Privacy Act Ruling Could Impact NY Senate Race

The ruling of a federal judge who said on Wednesday that President Clinton committed a crime by violating the privacy rights of White House sex assault victim Kathleen Willey is bad news for both Clintons in more ways than one.

The decision came down in the Filegate lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch, which, after years of determined pursuit of Clinton adminstration corruption, is beginning to put a serious dent in the President's "what me worry" demeanor.

But it's not just Mr. Clinton who suddenly finds himself on the griddle thanks to Judge Royce Lamberth's decision.

It's never good news, for instance, for an aspiring senator such as Hillary Clinton to have one's spouse branded a law breaker (yet again, in Bill Clinton's case) in the middle of your campaign. But it's even worse when the law breaking in question has your own fingerprints all over it.

That's the can of worms Lamberth opened for Mrs. Clinton, when he ruled it was illegal for the White House to the release personal correspondence between Willey and the President in an attempt to discredit claims she made to "60 Minutes" about a presidential sexual attack.

In a series of interrogatories released by Judicial Watch last July, top White House aide Sidney Blumenthal fingered Mrs. Clinton in the Willey smear. Blumenthal's lawyer explained:

"Mr. Blumenthal recalls that he and Mrs. Clinton discussed Ms. Willey's letters to the President, and that the letters were inconsistent with what Willey had told '60 Minutes.' Both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Blumenthal agreed that the letters should be released."

Blumenthal wasted little time in carrying out the first lady's wishes, according to the court document:

"That same day, March 16, 1998, Mr. Blumenthal telephoned Ms. Jill Abramson, a reporter for the New York Times" to tip the paper off to the Willey letters.

What makes the revelation that Hillary endorsed the release of information damaging to Kathleen Willey doubly interesting is the stance she's recently adopted in New York's latest police shooting imbroglio, the Patrick Dorismond case.

Clinton has made Mayor Rudy Giuliani's handling of Dorismond's death the focus of her campaign. The chief complaint is that Giuliani tarnished Dorismond's image by releasing information gleaned from his teenage rap sheet, which was sealed because of his age.

With Judge Lamberth's ruling that the White House's smear against Willey was illegal, Mrs. Clinton will have some explaining to do before she complains again about Giuliani leaking damaging information about Dorismond.

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