WASHINGTON - The public re-examination of Clinton history resumed yesterday as the National Archives released another batch of documents from the 1990s that could shed more light on the 42nd president and, potentially, the would-be 45th president.
WASHINGTON � The public re-examination of Clinton history resumed yesterday as the National Archives released another batch of documents from the 1990s that could shed more light on the 42nd president and, potentially, the would-be 45th president.
About 4,000 pages of memos, speeches, executive orders and other papers from former President Bill Clinton�s administration were posted on the website of his presidential library, the second such trove made public in recent weeks.
The topics include some tantalizing possibilities. Among the subjects listed by the archives are Al Gore�s 2000 presidential campaign, the Florida recount that finally determined the outcome of that race and the departing Clinton administration�s transition to President George W. Bush�s team.
Yet past experience has shown that such files do not necessarily yield genuine revelations. Sometimes they contain only a handful of papers or even just a single one that prove to be routine, unenlightening or even banal.
Still, with Hillary Clinton poised for a possible campaign for the presidency in 2016, there will continue to be heightened scrutiny of the documents for anything that provides a greater understanding of her role as first lady.
The papers released yesterday include one with the files of Ira C. Magaziner, who helped guide her failed health-care effort, and two others about speeches Hillary Clinton gave.
Other topics listed include the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, a terrorist attack that fueled bitterness both between Washington and Riyadh and within the U.S. government.
There are files for seven White House speechwriters and six members of the President�s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Other files concern the Rwanda genocide, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain and scientist Carl Sagan.
Along with those released two weeks ago, the papers are part of a set of 33,000 pages that could be made public over the course of the next few weeks, documents that had been requested in the past under the Freedom of Information Act but withheld under legal exceptions that expired in January 2013.
Before their release, they had to be processed by archivists and approved by the White House and Bill Clinton�s office. So far, about 25,000 pages have been approved for release.