Billy Carter's Activities With the Libyan Government White House Statement on the Final Report of a Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Senate subcommittee today released its report on Billy Carter. It confirms the statements in the President's report of August 4 that there was no interference by the White House in the Department of Justice's investigation of Billy Carter under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and that Billy Carter had no influence or effect on any U.S. Government policy or actions concerning Libya. These conclusions were reached after an investigation extending over 2 months, in which several thousand documents were voluntarily produced by the White House and executive branch agencies, and testimony was taken from more than thirty witnesses. No wrongdoing was found by the subcommittee.

In its conclusions, the subcommittee differs from the President's views and those of his staff on certain questions of judgment, such as the use of Billy Carter in seeking Libyan help in urging Iranian authorities to release the American hostages in November 1979. This decision was made shortly after the seizure of our Embassy and at a time when our Government was employing all available channels to persuade Muslim nations to urge the release of the hostages.

The subcommittee's report questions the decision by the President's National Security Adviser to caution Billy Carter not to take any action that could embarrass our Government or the President in connection with Billy Carter's efforts to obtain an increased allocation of Libyan oil for an American oil company. The President has previously stated that when Dr. Brzezinski told him about his conversation with Billy Carter and the intelligence report on which it was based, he approved of the action taken. The report also questions whether the President should have made further statements disassociating himself from Billy Carter in light of Billy Carter's decision to make a second trip to Libya. The President and his Press Secretary made it clear on a number of occasions well before Billy Carter's second trip to Libya that Billy Carter was acting as a private citizen and was acting without prior consultation with the White House in his associations with Libya.

Finally, the report questions whether in the spring of 1980 the intelligence agencies and the Attorney General should have brought certain sensitive intelligence information to the President's attention and to the attention of the Justice Department trial attorneys. This decision, like the others questioned by the subcommittee, involved a weighing of comparative risks and benefits, including the risk, if the President or the trial attorneys had sought to utilize the information, of compromising valuable intelligence sources and methods.

As the subcommittee recognizes in its conclusions after "full and careful reflection," there may be differing views on such judgmental matters. Even in the light of hindsight, the President respectfully differs with the subcommittee's views and believes that each of these decisions was correct.

The subcommittee's views on the future handling of intelligence information and, in particular, whether there is need for improved procedures for coordinating interagency dissemination and use of this information, will be carefully reviewed by the President and his advisers.