page_title: White House FBI files controversy
section_title: Who hired Livingstone issue
hierarchical_section_title: White House FBI files controversy / Who hired Livingstone issue
caption_attribution_description: English: From HTML source: [PHOTO: Mrs. Clinton at opening of VI Sculpture Garden Exhibit] First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at opening of "Exhibition 6: Honoring Native America, October 1997 through October 1998" at the White House Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. See this Sculpture magazine article for more.
context_page_description: The White House FBI files controversy of the Clinton Administration, often referred to as Filegate, arose in June 1996 around improper access in 1993 and 1994 to FBI security-clearance documents. Craig Livingstone, director of the White House's Office of Personnel Security, improperly requested, and received from the FBI, background reports concerning several hundred individuals without asking permission. The revelations provoked a strong political and press reaction because many of the files covered White House employees from previous Republican administrations, including top presidential advisors. Under criticism, Livingstone resigned from his position. Allegations were made that senior White House figures, including First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, may have requested and read the files for political purposes, and that the First Lady had authorized the hiring of the underqualified Livingstone.
  The matter was investigated by the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Whitewater Independent Counsel.
context_section_description: 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." 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".
caption: First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton came under examination regarding whether she had had any role in hiring for the White House's Office of Personnel Security (photo taken at the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden).
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