THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release September 14, 2000
PRESS BRIEFING
BY
JOE LOCKHART
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
1:35 P.M. EDT
Q Joe, tell me about -- the President, was just talking about,
about Wen Ho Lee. Has he registered these feelings to the Attorney
General or just to Department lawyers?
MR. LOCKHART: I think you can assume by what he said there that is
he is troubled by part of this, so I would expect that he will be
looking for a more full explanation from them, have them look at this
particular question that he raised and to report back.
Q But, Joe, he said he'd always been troubled by this,
suggesting from the very outset. And, yet, he didn't express
reservations to Justice -- thought it would have been improper or --
MR. LOCKHART: No. I think he said -- and I'm not going to try to
decipher his words here, I thought he was very clear and I think no one
could dispute that -- that there had been some questions, there was a
rationale for holding someone without bail that seemed to disappear in a
few day period. And I think his expression of trouble was in any case
where people are held without bail. It's a basic tenet of our justice
system and I think, as he said out there, he was troubled by the fact
that this seemed to evaporate quickly.
Q Joe, just to follow up, if he was troubled by this from the
outset and he felt an injustice was being done to this man, why didn't
he step in sooner?
MR. LOCKHART: I would look at what he said --
Q He said, I always had trouble with this.
MR. LOCKHART: Josh, what he said when he was out there talking to
you just a few moments ago was, there were a number of assurances that
were made about the reasons for. And what he's troubled about here is
that those seemed to evaporate between a hearing just a few days ago and
the plea agreement that was announced yesterday.
Q Joe, he used the term "they," as in that he is not somehow
part of federal law enforcement. Why would he do that?
MR. LOCKHART: Obviously, this case was prosecuted by the U.S.
Attorney and those who are charged with that. The President is not
charged with that.
Q Is anybody to be held accountable for conduct that the
President says is very troubling?
MR. LOCKHART: I think as I said at the beginning here that he'll
be looking for some answers to how this came about.
Q Well, I understand looking for answers, but my question is
will anybody be held accountable?
MR. LOCKHART: Well, I think we tend to -- which is probably quite
the opposite of what you tend to do -- is look for answers before we
make judgments. You may want to make a judgment before you have the
answers.
Q Was this criticism directed against the entire Justice
Department, including Janet Reno, or just the prosecutors?
MR. LOCKHART: No, I think we'll look to have more information on
this, but I wouldn't see it as a blanket criticism of anyone. ...
Q Joe, you said that you thought that the President's remarks
about Wen Ho Lee shouldn't be seen as a blanket criticism of anyone.
Does the President still think that Janet Reno and Bill Richardson are
doing a good job and that they retain his confidence?
MR. LOCKHART: Yes. ...
Q Joe, the President has occasion from time to time, at official
political events, to run into Asian American groups an Asian American
activists. Have they raised the Wen Ho Lee case with him? And has he
made any statements to them, similar to what you just made to us --
MR. LOCKHART: I'm not aware of any exchanges on that subject. ...
Q Joe, just to go back to Wen Ho Lee. If I understand you
correctly, you're saying we should read the President's comments as to
refer to what's happened in the last few weeks as this case has unwound,
if you will. Would it be fair to assume that in the year or so before
that, that Mr. Lee was in custody, the President didn't express any
reservations to Justice?
MR. LOCKHART: Let me take another crack at this. The President
expressed an unease with the concept of holding someone without bail.
But what was troubling here was, after a series of assurances that this
must be done because of the risk, that he thought that the timing of
making that argument in a bail hearing and then just a few days later
making a plea agreement that allowed him to go free raised some
troubling questions. It seems to me that that's pretty straightforward.
Q And when you say the President expressed an unease, you mean
he did that here in the Rose Garden or he's done that on previous
occasions and, if so, where or when?
MR. LOCKHART: No. I think what he expressed here is that he has
-- as a student of the law, that all Americans should have -- we should
have a high threshold for the concept of holding someone without bail.
But in this case, there were explicit assurances and reasons given, in
this case.
And what's troubling is how quickly those seem to evaporate. And
that's the point he was making. And it was limited to a very narrow
piece to this, and I think it doesn't eliminate the crime that the
gentleman pleaded guilty to and the important work that has been done on
this. But there is a troubling aspect to this and he articulated what
it was.
Q Has he, to your knowledge, expressed this unease prior to
today? And, if so, when or where?
MR. LOCKHART: Not to me.
Q Does the President think he was deceived or misled or perhaps
just not fully informed --
MR. LOCKHART: No. I think he said that the sequence of events
raised some troubling questions. I think he certainly hopes that some
answers are provided to ease that concern.
Q Does the President think Lee is deserved an apology?
MR. LOCKHART: I didn't ask him that question and I don't know the
answer to it. ...
Q Joe, does the President believe that Asian Americans will
express concern over the prosecution of Dr. Lee -- is there some
questions about the role of race in this case --
MR. LOCKHART: I actually have never discussed that particular
case. But I think the President has spoken clearly, in the aftermath of
1997 and some of the campaign finance investigations, that there are
questions and that times in this country Asian Americans have been
singled out unfairly. But in this particular case, he's never expressed
that to me. END 2:00 P.M. EDT