what happened when Clinton asked for EP

[Truthmatters]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/starr050698.htm

 

[Truthmatters]

President Is Denied Executive Privilege
By Peter Baker and Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 6, 1998; Page A01

A federal judge has ruled that President Clinton cannot use the power of his office to block prosecutors from questioning his senior aides, rejecting Clinton's assertion of executive privilege in the Monica S. Lewinsky investigation, lawyers familiar with the decision said yesterday.

In a ruling issued under court seal Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson concluded that independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's need to collect evidence in his obstruction of justice probe outweighs Clinton's interest in preserving the confidentiality of White House discussions, the lawyers said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...tarr050698.htm

 

[Annie]

President Is Denied Executive Privilege
By Peter Baker and Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 6, 1998; Page A01

A federal judge has ruled that President Clinton cannot use the power of his office to block prosecutors from questioning his senior aides, rejecting Clinton's assertion of executive privilege in the Monica S. Lewinsky investigation, lawyers familiar with the decision said yesterday.

In a ruling issued under court seal Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson concluded that independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's need to collect evidence in his obstruction of justice probe outweighs Clinton's interest in preserving the confidentiality of White House discussions, the lawyers said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...tarr050698.htm

That time:

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publishe...4&topicId=100007214&docId=l:638491154&start=6

ROSEN: Three weeks before Nixon resigned, the Supreme Court recognized executive privilege is fundamental to the operation of government and inextricably rooted in the separation of powers under the constitution. Yet the court also found that, "when a claim of presidential privilege, as to material subpoenaed for use in a criminal trial is based, as it is here, not on the ground that military or diplomatic secrets are implicated, but merely on the grounds of a generalized interest in confidentiality, the president's generalized assertion of privilege must yield to the demonstrated specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial.

Gerald Ford invoked the privilege to block Congress from investigating covert operations. Jimmy Carter to rebuff a demand for documents on energy policy. Ronald Reagan invoked it three times, but famously did not during Iran Contra, when he turned over to a Congressional panel excerpts from his personal diary.

President Clinton is the executive privilege champion, having invoked it at least 14 times. Congressional historians can't be sure about the figure, because Clinton discontinued the practice of always asserting the claim in writing. His claims covered a range of matters, from Whitewater to Lewinsky, drug enforcement policy to documents about political assassinations in Haiti.

But it was Clinton's refusal to turn over to a Grand Jury documents he himself never saw, papers used in an internal report about his disgraced agriculture secretary, Mike Espee (ph), that wound up limiting the scope of the privilege for all presidents. For the first time since the Nixon tapes case, the D.C. appellate court ruled in the Espee case that "not every person who plays a role in the development of presidential advice, no matter how remote and removed from the president, can qualify for the privilege. In particular, the privilege should not extend to staff outside the White House in executive branch agencies."

David Gergen served in the Clinton White House.

DAVID GERGEN, FMR. CLINTON WHITE HOUSE AIDE: He was constantly caught between the legal advisers saying be tough, don't give a dam thing, and everybody else saying no, let's figure it this out. His usual inclinations were to stick with the tough line as long as he could.

 

[uscitizen]

I will bet the frivilous judicial activist Bushies will take it to the supreme court.

 

[Truthmatters]

So they were right when Clinton was rebuffed but Bush can hide why Tillmans death was falsely used for propaganda?