Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

[Hvp123]

A Federal judge said today that the White House and the Justice Department had participated in a ''reprehensible'' effort to cover up false statements by Ira C. Magaziner, the chief architect of President Clinton's ill-fated health plan, and the judge ordered the Government to pay a penalty of more than $285,000.

The judge said Mr. Magaziner and the Clinton Administration had been ''dishonest'' in describing the secret procedures used to develop the President's health care proposals in 1993. Mr. Magaziner said at the time that the proposals were devised entirely by a group of Federal employees, who were not subject to laws requiring open meetings or public disclosure of their working papers.
In the ruling today, the climax of five years of litigation between doctors and the Clinton Administration, Judge Royce C. Lamberth of Federal District Court said: ''It is clear that the decisions here were made at the highest levels of Government, and the Government itself is -- and should be -- accountable when its officials run amok. There were no rogue lawyers here misleading this court.''

Rather, Judge Lamberth said, ''the executive branch of the Government, working in tandem, was dishonest with this court, and the Government must now face the consequences of its misconduct.''

The Administration's efforts to correct the misstatements were feeble and belated, the judge said.
Joe Lockhart, a White House spokesman, said the Administration had no comment on the ruling. Hillary Rodham Clinton supervised work on the President's health plan, but Judge Lamberth did not say whether either of them was in any way responsible for the Government's misconduct.
Mr. Magaziner, who still works at the White House, also refused to comment on the ruling. But in an interview tonight, Mr. Magaziner said, ''My statements were honest, and I did not attempt to mislead anybody.''

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/19/us/judge-rules-government-covered-up-lies-on-panel.html