https://fas.org/irp/congress/1998_rpt/sgo-sir/2-18.htm

 

Throughout its investigation, the Committee has firmly

believed it is important for the American people to be made

aware of as much of the information set forth in this section

of the report as possible. Yet, getting to the bottom of such

matters and also sharing the Committee's findings has been an

extremely difficult process. The first difficulty derives from

the nature of the information itself. Some of the information

provided to the Committee requires the protection of sources

and methods used to gather it, which has placed significant

limits on the Committee's ability to discuss these matters

publicly. That protection is a legitimate concern, but it has

come at the cost of curtailing public knowledge and debate. The

Justice Department for the most part would not reveal matters

that were the subject of its ongoing criminal investigation.

While Justice's concern is understandable, it limits

Congressional oversight and makes it even more important that

prosecutorial decisions be handled in a way that ensures public

confidence.

The second difficulty is more complex and, ultimately, more

troublesome. The Committee dealt at length with various law

enforcement and intelligence agencies in developing portions of

the information set forth above and observed a recurring

problem: the failure to share relevant, classified information.

The failure meant that no one agency had a complete picture of

all the relevant information in a particular area and, indeed,

a given agency might be unaware of all the relevant information

it held within its various sections or departments. The

clearest example of this involved the FBI and the Justice

Department. In two major instances FBI headquarters and Justice

were unaware of crucial information located in FBI field office

files, information months and sometimes years old. The

information came to light only as a result of persistent

Committee probing. These lapses are currently the subject of a

Department of Justice Office of Inspector General (OIG)

investigation. The Committee has cooperated with OIG

investigators and will continue to monitor their progress. The

inability of the Bureau to locate certain intelligence

information denied the campaign finance criminal task force

timely access to important classified materials. By the time

the information was surfaced and passed along, some or all of

it might have grown stale.

It is the Committee's hope that, for the sake of future

criminal investigations, steps are taken by intelligence and

law enforcement agencies to ensure that such lapses do not

reoccur. In that regard, the Committee intends to review any

recommendations made by the OIG on improving how such

information is shared.

 

these problems have been going on since the 90's