Justice Department appeals ruling that Clinton violated privacy law

April 3, 2000
Web posted at: 6:01 p.m. EDT (2201 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Justice Department lawyers asked a federal appeals court on Monday to vacate last week's ruling by a district judge that President Bill Clinton committed a criminal violation of the Privacy Act by releasing letters written to him by Kathleen Willey, a White House volunteer who in 1998 accused the president of groping her in the Oval Office.

The Justice Department is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to take emergency action and strike down the March 29 ruling by Judge Royce Lamberth, arguing that the president is not subject to the provisions of the Privacy Act, which is designed to protect individuals who do business or have other dealings with the federal government.

The department is asking the court to declare that, "the White House component of the Executive Office of the President is not an 'agency' within the meaning of the Privacy Act."

Lamberth concluded last week that the president had demonstrated criminal intent to violate the Privacy Act after determining the White House was an agency subject to the act. Lamberth wrote: "The president had the requisite intent for committing a criminal violation of the Privacy Act" when the White House released the Willey correspondence.

The letters were released in March 1998, the morning after Willey appeared on the CBS program "60 minutes" and alleged that the president made an unwanted sexual advance while the two were in a private room adjacent to the Oval Office in 1993.

Clinton has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. White House aides said they released the letters to cast doubt about Willey's allegations, saying the letters showed she remained friendly with Clinton after the alleged incident.

At a news conference last Wednesday, Clinton said he authorized release of the letters reluctantly, and the notion that the Privacy Act might be applied to the action never crossed his mind. Release of the letters, Clinton insisted, was "the only way I knew to refute allegations against me that were untrue."

When he issued the ruling, Lamberth ordered White House lawyers to answer questions they previously refused to answer in a legal challenge brought by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch, which has filed numerous lawsuits against the Clinton Administration over the past seven years.

Three top White House aides -- Deputy Counsel Bruce Lindsey, former Counsel Charles F.C. Ruff and former Deputy Counsel Cheryl Mills -- recommended that the letters be released, and Clinton "concurred in these recommendations" despite being aware of the Privacy Act, Lamberth said last week.

"Plaintiffs have clearly established that the White House and president were aware that they were subject to the Privacy Act and yet chose to violate its provisions," Lamberth ruled.

The papers filed Monday by government lawyers say, "The president had adhered to that understanding of the statute shared by every administration since the act's passage."

"The need for immediate appellate review is particularly plain because the district court has imposed significant restrictions on the president and his closest advisors that Congress itself declined to enact into law," the government brief said.

CNN's Terry Frieden contributed to this report.