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Cohen Reprimands Bacon For Release Of Data On Tripp

May 26, 2000

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon was reprimanded on May 24 for violating the federal Privacy Act when he released confidential information from Linda R. Tripp's personnel file to a reporter in 1998. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said in letters to Bacon and his former top deputy, Clifford H. Bernath, both of whom were involved in the decision to leak the file, that their actions were "hasty and ill-conceived." He also said expressed his "disappointment" in their judgment. Navy Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, another Pentagon spokesman, said Cohen considers the matter closed and no further disciplinary action would be taken.

Sen. James M. Inhofe, who criticized a Justice Department decision last month not to prosecute Bacon, Thursday called for Bacon's resignation and denounced Cohen's response as a "whitewash and cover-up. The law was broken and nothing is being done about it." The Privacy Act prohibits the government from disclosing employee records in most instances without the consent of the employee.

In April, the Justice Department decided not to seek an indictment of Bacon or Bernath despite concerns outlined in an interim July 1998 report by the Defense Department's Office of Inspector General, which said the two men had broken the law. That decision came after Justice had held onto the report for 20 months before ruling there was "no direct evidence upon which to pursue any violation of the Privacy Act."

Acting Inspector General Donald Mancuso, who headed the probe, told the Senate Armed Services Committee March 3 that his office concluded Bacon ordered release of the Tripp records and that the documents were covered under the federal Privacy Act. In his final report, made public May 24, Mancuso said the harm to Tripp's privacy interests caused by the release of her confidential personnel file outweighed any public benefit. "Accordingly, the release constituted a clearly unwarranted invasion of her privacy," the report said. Mancuso added in the report that he believed the actions of Bacon and Bernath constituted a violation of the federal Privacy Act.

After the Justice Department's refusal to seek indictments, the matter was referred to Cohen to decide whether administrative sanctions were warranted.

Tripp is the Pentagon official who blew the whistle on President Clinton's affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. She and Lewinsky both worked for Bacon. Tripp has since filed a lawsuit accusing the White House and the Defense Department of using confidential Pentagon records to smear her reputation.

The inspector general's probe focused on accusations that the Defense Department released information to the media from confidential and required forms Tripp filed with the Pentagon. In those forms, she said she never had been arrested when in fact she had - in what later was described as a teen-age prank that occurred 30 years ago.

Bacon passed the information to Jane Mayer, a reporter for the New Yorker magazine who once worked with Bacon at the Wall Street Journal. It was used for a damaging story on Tripp's background at a time Lewinsky's relationship with Clinton had become a major public issue.

Tripp spurred the sex-and-lies investigation of Clinton by turning over to independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr tapes she secretly recorded of conversations with Lewinsky, who had been transferred from the White House to the Pentagon. Both Lewinsky and Clinton acknowledged having a sexual relationship, which led to the president's impeachment by the House on charges of perjury and obstruction. The Senate later acquitted Clinton.

On Wednesday, Maryland Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli dropped criminal wiretap charges against Tripp, saying a judge's decision limiting the testimony of Lewinsky had gutted his case. The judge had called the Lewinsky testimony tainted and not credible.

A government civil servant, Tripp came to the White House during the Bush administration but was retained as an administrative secretary working in the counsel's office when Clinton took office in 1993. She moved to the Pentagon in August 1994, where she later became friends with Lewinsky.

In addition to the Maryland prosecution and the leaking of her personnel records, Tripp’s income taxes have been audited by the IRS.

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