FactCheck.org, a fact checking site run by the Annenberg School of Political Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, published an item October 31 criticizing Hillary for a "misleading" answer on release of Clinton administration records during the last debate. Yesterday, they published a correction to their original item.
Correction, Nov. 8: In our original version of this story, we found Clinton’s response regarding the Archives to be “doubly misleading.” We have since concluded that we were wrong, and have rewritten the section as you see it above...
... Two days after this article was first posted, Bruce Lindsey, who is Bill Clinton’s designated representative for dealing with the National Archives, issued a statement that said, in part, "Contrary to recent reports, Bill Clinton has not asked that records related to communications with Senator Clinton be withheld." It also said that "Currently, none of the FOIA requests has processed and provided for my review involve Senator Clinton." On the same day, the former president responded to a reporter’s question about the issue. Hillary Clinton "was incidental to the letter, it was done five years ago, it was a letter to speed up presidential releases, not to slow them down," Bill Clinton said at a stop in Redmond, WA.
These statements prompted us to dive back into Bill Clinton’s 2002 letter to the Archives and similar letters from his two immediate predecessors, and to talk to some more experts in this small crevice of the law. We realized that the area of confusion for us – and perhaps for other journalists – was the wording of this sentence: “Information should generally be considered for withholding only if it contains…..” The section goes on to list eight categories, one of which involves his communications with his wife as well as with his family and his wife’s.
We originally read the sentence as putting a lock on the documents. That isn’t the case, as we note in our revised section in the body of the article above. The bottleneck is at the lightly staffed Archives. It of course remains possible that Bill Clinton could yet block the release of any or all communications between himself and the First Lady, but that hasn’t happened yet It remains to be seen whether any of this material will surface before the election.
But Russert was wrong, and so were we. Bill Clinton, in Redmond, called Russert’s question “breathtakingly misleading,” and we now agree. Russert did not respond to requests for comment.
http://facts.hillaryhub.com/archive/?id=4119
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
