THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                 September 12, 2000


                             PRESS BRIEFING
                                   BY
                     JAKE SIEWERT AND P.J. CROWLEY

                    The James S. Brady Briefing Room



1:15 P.M. EDT

     Q    A follow up to that, if I could, please.  I notice we had the
negotiations going on in Albuquerque over Wen Ho Lee.  Regardless of how
that comes out, I noticed that the Secretary of Energy has made comments
that he'd like to see the hard drive investigation wrapped up, some
indication that he'd be pleased to see the Wen Ho Lee problem go away.

     Has the President weighed in, through the Justice Department, about
him wanting to see this wrapped up in a -- fashion?

     MR. SIEWERT:  Not that I'm aware of.  I know that -- it sounds like
the prosecutors are working with Wen Ho Lee's attorneys on resolving
that.  I think the government has an interest in finding out what
happened to the missing tapes, and that's in the best interests of our
national security.  That's probably all I'll have to say on that.

                           END 1:45 P.M. EDT