“Mr. President,” I started. “Several committees of Congress have charged that departments of your administration have used the secrecy of the so-called ‘executive privilege’ to hide imprudence, mismanagement, fraud, and in some cases material which has later resulted in indictments. I wonder if you have taken any steps to correct this?”
President Eisenhower’s eyes blazed with anger. Despite his emotion he remained controlled enough to avoid the kind of comments on facts or law that had put him in so much trouble in the past. He said:
“I think you had better put that question in written form and let me take a look at it because you start off, right off the bat, with the premise or implication that someone is guilty of fraud and I don’t believe it.”
When I attempted to reply that the charges of fraud and mismanagement were included in official reports of Congress, he cut me off sharply. “I will see your letter if you would like to submit it.”
In the letter to President Eisenhower, I tried to be careful and to be respectful of his position:
My dear Mr. President: In response to your request, I am submitting the basic question which I asked at the July 15, 1959, press conference. I regret that the statement of the question at the press conference raised any implication of fraud, or knowledge of fraud, at the White House level. Such an implication was not intended. The question was based on the findings of various committees of the Congress. In general the reports dealt with subordinate officials who, it is contended, used the so-called executive privilege in an effort to conceal their activities from investigators of Congress and the General Accounting Office.
Several committees of Congress have made reports charging that officials in some departments of Government have used the secrecy of executive privilege to hide what the committees called carelessness, mismanagement, fraud, and other alleged improprieties. Comptroller General Joseph Campbell has told the Congress that some executive departments have violated the law—the Budgeting and Accounting Act—in withholding reports from him in connection with waste, mismanagement and improprieties. Mr. Campbell has testified before the House Appropriations Committee that this secrecy is a violation of the law, and he also stated that it “could be almost fatal” to vital auditing functions his office performs.
Comptroller General Campbell and the Moss subcommittee, among others, have raised the question as to whether this withholding of information is inconsistent with the Constitutional requirements that the Chief Executive “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
There is no problem of national security involved. The Air Force and Navy have informed Congress and the GAO that no national security is involved, since the GAO auditors have the same clearance to examine classified material as do the officials in the departments.
Against this background, I would rephrase my question as follows: In the light of the provisions of the Budgeting and Accounting Act, do you feel you have an executive responsibility to carry out the law in line with the Comptroller General’s views?