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Records sealed
Newshounds trying to glean new information about presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton are finding that nearly 2 million records from her days in the White House as First Lady are sealed from the public.
The Los Angeles Times reports today that Clinton’s calendars, appointment logs and memos are stored at her husband’s presidential library in Arkansas.
The National Archives told the paper that the records will not be released until well after next year’s presidential contest due to the Presidential Records Act.
The law states that the public can access the records through the Freedom of Information Act starting five years after a president leaves office.
But the law allows the president to “invoke as many as six specific restrictions to public access for up to twelve years.”
The law also establishes procedures for Congress, courts, and subsequent administrations to obtain special access to records that remain closed to the public, following a thirty-day notice period to the former and current presidents.
Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group that sparked investigations of President Clinton during his presidency, filed suit against the archives last month, demanding disclosure of Hillary Clinton’s diaries, telephone logs, daily planners and schedules.
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