Surprise! The Clinton Justice Department will not be prosecuting Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon for violating the federal Privacy Act, even though he did. Bacon approved the release of Linda Tripp's personnel information to New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer, thereby causing embarrassment to Tripp at a time when she was instrumental in the investigation that led to the president's impeachment. After sitting on a report from the Pentagon's inspector general for 20 months, the Justice Department, according to the inspector general, concluded there was "no direct evidence upon which to pursue any violation of the Privacy Act."
Note that they did not say there was no violation of the Privacy Act. Indeed, Bacon's deputy Cliff Bernath blithely confirmed to THE WEEKLY STANDARD's Tucker Carlson the day after Mayer's story appeared that he had released "an 'X' in a box" to Mayer from the highly sensitive "personal history" form filled out by government employees seeking security clearances, which is -- there is no respectable argument to the contrary -- a violation of the 1974 Privacy Act. (Bacon's office let Mayer know that Tripp had not reported an arrest that occurred when she was a juvenile.) Bacon and Bernath both later defended their leak to Mayer as something they thought was fine and dandy because the information didn't strike them as harmful to Tripp. The Justice Department, one can only conclude, is letting Bacon off in keeping with its unwritten prosecutorial guidelines: He was loyally serving Bill Clinton's interests; by definition, any Clinton administration colleague must have his heart in the right place, unlike the president's critics; and besides, we have discretion. Which is certainly true.
Republicans on Capitol Hill hope Secretary of Defense William Cohen will axe Bacon once the Pentagon's internal report is final in another month. But why wait? They should instead cite President Clinton, who once promised to fire "the next day" anyone who rifled through personnel files, and hold hearings immediately at which Bacon can be invited to explain why his office shouldn't be zeroed out of the Pentagon budget.