Washington – A federal watchdog agency planned to inspect the president’s executive offices in the White House in 2005 for evidence of suspected leaks of classified information but was rebuffed by Bush administration officials, congressional investigators have been told.
The report of the White House’s refusal to be inspected comes amid criticism from congressional Democrats of how President Bush signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to submit to independent oversight of their handling of classified information, but did not enforce it for his office or that of Vice President Dick Cheney.
The blocked inspection by the federal Information Security Oversight Office, part of the National Archives, was described in an April 23 letter to former White House chief of staff Andrew Card from Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who provided a copy of the letter to the Los Angeles Times on Monday.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters Monday that the president considered his office and that of the vice president exempt from his directive.
