More Clinton records released

Nomination processes, 1996 Olympics, bin Laden covered

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/BENJAMIN KRAIN --07/18/2014--
William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library Supervising Archivist Rhonda Young makes previously unreleased documents from Bill Clinton's Presidency available to the public on Friday shortly after the expiration of the 12 year time period of the Presidential Restrictions Act expired.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/BENJAMIN KRAIN --07/18/2014-- William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library Supervising Archivist Rhonda Young makes previously unreleased documents from Bill Clinton's Presidency available to the public on Friday shortly after the expiration of the 12 year time period of the Presidential Restrictions Act expired.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

WASHINGTON -- The National Archives and Records Administration on Friday released about 1,000 more pages of records from Bill Clinton's time as president.

They cover a number of topics, including the 1996 Summer Olympics, Osama bin Laden and a future Supreme Court justice.

Like previously released documents, the records made public Friday show a snapshot of life inside the Clinton White House. The documents detail rules for White House staff members who want to volunteer for Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign, preparations for Supreme Court nomination hearings in the U.S. Senate and how to respond to terrorist bombings.

Under the Presidential Records Act of 1978, presidents can seal records dealing with appointments to federal office or containing confidential advice from advisers for 12 years after their presidency ends. Clinton left office Jan. 20, 2001, and the restriction expired in January 2013.

Friday's release is the sixth since Politico reported in February that 33,000 pages of Clinton's records had not been made public after the seal expired. The Archives has released about 23,000 pages of records since then.

Each category represents information requested under a Freedom of Information Act request that fell under the Presidential Records Act exemption. The documents are available at the Clinton presidential library and online at clintonlibrary.gov/previouslyrestricteddocs.html.

Interest in Clinton's papers has escalated as Hillary Rodham Clinton -- the former first lady, U.S. senator, secretary of state and 2008 presidential candidate -- considers a 2016 White House bid.

One file of released documents includes internal conversations about the nomination and subsequent withdrawal of Lani Guinier to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

Handwritten revisions to the president's statement withdrawing her nomination show Clinton walked a fine line to explain the concerns over her academic writings while defending her personally.

Among the changes, Clinton struck the sentence "already we have heard from many members in the Senate that they have deep reservations about this nomination -- so deep that leading members have urged we find another choice."

In his biography, My Life: The Presidential Years, Clinton wrote that several senior Democrats didn't want a fight over the nomination.

"My friend [U.S. Sen.] David Pryor came to see me and urged me to withdraw Lani's nomination, saying that her interviews with the senators were going poorly and reminding me that we also had an economic program to pass and not a vote to spare."

A June 1, 1993, memo to the president from adviser Bill Galston makes a similar case.

"Prof. Guinier's views are far outside the mainstream and very hard to defend," it states. "Her nomination is almost certain to produce serious difficulties for your administration."

A May 20, 1993, memo to the president from Galston discusses the possibility of getting rid of the Hyde Amendment, which bans the federal government from paying for most abortions, in the president's proposed budget. It would be replaced with language stating "the Administration will work with the Congress to facilitate an approach that is compatible with both Federal and State law."

The problem with that idea, Galston wrote, is that some states, including Arkansas, support restrictions even tougher than the Hyde Amendment.

"There is no way of fully harmonizing federal and state law as now written. The question, rather, is how they can be adjusted to reach mutual consistency," he wrote.

Leaving the Hyde Amendment in effect would at least require states to continue providing abortions under Medicaid in cases of rape, incest and when the mother's life is endangered.

Other tidbits include:

• After reading a 1999 New York Times story casting doubt on the threat posed by al-Qaida, Clinton wrote a note to national security adviser Sandy Berger asking whether the CIA "overstated the case" that bin Laden directed attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa in its briefings on the al-Qaida threat.

"Sandy, if this article is right, the CIA sure overstated its case to me -- What are the facts?" he wrote.

• Sonia Sotomayor was already being considered in some circles for the Supreme Court when Clinton nominated Sotomayor, then a federal district court judge in New York, to the appellate bench in 1997.

"Although she has an engaging personality and is very intelligent, her nomination has posed more problems than any of the other Hispanic judges sitting on the federal bench [with the possible exception of Richard Paez for the Ninth Circuit]," an unsigned White House report states.

Her nomination was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee with only two negative votes, but it stalled on the Senate floor for months.

"Senate resistance to her confirmation is rooted in the fear that she will be elevated to fill the next Supreme Court vacancy," the report states.

The Senate eventually consented, allowing her to serve on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

In 2009, the Senate confirmed Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court by a 68-31 vote.

• A 1996 memo to the president from White House Chief of Staff Mack McLarty and associate counsel Ron Klain focused on potential security issues at the summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. If there were problems requiring a "complex or sensitive response" or a situation that threatened to delay or end the games, the White House would organize conference calls with several people in the administration including McLarty and then-Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt. Witt is currently running for Congress in Arkansas' 4th District, and McLarty is president of McLarty Associates, an international advisory firm in Washington.

During the games, a bomb exploded July 27, 1996, killing two people and injuring 111. The games were not canceled.

Metro on 07/19/2014