Archives challenges Clinton papers case

The National Archives wants a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit seeking quick access to records about a health care task force Hillary Rodham Clinton headed as first lady, or delay the release for about a year.

Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest group, has complained in a lawsuit that the National Archives isn't moving fast enough on its April 2006 request to see the documents. The archives says Judicial Watch is trying to jump ahead of those who made earlier requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

"(The National Archives) does not believe that Judicial Watch or any other requester should receive more favorable treatment outside of our existing queue system," said Miriam Kleiman, a spokeswoman for the archives. "We have therefore asked the court to leave Judicial Watch's FOIA request in its proper place by dismissing or postponing any ruling in the case."

The documents are at the Clinton presidential library in Little Rock, which the archives operates. A year's delay would keep the documents from public view until after the Nov. 4 presidential election.

In documents filed this week in federal court in Washington, D.C., archives officials said the number of FOIA requests predating Judicial Watch's request, combined with the number of documents sought and a staff shortage, create "exceptional circumstances" requiring a delay.

"At an estimated three million pages, the size and scope of Judicial Watch's present FOIA request makes it the largest FOIA request that the Clinton presidential library has received to date," officials said. "Further, the request is greater than any FOIA request ever received to date at any of the presidential record act libraries."

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said the archives was trying to indefinitely delay releasing the records.

"The archives does not want to do what the archives is supposed to do, which is make documents available to the American people on a timely basis," he said.

Hillary Clinton, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, has faced criticism from her rivals about the number of documents from her husband's administration that have not been made public. President Clinton left office in January 2001.

Kleiman said neither the former president nor Sen. Hillary Clinton asked the archives to request the delay.

Before Judicial Watch filed its request, the library had received 210 Freedom of Information Act requests for 5.2 million pages of documents, the archives said in its filing. It has proposed processing the health care requests in three groups, but asked for a one-year delay to begin processing them.

Archivists have been sorting through 80 million pages of documents and 20 million e-mails from Bill Clinton's two terms, but few records have come out of the library in response to Freedom of Information requests since the archives began accepting them in January 2006. The library processes requests based on when they were received.

After archivists process the documents, they must be reviewed by Bill Clinton's representatives and then the White House before they are released. There is no timeline for that review, the National Archives has said.

The archives has said 10,000 pages of Hillary Clinton's daily schedules as first lady will be forwarded to longtime Clinton adviser Bruce Lindsey for review. Lindsey has 30 days to review them — and possibly longer, if he requests an extension — before they are passed to the White House.