'FILCHED' DATA STORY LAID TO STOCKMAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201020033-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 33
• Publication Date: June 30, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201020033-4
ARTI CLS AP EL 4`fl
ON PAQ$
WASHINGTON POST
30 Tune 1983
`Filched' Data Story Laid to $t~iflifl
By Lou Cannon and Martin Schram
t%aslun~ton PostStatt Writers
President Reagan's budget direc-
tor, David A. Stockman, was a
source for author Laurence I. Bar-
rett's revelation that briefing papers
"filched" from the Carter camp were
used by Stockman to help prepare
Reagan for his 1980 debate with
Jimmy Carter, Stockman spokesman
Edwin L Dale Jr. said yesterday.
Responding to a-Washington Post
query, Dale said Stockman "con-
firmed that he slid mention it to
Barrett."
-Dale said that what Stockman
told. Barrett, a Time magazine cor-
respondent, was "faithfully recorded"
in Barrett's recently published book
on Reagan, "Gambling With Histo-
ry." Its one-paragraph account of
Stockman's use of the Carter doc-
uments led to the controversy that
has caused concern in the Reagan
White House and has prompted Jus-
tice Department and congressional
investigations.
A Reagan administration official
also confirmed yesterday that on the
day of the debate, Oct. 28, 1980,
Stockman said at an Optimist Club
luncheon in Casopolis, Mich., that he
was helped in rehearsing Reagan by
a "pilfered copy" of Carter's briefing
book.
The official, who characterized
Stockman's statement as "colorful
language," said he thought it was
made in a private conversation rath-
er than in Stockman's formal lun-
cheon speech, as was reported at. the
time by The Elkhart, Ind., Truth
newspaper.
Stockman reiterated in an inter-
view yesterday that he viewed the
documents obtained by the Reagan
camp as helpful to him alone in pre-
paring for his TOle as a Carter stand-
in during rehearsals of Reagan for
the debate.
"I spent four days in intense re-
hearsals and preparation for the
make-or-break debate," Stockman
said. "All the heavy hitters-[Edwin]
Meese, [James A.] Baker, [William
J.] Casey, [Richard] Wirthlin and
[Michael K.] Deaver-were serving
up their most profound and intimate
pearls of wisdom on tactics, position-
ing, debate lines, rebuttals. Not once was there a
mention, hint or even a whiff of a suggestion that
people were using this big pile of Carter papers or
drawing on inside knowledge from the Carter
campaign. I'll swear to that on a stack of Bibles.
"The only person I can imagine this stuff was
,useful to was the guy who had to digest in one day
the entire sorry history of the Carter administra-
tion," Stockman said.
Baker, Reagan's chief of staff,-,said yesterday
that White House officials would "cooperate fully"
with a widened congressional inquiry into how the
Reagan campaign committee obtained the docu-
ments prepared by Carter's staff.
The broadened inquiry was announced by Rep,
Donald J. Albosta (D-Mich.), who said his Post
Office and Civil Service subcommittee on human
resources is considering whether to issue subpoe-
nas and hold public hearings. The question of lrow
the Carter documents came into the possession of
the Reagan campaign also is being investigated by
the Justice Department at the request of the
White House.
White House communications director David
R. Gergen said yesterday that a search of ales to
determine whether Reagan officials had any more
documents from the Carter camp was continuing.
"The White House has turned over to ,Justice
all relevant and appropriate materials that we've
been able to find," Gergen said.
Despite Stockman's statement that he was the
only person in the Reagan campaign ',to benefit
from the Carter documents,, one administration
official said yesterday that some of this material
from them was incorporated into briefing material
sent to Reagan's campaign residence in Wexford,
Va., where his team of advisers was preparing for
the debate.
This official did not say specificaly that Rea-
gan was given the material. Other pfficials who
were close to the briefing process said it was un-
likely that any of the papers were given to Rea-
gan.
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As part of his broadened investigation, Alhosta
said he has sent inquiries to U.N. Ambassador
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick and Frank Hodsoll, chairman
of the National Endowment of the Arts, regarding
their roles in preparing Reagan' for the debate.
Similar inquires wgre sent _previously to Baker,
Stockman, Gergen and Casey, Reagan's campaign
chairman, who is now director of the CIA.
Stockman and Gergen joined Baker yesterday
in pledging cooperation with Albosta's investiga-
tion. But a CIA spokesman said Casey was out of
town, could not be contacted and would not com-
ment on the investigation. Unlike the other Rea-
gan aides, Casey has refused comment consistent-
Iv.
Baker said in a letter to Albosta that. "to his
best recollection" the Carter documents were
given to him by Casey. But, Casey said in his own
letter to Alhosta that. he did not remember seeing
or passing them along. i.,,,..
Administration officials said yesterday that
they had failed in atten7ti ts-including a meeting
Baker had with Casey in Sunday-to refresh the
CIA director's _re'ollectkon, and that Casey said, he
does not recall where tlae documents came from.
President Reagan, in his news conference Tues-
day night, defended Casey's lack of recollection. "I
can understand his very well not having paid any
attention," Reagan said. "He wasn't going to wade
through a stack of papers. They didn't come in a
binder or anything." '
Because of Casey's'lack of recollection, admin-
istration officials said, they.-have, been stymied in
their efforts to _ locate the Reagan campaign's-
source for the Carter documents.
"It may be, if we find out who the mole is'.(in
the Carter camps, that.the thole-will tell us per-
haps how or why he or she might have taken those
"loot once was there a
mention, hint. or even a whiff
of a suggestion that people
were using this big pile of
Carter papers or drawing on
inside knowledge from the
Carter campaign. I'll swear
to that on a stack of Bibles,"
Stoekman said.
documents," Albosta told a crowded news confer-
ence on Capitol Hill yesterday. "We need to know
whether the person who removed those documents
was a civil servant or a high-ranking official in the
Carter administration."
Albos'ta's normally obscure subcommittee;
which has rive professional staff members, has
arranged to borrow several investigators from its
parent committee to pursue the highly publicized
case.
Albosta said he wants to learn whether the Rea-
gan campaign received other materials from the
Carter White House, what kind of relationship the- I
two campaigns had with the materials source, and
whether federal ethics laws should be changed to
prevent such incidents.
He said the matter could involve criminal. vi-
olations, even if the person who.leaked the Carter
materials had legal , access to the documents. "If
someone had . promised someone that'... they
would.get a job from this, that's-a clear violation
of the law," he said.
Adding that he would refer any evidence of
criminal wrongdoing to the Justice Department,
Albosta said, "They're the ones that should ap-
point a special prosecutor or, investigate it them-
selves'.... The president can make it easy for us"
by demanding that his aides voluntarily divulge
all the details.
Rep. Thomas .A.' Daschle (D-S.D.) added that
he believes there are White House officials "who
simply haven't, come' forward with the truth in
this matter." No Republican members attended
the news conference. .
At the White House, officials said they had be-
come frustrated by what has turned into "a na-
tional story" despite several days of minimizing its
importance.. They said their search of files turned
up'nothing new yesterday'
One official said Stockman didn't know what
happened to the documents he used in preparing
for the debate. He speculated that they may have
been thrown out when Stockman moved from
Capitol, Hill to his present quarters in the Old
Executive Office Building. The hundreds of pages
.of Carter documents released by the White House
Tuesday came from the tiles of Gergen and Hod-
soll.
Stockman spoke at length about the papers at
the Optimist Club luncheon in Casopolis on the
clay of the 1980 debate, according to the Elkhart
,newspaper, which described him as regaling his
luncheon audience with predictions of what Carter
would say on various issues and how Reagan
would answer him.
Stockman, then a Michigan congressman, was
reported as explaining that he had played the role
of Carter in Reagan's debate rehearsals and had
used a "pilfered copy of the hrietina hook he [Car-
ter) was going to use." .
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-Stockman outlined the 'white lies' Carter was
o:ng to center on in the debate," the newspaper
reported. "Apparently the Reagan camp's 'pil-
fered' goods were correct, as several times both
candidates said almost word for word what Stock-
man predicted."
The article, written by the newspaper's Mich-
i,,an correspondent, Dee Bourdon, created no stir.
The Elkhart Truth played it on page 15, and did
not mention Stockman's claim of having "pilfered"
Carter documents until midway through the story.
-If that Elkhart story had been carried by the
wire services on the day after the debate, would
Ronald Reagan be president oday?".former Car_-
,ter pollster Patrick Coddell.asked-yesterday.
Barrett reported in his book that."Apparently a.
Reagan mole iin the' Carter camp had filched pa-
pers containing the main ,points, the President
planned to make when he rriet'Reagan for the de-
bate."' ~. .
Dale said yesterday: that-Stockman said, he
never rnentioried.the term "mole" to .Barrett, but
that he had'uaed "filched." :
"He has used-'filched' and `pilfered' as colorful
lan uage?" Dale said'. "He didn't know and doesn't
know how they the Carter document i got_ into
the Reagan campaign.
Staff writer Howard Kui?tz contributed to this
report.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201020033-4