“And then we learned just Friday about the felony charges that had been brought in this matter.”
White House press secretary Scott McClellan - March 13, 2006

Q: Had anyone seen anything different in Claude Allen, in the two months prior to his departure?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, let me just lay out the facts for you, April. Maybe that’s the best way to start here.

On January 2nd, there was an incident that took place. Claude Allen immediately reported that evening to Andy Card that an incident had taken place at a store. He spoke with Andy Card the very next morning. Andy Card then directed him to speak with Harriet Miers, the White House Counsel. And he assured both Andy and Harriet that this was a misunderstanding. The way he explained it to Harriet was that he was returning some merchandise, and there was some confusion with some credit cards because he had moved a number of times.

Now, within a few days of that time period — and this would have been early January — Claude came to Andy and Harriet and indicated that he had been thinking about leaving for some time. He said that he had been putting in long hours, he wanted to be able to spend more time with his family, and he thought the right thing to do would be to resign, so that he could spend more time with his family.

Now, he is someone who has gone through a number of background checks. His background has been investigated. And given his history and based on those background checks, I think he was given the benefit of the doubt. He assured them that he had done nothing wrong, and that he was working to get the matter cleared up.

Back in — going back to what he said, in terms of leaving the White House, he was also working on a number of initiatives at the time that the President was finalizing for the State of the Union, particularly on the competitiveness agenda, the education side of that. So when he made the decision that he was going to leave the White House he indicated to Andy that he wanted to find a good time to transition. And he felt a good time to transition would be after the State of the Union. And so then we announced that he would be leaving, I believe it was on February 9th, and his last day at the White House was on February 17th.

And then we learned just Friday about the felony charges that had been brought in this matter. And as the President said Saturday, if it is true he would be deeply disappointed and he would feel a lot of sadness for the family. And he talked about how this would be very sad and something would have gone wrong in Claude Allen’s life, if it is true. And I know that Harriet and Andy would be shocked, as well, as many of us on staff would be if it is true.

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See also Claude Allen Arrested