Washington cover-up

by Clark R. Mollenhoff

But while we are using a limited secrecy to guard our chief federal investigative agency, we must realize that law enforcement agencies can go wrong if there is not some regular scrutiny from the outside. This was demonstrated in the twenties, just prior to the time when J. Edgar Hoover was put in charge of cleaning up the federal investigative agency. We have been fortunate to have a J. Edgar Hoover heading the FBI, but we cannot assume that the office will always be filled by one whose major ambition is creating and maintaining a skilled career investigative agency.

Under unusual circumstances, arrangements have been made for examination of an entire FBI file by the chairmen of the Judiciary committees of the House and Senate. On occasion, the ranking minority member of these committees has taken part. Since this procedure provides for examination by a Democrat and a Republican, it has the strength of being bipartisan. It has the disadvantage of depending on the character and personality of the majority and minority representatives for true bipartisanship. The procedure is a touchy one that the press, the public, and the Congress must scrutinize periodically. Certainly the FBI must have a right to keep its files secret from the public, but it should never be forgotten that some limited bipartisan congressional group must have authority to examine these files if we are to remain secure from possible abuse of power.

President Truman wrapped government personnel files in secrecy on the theory that making them available to a Republican-dominated committee of Congress could result in the use of rumor and hearsay to “smear” government officials. Certainly it is laudable to try to protect government employees from baseless charges. But this “protection” for the government employees has its drawbacks. Such secrecy has been used to prevent government employees from gaining access to their own medical records which were material to a defense in an ouster action. It also shields government personnel administrators from criticism and thereby encourages arbitrary actions.

I learned once of a case in which the secrecy surrounding personnel files made it impossible for a woman to find out why she had been discharged by the government. I will refer to the woman as Mrs. A, for there is no necessity of stirring up more problems for her now if she has been able to find a job after being out of work for several years.

Mrs. A was a woman of about fifty with more than twenty years of service with the Civil Service Commission as a shorthand reporter. She had had some problems with an employee in the same section and some disagreement with a supervisor. She was asked to go to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare for a physical examination.

Mrs. A took the physical examination and shortly afterwards was forced to resign. She was given no reason except that something in the physical examination made her unqualified to continue as a government employee. Mrs. A went to a private physician and had a thorough examination to try to find out why she was unqualified to hold her job with the government. The doctor could find no reason for her discharge.

At this point Mrs. A hired a lawyer. Neither the doctor nor the lawyer could obtain access to the records of the physical examination given to Mrs. A at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The lawyer hired by Mrs. A found himself tilting with a ghost. He could not find out why his client was discharged, and yet he was faced with trying to establish proof that whatever was alleged was not true.

I could not believe the story Mrs. A told when she first came to my office, but I said I would examine it and see what I could do. It checked out in every detail. I was informed at the Health, Education and Welfare Department that the physical records of all government employees were confidential. There were no exceptions. I pointed out that this confidential status was set up for the purpose of protecting the government employees against public intrusion, but that it certainly couldn’t be meant to keep a government employee or her private doctor from examining her records. Officials at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare disagreed. I made repeated calls to see if I could get the policy changed, but to no avail.

Mrs. A was a little more distressed each time she came by the office, for I was unable to interest anyone in her case. She was not important. She was not the center of a big political drama.

Was it a wrongful discharge? I could not answer the question when it was raised by lawyers for committees of Congress. It was possible the file would have shown justifiable grounds for the discharge. I could only argue that it was wrong to bar this woman, her lawyer, and her doctor from examination of a file giving the results of her government health examination.