1996: GOP gets 40,000 pages, still issues Contempt of Congress

[DesEtoiles]

Remember the White House Travel Office firings witch hunt? Started in 1993 - this article is from 1996.

New York Times

May 10, 1996

Panel Acts to Gain Travel Office Papers

By DAVID JOHNSTON

A House committee investigating the dismissals at the White House travel office voted today to begin criminal contempt proceedings against one current and two former Presidential aides after President Clinton's top lawyer invoked executive privilege in refusing to turn over documents sought by the panel.

...If approved, the contempt charges would be referred to the United States Attorney here for prosecution and would probably be transferred to Kenneth W. Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel, who is already investigating travel office matters.

If convicted, the three men facing criminal contempt proceedings could face up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $1,000. The men named in Mr. Clinger's resolution are Jack Quinn, the White House counsel; David Watkins, a former top administrator at the White House, and Matthew Moore, a former White House lawyer.

...
Although the White House has said it turned over more than 40,000 pages of documents, three categories of them remain under dispute. ...

Mr. Clinger has accused the White House of covering up the truth behind the dismissals and of trying to contain a political scandal by dragging its feet on his requests for documents, in some cases for years.

He said today that the White House had created a "culture of secrecy" to withhold documents that could shed more light on unresolved questions like whether Clinton aides misled the panel about the role in the dismissals played by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

...

[Why Syzygy]

1. She has too much dirty laundry.

How on God's Green Earth can we expect her to LEAD? She is still hiding.
ugh

[DesEtoiles]

3. Hillary did NOT do anything wrong here

As with the USAttorneys, the travel office employees serve at the pleasure of the president. I've been doing some reading on this. The GOP (1) asserted that Hillary "encouraged" the firings, and (2) because she was not the President, she had no authority to fire them. But never have I seen even one true cause of action against her, law she violated, or rule she broke, they just said that her role was "improper". They never found any smoking gun stating that she personally fired them or whatever. If Bill wanted to fire these employees - then they were fired with the authority of the President. The GOP kept trying to someohow drag Hillary into it - it's just plain stupid.

[NYC]

2. Well done.

This is an excellent comparison of how things are being handled.

...begin criminal contempt proceedings against one current and two former Presidential aides after President Clinton's top lawyer invoked executive privilege in refusing to turn over documents...

...the White House has said it turned over more than 40,000 pages of documents...