Judge allows questions about how Clinton documents are released

A day after federal archivists released 11,000 pages of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's schedules during her time as first lady, a federal judge today allowed a conservative group to question the National Archives about the process of dealing with requests for more documents.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson today authorized a lawyer for the conservative group, Judicial Watch, to question the archives about why it processes some requests before others. Judicial Watch is seeking Clinton's telephone logs.

There are hundreds of requests pending for release of records from the period when her husband was president. The archives has said it wanted to place Judicial Watch's lawsuit on hold for a year before the agency considers how soon to begin reviewing the telephone logs for possible release, a process the Justice Department lawyer estimated would take six to eight months.

The requests have taken on a greater urgency as Hillary Clinton battles for the Democratic nomination for president. On Wednesday, archivists released 11,000 pages of schedules, but the material offered little to support her assertion that her White House experience left her best prepared to become president.

The records show she was an active first lady who traveled widely and was deeply involved in healthcare policy, but they are rife with omissions, terse references and redactions that obscure many of her activities and the identities of those she saw.

For months, Sen. Clinton has faced calls to speed the release of about 2 million pages of material from her time as first lady. The records are stored at her husband's presidential library in Little Rock, Ark. But it seems doubtful that the schedules made public Wednesday will satisfy those who complain that Clinton touts her experience in her husband's White House, yet refuses to offer details about her precise role.

The records span some of the most historically rich and well-documented chapters in the Clinton presidency, including Bill Clinton's involvement with a White House intern, Monica S. Lewinsky; Hillary Clinton's failed healthcare initiative; and her role in the dismissal of several White House travel office employees. But in many cases, the documents refer only to "private meetings" and do little to illuminate the dramatic events unfolding at the time.

California First Amendment Coalition Executive Director Peter Scheer, a leading advocate of public access to government records, said that more disclosure was essential.

"It seems to me that after so much time has passed, that there is no longer a real justification for keeping the names of people you are meeting with a secret," Scheer said.

Carl Sferrazza Anthony, an author who has interviewed Clinton, said he was not surprised that the schedules did not reveal much.

"She didn't put a lot in writing," said Anthony, who is based in Los Angeles and has written extensively about first ladies. "She explicitly told me she didn't put a lot in writing because everything in writing, including a personal diary, could be subpoenaed."

The records were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request and a lawsuit.

Over time, Clinton's schedules offer less and less information. In 1993, her first year as first lady, the records include the names of people she met with. But federal archivists blotted out those names, citing privacy issues. In spring 1994, Clinton's schedulers appear to have stopped including names -- so her days are filled with one "private meeting" after another, with no mention of whom she met with or why.

On Jan. 28, 1994, the names of the participants in a 10 a.m. meeting with her at Bally's in Las Vegas have been erased.

Sometimes, even the names of people getting their pictures taken with Clinton were removed. So it is not known who had a photo op with her at 2:45 p.m. on March 10, 1994, in the White House Map Room.

In later years, the records are even more spare. On June 25, 1997, for example, Clinton is shown as having taken part in three successive meetings in the White House residence, stretching from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. They are labeled simply "private meeting."

On Feb. 12, 1999 -- the day the Senate voted down her husband's impeachment -- she blocked off an unusually long appointment on her daily schedule from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. under the entry: "PRIVATE MEETING/Residence/NO PRESS/NO WH PHOTO."

Clinton, looking to a career beyond the scandal, was, in fact, meeting with veteran New York Democratic operative Harold M. Ickes, who walked her through the first serious strategy session of her victorious 2000 Senate campaign.

As for overseas travel, the papers show that Clinton did spend some time conferring with foreign leaders on strategic issues. But the records suggest she spent a lot more time fulfilling the traditional role of the first lady: meeting the leaders' wives and focusing on women's and children's issues.