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 For Immediate Release
Aug 29, 2000 Contact: Press Office
202-646-5172
FORMER CLINTON-GORE WHITE HOUSE TOP LAWYER: E-MAIL THREATS RELEVANT TO FILEGATE COURT CASE

Charles Ruff Suffers "Memory Block" - Has No "Specific Recollection" of Key E-Mail Events in Burgeoning White House Scandal

Court Demands to Hear from Cheryl Mills - Former White House Lawyer With Knowledge of E-Mail Scandal

(Washington, D.C.) Charles Ruff, former Clinton-Gore White House Counsel, was forced to admit in federal court yesterday that White House threats against contractors over missing e-mail would be relevant to the ongoing Filegate civil litigation. This is directly at odds with the Clinton-Gore Justice Department, which has tried to argue that the threats are irrelevant to the Court's proceedings. The e-mail scandal was uncovered in the course of the $90 million Filegate civil lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch on behalf of those Reagan and Bush staffers (and others) whose FBI files were illegally taken and misused by this White House. Hillary Clinton is a defendant in the lawsuit.

Ruff's testimony came in a continuing court hearing on the false e-mail testimony and Clinton-Gore White House threats to contractors in order to keep the e-mail secret from the Court, Congress, and Independent Counsels. Ruff's testimony was marked by an "inability" to "specifically recall" key events in the White House e-mail scandal. Ruff, who apologized to Congress for admittedly misleading it during the Lewinsky scandal, also admitted to the Court that he once told Bob Woodward of The Washington Post in 1977 that, if he were ever questioned about some his past activities, he would feign memory loss:
    I'd say, "Gee, I just don't remember what happened back then," and they won't be able to indict me for perjury...I just intend to rely on that failure of memory.
"Ruff's testimony was a disgrace. He was fully briefed on the e-mail problem, yet remembers few details other than it was another ‘bureaucratic snafu' and that his staff is responsible for not informing the Court and investigators of the hidden e-mail. Given what he told Bob Woodward, his feigned memory loss came as no surprise," stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.

Judge Royce Lamberth, the federal judge hearing testimony on the case, ordered the testimony of Cheryl Mills, who was implicated in the scandal by Mr. Ruff's testimony. Ms. Mills was the subject of criminal referral for perjury and obstruction of justice by Congress in a related computer matter - the White House Office Database (WHODb).

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