Health Care Task Force "Misrepresented"

A US federal judge has accused White House and Justice Department lawyers of misrepresenting details of President Clinton's health care task force to him, and plans to hold the Administration accountable. Last December, Judge Royce Lambeth concluded that White House task force head Ira Magaziner made false statements about the panel's makeup; March 1993, he had sworn all task force members were either government employees or consultants.

In a recently-released 18-page letter to the judge, the US attorney for the District of Columbia said Mr Magaziner should not be prosecuted over allegations that he lied under oath during litigation over the task force, since a sloppily-written statement composed by White House attorneys left him open to charges that portions were inaccurate and later made things worse by not correcting the mischaracterizations. The judge must now decide whether to impose sanctions on government attorneys. Justice Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they did not agree with the letter, only with the judge's characterization. A lawyer for the Association of Physicians and Surgeons, one of the groups that sued the government over the makeup, said the case represents "a sticky wicket" in which "the government itself is criticizing the government."