WASHINGTON (AP) — A former White House contractor says she was told that e-mail messages never turned over to congressional investigators or the Justice Department discuss Vice President Al Gore's involvement in the campaign fund-raising controversy.
In a declaration unsealed Friday in federal court, Betty Lambuth said a subordinate also told her some of the unreviewed e-mails deal with ``the sale of Clinton Commerce Department trade mission seats in exchange for campaign contributions.''
Lambuth said she was warned by White House superiors in May 1998 not to reveal a problem with the e-mail system that made it impossible to do a computer search of 100,000 or more messages in response to various investigations of the Clinton administration.
After Lambuth informed the White House of the problem, she said Office of Administration counsel Mark Lindsay told her ``that if I or any of my team who knew about the e-mail problem told anyone else about it we would lose our jobs, be arrested and put in jail.''
The White House said it will complete an initial review of the e-mail matter next week and declined to comment on Lambuth's statements.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth unsealed Lambuth's declaration in a lawsuit filed by a conservative legal group, Judicial Watch.
Lambuth said she was told by the subordinate who examined some of the e-mails that they also contained information on the White House's improper gathering of FBI background files of Republican appointees and the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Lambuth says she learned of a problem with the White House e-mail system in the midst of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's perjury and obstruction investigation of President Clinton in the Lewinsky scandal.
``We are aware of the allegations regarding the e-mail issue, and we are taking appropriate steps with regard to those allegations,'' said Neille Mallon Russell, a spokeswoman for the office of Starr's successor, Independent Counsel Robert Ray.
Lambuth said she and her co-workers dubbed the e-mail problem ``Project X'' and that because of the threats, she and her staff took to discussing the issue in a park near the New Executive Office Building and in a Starbucks coffee shop.
The e-mail problem came to light last month in declarations by a former White House computer specialist, Sheryl Hall.
Hall alleged in a new declaration, which Judge Lamberth also unsealed Friday, that she understood from a ``career staff member of the Clinton-Gore White House's Office of Administration'' that presidential aides plan to get rid of computer-taped archives and the contents of computer hard drives of presidential aides who leave.
Justice Department lawyer James Gilligan, representing the Executive Office of the President, assured the judge that the e-mails, computer hard drives and back-up tapes were being preserved, and he supplied the names of White House custodians of the records.
Gilligan rejected the suggestion that the White House has ``suppressed production of e-mails.'' He said it has always maintained that it is an ``undue burden'' to do mass searches of e-mail, but that it is willing to do so within ``reasonable search parameters.''
Gilligan also said the e-mail problem has been publicly known for some time. He pointed to an article in Insight magazine in December 1998 that outlined it.
As for suggestions of a coverup, ``it just doesn't add up,'' he said.
White House spokesman Jim Kennedy said Friday night, ``We are actively in the process of fully reviewing all these matters and will be reporting on them next week, as the president's counsel has said.'' He declined to address Lambuth's assertions.
In a declaration unsealed Friday in federal court, Betty Lambuth said a subordinate also told her some of the unreviewed e-mails deal with ``the sale of Clinton Commerce Department trade mission seats in exchange for campaign contributions.''
Lambuth said she was warned by White House superiors in May 1998 not to reveal a problem with the e-mail system that made it impossible to do a computer search of 100,000 or more messages in response to various investigations of the Clinton administration.
After Lambuth informed the White House of the problem, she said Office of Administration counsel Mark Lindsay told her ``that if I or any of my team who knew about the e-mail problem told anyone else about it we would lose our jobs, be arrested and put in jail.''
The White House said it will complete an initial review of the e-mail matter next week and declined to comment on Lambuth's statements.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth unsealed Lambuth's declaration in a lawsuit filed by a conservative legal group, Judicial Watch.
Lambuth said she was told by the subordinate who examined some of the e-mails that they also contained information on the White House's improper gathering of FBI background files of Republican appointees and the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Lambuth says she learned of a problem with the White House e-mail system in the midst of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's perjury and obstruction investigation of President Clinton in the Lewinsky scandal.
``We are aware of the allegations regarding the e-mail issue, and we are taking appropriate steps with regard to those allegations,'' said Neille Mallon Russell, a spokeswoman for the office of Starr's successor, Independent Counsel Robert Ray.
Lambuth said she and her co-workers dubbed the e-mail problem ``Project X'' and that because of the threats, she and her staff took to discussing the issue in a park near the New Executive Office Building and in a Starbucks coffee shop.
The e-mail problem came to light last month in declarations by a former White House computer specialist, Sheryl Hall.
Hall alleged in a new declaration, which Judge Lamberth also unsealed Friday, that she understood from a ``career staff member of the Clinton-Gore White House's Office of Administration'' that presidential aides plan to get rid of computer-taped archives and the contents of computer hard drives of presidential aides who leave.
Justice Department lawyer James Gilligan, representing the Executive Office of the President, assured the judge that the e-mails, computer hard drives and back-up tapes were being preserved, and he supplied the names of White House custodians of the records.
Gilligan rejected the suggestion that the White House has ``suppressed production of e-mails.'' He said it has always maintained that it is an ``undue burden'' to do mass searches of e-mail, but that it is willing to do so within ``reasonable search parameters.''
Gilligan also said the e-mail problem has been publicly known for some time. He pointed to an article in Insight magazine in December 1998 that outlined it.
As for suggestions of a coverup, ``it just doesn't add up,'' he said.
White House spokesman Jim Kennedy said Friday night, ``We are actively in the process of fully reviewing all these matters and will be reporting on them next week, as the president's counsel has said.'' He declined to address Lambuth's assertions.