- guardian.co.uk, Friday January 26 2001 01.17 GMT
The allegations are said to include a range of much more serious damage to government property than the previously reported "prank" involving the removal of the "W" keys from dozens of White House computer keyboards. Among the new damage being examined are cut phone lines, filing cabinets that have been glued shut and pornographic pictures left in office printers.
The damage was particularly bad in the offices previously occupied by staff working for former Vice-president Al Gore, whom Mr Bush defeated in November's controversial election. Mr Gore's wife, Tipper, was reported to have telephoned Lynne Cheney, wife of the new vice-president, to apologise for the mess.
A story on the cybergossip Matt Drudge's sometimes uncorroborated website yesterday said that prosecutions could follow the investigation by Harriet Miers, a newly appointed presidential assistant and the Bush administration's staff secretary.
Ari Fleischer, White House press spokesman, said yesterday that the new administration would be reviewing the reports but refused to go into details about any incidents and said no legal action would be taken. "Whether things were done that were perhaps less gracious than should have been, it is not going to be what President Bush focuses on, nor will it be what his staff focuses on."
One report said graffiti had been painted on a door frame saying "Office of Strategery", a reference to a Saturday Night Live spoof on Mr Bush's occasional difficulty with multisyllabic words.
The evidence is said to include obscene messages on answering machines and misconnection of phones, and some printers were found to have pornographic pictures interspersed among blank paper loads. Filing cabinet drawers had been glued shut, the report claimed.
The reports coincide with claims that Mr Clinton's last ride in Air Force One, from Washington to New York on Saturday afternoon, was the occasion for an orgy of pilfering. The presidential plane was reported to have been "stripped bare" by souvenir-hunting members of the outgoing administration's staff. Among items missing were china, silverware, and salt and pepper shakers, most of which bear the presidential seal, according to a diary item in the Washington Times yesterday.
Old hands of the Clinton administration yesterday said that when they took over the White House from Mr Bush's father's administration in 1993, they also found a few unpleasant surprises left by the previous tenants - including in several desk drawers a prophetic note inscribed: "We'll be back."
Key link
The Drudge report allegations
