Edition: U.S. / Global

Ousted White House Travel Chief Is Cleared of Embezzlement

Published: November 17, 1995

The former head of the White House travel office, who was dismissed in an incident that became an embarrassment for the Clinton Administration, was acquitted today of criminal charges that he had embezzled $68,000 paid by news organizations for Presidential trips.

The acquittal of the former official, Billy R. Dale, after two hours of jury deliberation revived an episode that has periodically haunted President Clinton and his aides since May 1993, when White House officials abruptly ousted Mr. Dale and six other travel office employees while hinting at corruption.

Mr. Clinton, when asked about the case later today at a news conference on the budget impasse, sounded apologetic. "I think it's clear that there were some problems in the way the travel office was run, but there were also clearly some serious problems in the way it was handled by the White House," he said. "We issued quite a self-critical report on how it was handled."

"And in light of that," the President added, "I'm very sorry about what Mr. Dale had to go through, and I wish him well."

Steven Tabackman, a lawyer for Mr. Dale, who is 57, said after the verdict, "Billy Dale was prosecuted in an attempt to validate the misguided firing of the travel office employees.

"This confirms how terrible a decision that was. It's a shame that Billy Dale has had to suffer for the last two and half years to clear his name."

And Republicans in Congress, who suggested at a hearing last month that Hillary Rodham Clinton had played a greater role in the dismissals than the White House had acknowledged, said they would continue investigating the affair.

Representative William F. Clinger, a Pennsylvania Republican who heads the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, said, "What is clear to me is that after the furious criticisms of the firings were leveled by the Congress and the media, the Clinton Administration needed to find a justification for the firings after the fact."

But a Justice Department official said today that the prosecution had been brought by career lawyers in the agency's public integrity section who had long experience in cases under Republican and Democratic administrations alike.

An uproar began within days of the dismissals, when White House officials acknowledged that the complaints about the travel office that had prompted the action had originated with Catherine Cornelius, a cousin of the President who wanted to manage the travel operation, and Harry Thomason, a Hollywood producer and friend of the President. Mr. Thomason was also part owner of an aviation consulting firm that wanted a contract with the Government.

White House officials admitted they had erred when they took their complaints directly to the Federal Bureau of Investigation instead of to the Justice Department, circumventing longstanding rules intended to insulate investigative agencies like the F.B.I. from the appearance of starting criminal investigations at the White House's behest.

The travel office dispute introduced some of Mr. Clinton's Arkansas associates to the bruising realities of political life in Washington. It was the issue that the authorities later cited as the principal factor that pushed Vincent W. Foster Jr., a deputy White House counsel who had played a role in travel office review, to take his own life in July 1993.

The furor had subsided when the Justice Department brought criminal charges against Mr. Dale in December 1994. Nevertheless, the indictment, which charged him with stealing $14,000 in petty cash and cashing $55,000 in checks from 1988 to 1991, seemed to justify the White House dismissals as a justifiable response to misconduct.

That point seemed to be underscored by Raymond N. Hulser and Stuart N. Goldberg, the Federal prosecutors in the trial, who contended that Mr. Dale had abused his position of trust at the White House by pilfering small sums from news organizations over the years and that he eventually used the money to buy a lakeside vacation home in Virginia.

But the prosecutors had difficulty painting Mr. Dale as a lavish spendthrift. They portrayed him as a frugal family man who bought his suits at Sear's and who, when he dined out with his family, went to Shoney's or the Red Lobster and therefore had no motive to embezzle money.

His lawyer argued that Mr. Dale had spent the money he was accused of stealing for legitimate purposes on Presidential trips that often required quick out-of-pocket payments to move a demanding press corps trying to keep up with chaotic Presidential travel schedules.

Mr. Dale, in his own testimony, said he often felt squeezed between members of the press, who were unhappy about the rising cost of White House travel, and White House officials, who largely ignored the complaints of the reporters. As a result, Mr. Dale said he spent all the money on travel and deposited much of it in his personal account in an effort to conceal the actual cost of certain trips.

Mr. Dale said he kept track of the expenses in a log that he kept in his office. The log that Mr. Tabackman said could exonerate Mr. Dale has been missing, the lawyer said, since Clinton aides came to work in the travel office in 1993. Still, some law-enforcement officials have expressed doubts that the record existed.

"Was it a good idea?" Mr. Tabackman asked, referring to Mr. Dale's handling of the money in his closing arguments on Wednesday. "No. But this is not a guy who's scheming and thinking things out."

Photo: Billy R. Dale and his wife, Blanche, back home yesterday inClinton, Md., after the former White House travel chief was acquitted of charges of embezzling $68,000 paid by news organizations for Presidential trips. Mr. Dale's ouster in 1993 created an embarrassment for the President. (Associated Press)