It is essential to efficient and effective administration that employees of the Executive Branch be in a position to be completely candid in advising each other on official matters ... it is not in the public interest that any of their conversations or communications, or any documents or reproductions, concerning such advice be disclosed.
When the Democrats were investigating the U.S. attorneys that were accused of responding to political pressure, that I joined Senator Leahy in efforts to get transparency of all of the documents.
I think what we ought to be focusing on is that we are on path for the release of 75,000 pages of documents in connection with John Roberts' work in the White House, as in the counselor's office and as his time working as an assistant in the office of the attorney general.
Interdepartmental memoranda, advisory opinions, recommendations of subordinates, informal working papers, material in personnel files, and the like, cannot be subject to disclosure if there is to be any orderly system of government.
I believe that Secretary Clinton has said, has acknowledged, that that was not the best way to handle her emails back then... and has turned over all of the information and the emails and documents and now the server.
The longer you remain silent, the longer you don't turn over documents, a presumption begins to build that you're withholding something. That's human nature. That may not be a legal presumption, but that's a common sense presumption.
That the president of the United States may be subpoenaed, and examined as a witness, and required to produce any paper in his possession, is not controverted.
I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest. There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn't turn over, because harming people isn't my goal. Transparency is.
