White House Daily Briefing, September 26, 2000

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary

September 26, 2000

PRESS BRIEFING BY JOE LOCKHART

The James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

2:24 P.M. EDT


Q: And your reaction to the Attorney General and the FBI Director
testifying about the Wen Ho Lee case today? Do you think it's a useful
way to answer some of these questions?


MR. LOCKHART: Yes, I think there's -- the members of Congress have
questions like the President has questions, like the American public
has questions on this case. And it's important for the Attorney
General and the FBI Director to go up to Congress and make their views
known, answer -- I think they have answered many of the questions that
were put to them today. There are other questions that I think the
Office of Professional Responsibility will look at. But, overall, the
Attorney General has made clear to the President and I think to the
public, that the important thing here is that we look at the serious
transgressions that happened in this case by Dr. Lee, which are
embodied in the plea agreement, but also go and look seriously at any
questions that have been raised about the conduct of the investigation
and the prosecution. And both of those things are being done.


Q: Is the President still troubled then? Is he still troubled that he
doesn't feel he has the answers?


MR. LOCKHART: I think there's a process here and I think we wouldn't
go through a process if there weren't unanswered questions, for
particularly some of the issues surrounding the detainment, the
pre-prosecution -- or the pre-trial -- excuse me -- detainment. But I
think, overall, the President agrees with the Attorney General that
these were serious offenses, a serious offense that Dr. Lee pleaded
guilty to. And I think that was the focus of most of the morning's
discussion with the Attorney General and the FBI Director, just the
details of the information that they had, and that the priority should
be on finding out what happened to these tapes.


Q: Was she able to assure the President that they would get the answer
as to why he took this --


MR. LOCKHART: Absolutely. I think the President was assured by the
Attorney General in his meeting late last week that all of these
questions would be looked at in a very serious way and the President,
Congress, and the American public would have a full accounting.


Q: Does the President plan to, or want to, have a discussion about the
case with the FBI Director? And does he still have confidence in his
role leading the --


MR. LOCKHART: I think the President's view on the FBI Director remains
the same, and I think he views it as appropriate to deal directly with
the Attorney General on this matter.


END  2:45 P.M. EDT