Democrat John Kerry's presidential campaign accused the Bush White House today of disclosing the existence of a criminal investigation against former national security adviser Sandy Berger for political advantage.
The objective of such a leak, the Kerry campaign said in a political memo distributed by email, was to take attention away from a report to be issued on Thursday by the commission investigating the September 11th, 2001, attacks.
The criminal investigation of Mr Berger began last October but only came to light this week.
"The timing of this leak suggests that the White House is more concerned about protecting its political hide than hearing what the commission has to say about strengthening our security," the Kerry campaign said.
White House spokesman Mr Scott McClellan said the White House had nothing to do with the disclosure that Mr Berger, who was national security adviser under former President Bill Clinton, was under investigation for removing copies of highly classified documents from the National Archives.
"I'm not aware of how this story came about. I know of no one in the White House that is aware of how this story came about," Mr McClellan said.
He said officials in the White House legal counsel's office were made aware of the Mr Berger investigation some time ago because they were in charge of putting together documents for the Sept. 11 commission to see.
Complaining of the "questionable timing" of the leak, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Mr Terry McAuliffe, filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the release of any correspondence between the Justice Department and the White House on the Berger probe.
Mr Berger and one of his lawyers said on Monday he had inadvertently removed copies of a classified memo, as well as his notes on the material, as he reviewed it to determine what Clinton administration-era documents could be turned over to the September 11th commission.
Republicans have accused Berger of stealing the documents for use by Kerry's campaign. Berger was an informal foreign policy adviser for Kerry until he stepped down on Tuesday in the heat of the flap over the documents.
The September 11th report is expected to detail as many as 10 missed opportunities to head off the September 11th attacks but stop short of saying the attacks could have been prevented.