Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 10, 1995 TAG: 9508100015
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK J. ROZELL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Press and public attention on the Whitewater and recently completed Waco congressional hearings has focused on allegations of high-level conspiracies and misdeeds. Republicans charge that the Clinton administration is hiding damaging truths. The Democrat-led White House characterizes the hearings as a partisan travesty.
At the heart of this controversy is an emerging interbranch fight over the doctrine of executive privilege. According to some constitutional theorists, that doctrine confers on the president the right to withhold internal White House documents from Congress and the courts.
Executive privilege was at the center of the Watergate crisis. Richard Nixon tried to claim that executive privilege protected him from having to release the White House tapes that ultimately brought down his presidency. He said that he was trying to protect the institution of the presidency. Nixon lost that battle because the Supreme Court was not persuaded that executive privilege shields a president from a criminal investigation. As it turned out, Nixon had claimed executive privilege to try to protect himself, not the presidency.
Today, White House counsel Abner Mikva maintains that some of the Clinton White House documents requested by congressional Republicans may be protected by executive privilege.
Despite the protests of some of the GOP senators on the committee investigating Whitewater, constitutional law does confer upon the president the right to withhold vital White House documents. To state that Clinton has the right of executive privilege does not mean that he would be justified in claiming that right in either the Whitewater of Waco case. Traditionally, presidents have claimed the right to withhold information:
To protect the national security.
To protect the confidentiality of ongoing criminal investigations in the executive branch.
To protect candid deliberations among White House aides and the president.
To protect the personal privacy of White House aides when revealing such sensitive information would achieve no public gain.
The president may be trying to protect candid deliberations, and is clearly trying to protect the privacy of the late Vincent Foster.
Nonetheless, the Republicans appear to be making a good case that Clinton may be shielding information primarily to protect himself from any embarrassing revelations. It is imperative that the Clinton team respond with a specific claim of executive privilege that makes it clear what the White House is trying to protect from public disclosure. Otherwise, continual partisan attacks on the president will promote greater public suspicion that he truly does have something to hide.
Mark J. Rozell is an associate professor of political science at Mary Washington College and author of "Executive Privilege."
by CNB