White House FBI Files Controversy - Who Hired Livingstone Issue

Who Hired Livingstone Issue

A secondary question of the Filegate controversy revolved around what the Office of Personnel Security was, who had authorized the hiring of Livingstone, and whether he was qualified for the job. The Office was not responsible for actual White House security, as that was the charge of the United States Secret Service, nor did it perform background checks on potential White House employees, a task done by the FBI, nor did it keep the regular personnel files of employees, which were held in a different office within the White House. Rather, its role was to keep track of who was employed by the White House, make sure their security clearances were up to date, and give security briefings to new hires. Nevertheless, Livingstone seemed to lack qualifications for even this position; he had worked on a number of Democratic Party campaigns and transitions, including being an advance man for the Clinton-Gore 1992 campaign, and his only prior job in the "security" field was that of a local bar bouncer at a Washington, D.C., night club. (At the congressional hearings, Livingstone objected to "false and unfair caricatures of who I am. I have worked hard for little or no pay in political campaigns for candidates who I felt would make this country a better place to live." In later years Livingstone would continue to maintain on the Internet that he had been qualified for the position, that the First Lady had signed off on hiring him, and that his character had been maligned by the general media.) Clinton opponents stated that Livingstone had the highest level of security clearances in the U.S. government. White House officials could not explain why Livingstone was hired, nor who had hired him.

An FBI document suggested that Livingstone had been given his position because First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was a friend of Livingstone's mother and recommended him. Hillary Clinton stated that while she was once photographed with the mother in a large group, she did not know her. Hillary Clinton was briefly deposed at the White House by the Independent Counsel regarding this matter on January 14, 1998. (That same day, the same Office of the Independent Counsel staff were listening to taped conversations of Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky; the Lewinsky scandal was soon to break.) In 1999, Clinton gave a sworn statement that she had nothing to do with Livingstone's hiring. Livingstone also stated under oath there was no truth to the supposed hiring relationship. Hillary Clinton would later refer to the whole files matter as a "pseudoscandal".