Politics

Nearly 50,000 Kagan documents released by Clinton library

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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Nearly 50,000 documents relating to the Clinton era work of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, a former White House official with a thin paper trail, were released this afternoon by the William Clinton Presidential Library.

Read the documents here.

The papers come from Kagan’s stints at the White House Domestic Policy Council. More documents are expected to be released from her time at the White House Counsel’s Office. There are approximately 160,000 pages in the archives, and 46,500 pages are being released today.

Just this week, The Daily Caller reported on a carefully worded letter from the Obama administration to Sen. Jeff Sessions, the top Judiciary Committee Republican, saying it’s possible some papers from Kagan’s memos could be withheld.

Kagan’s confirmation hearing starts June 28.

CHECK BACK THROUGHOUT THE AFTERNOON FOR MORE ON THE MEMOS.

The documents cover a wide spectrum of issues: abortion, AIDS, assisted suicide, the federal budget, campaign finance reform, cloning, assault weapons, medical marijuana, school desegregation, climate change, gays in the military, same sex marriage, immigration, charter schools and welfare, among others.

Many of the papers are emails or notes to Kagan, or newspaper and magazine articles on issues sent to her.

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, demanded more papers to be released after today’s release of documents:

“We are now a mere 24 days away from the hearing and the committee still has yet to receive over 100,000 pages of documents, called for in a bipartisan request, from Ms. Kagan’s lengthy time in the White House,” Sessions said. “Making matters worse, there are new concerns that even when the documents are produced, they will not be produced completely and transparently.”

Sessions added: “We have a constitutional obligation to conduct a full and thorough review of this nominee on behalf of the American people. With each day that passes, I become more concerned that we will not receive documents in time for a proper review, or that they will be incomplete.”

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