize he was concerned Berger was obstructing the Commission’s investigation. An article sent to me by my Sister-in-law observed that DOJ began to investigate after Brachfield persisted.

There is no way of knowing how many classified documents Berger cleaned out of the National Archives during the visits before he was caught. DOJ apparently wasn’t curious about what he removed, because they decided there was no need for the lie detector test that was a condition of Berger’s plea bargain.  They conducted a multi-million dollar investigation about “who outed Valerie Plame” (even after they learned whodunit early in the investigation and didn’t prosecute that person), but apparently weren’t curious about what Berger was up to.  It’s a mystery. I’d be interested if there is a reader who can explain this to me and/or can set me straight.