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Last night during the Democrat Presidential debate Hillary Clinton punted when asked whether or not she would allow the National Archives to release the docs of her communications during her tenure as first lady saying “They are releasing things as they do their process” followed by the claim that it is “not her decision to make“. This is both true and false, typical Clinton politics.

Hillary Clinton’s evasive answer in last nights debate came on the heels of two separate reports from judicial watch and an ensuing scandal surrounding a Judicial Watch claim that Senator Clinton was involved in the 2000 pardons by then President Bill Clinton in an effort to secure votes for her eventual Senatorial campaign.

The first report is regarding a Judicial Watch lawsuit that challenges a Bush administration executive order that allows both the current and the former presidents to take an indefinite amount of time to decide whether to release records from the archive even in the face of FOIA rulings that order the government to do so.

Judicial Watch had filed a Freedom of Information Act Request to obtain Mrs. Clinton’s office records, including phone logs, personal schedules, and other documents that may shed light on her activities during the Clinton years. A court ruled that 10,000 pages of those documents will be processed completely by the end of January 2008; however, the National Archives and Records Administration “cannot provide a date certain” to complete the processing of 20,000 additional pages of documents.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, says thanks to an executive order, the government cannot release any of the documents until they are reviewed by the president and former president.

While this is a sad reminder that President Bush was never the man that the conservative base though he was (quite the opposite) it also demonstrates (in my mind) that the Clintons have something to hide by their efforts to stonewall the release.

The stonewalling of the release is part and parcel of the Clinton strategy when it comes to understanding Hillary Clinton’s involvement with former President Bill Clinton’s wild night of pardons (dubbed pardongate) and whether or not any of those pardons were done in a quid pro quo fashion to solicit votes for the Hillary Clinton Senate campaign. It is this charge of favors for votes that has Judicial Watch interested in Hillary Clinton’s White House communications and her calendar.

A second release from Judicial Watch provides a partial answer to that claim. The release is titled Judicial Watch Uncovers New Photos from Clinton Presidential Linking Hillary Clinton to Clinton Presidential Pardons.

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that its researchers obtained 34 photos from the Clinton Presidential Library of Hillary Rodham Clinton, then-President Bill Clinton and Grand Rabbi David Twersky at a White House meeting during which the Grand Rabbi and other community leaders allegedly lobbied the Clintons to commute the jail sentences of four Hasidic men convicted of stealing $30 million in government education aid. The meeting took place in December 2000, just after the New York based Hasidim sect delivered 1,400 votes to Hillary Clinton’s Senate 2000 campaign and only 12 to her opponent Rick Lazio.

This was the second meeting between Hillary Clinton and representatives of the Hasidic men. Prior to the election, in August 2000, Hillary Clinton visited New Square, the Hasidic community just outside of New York City.

According to Judicial Watch that meeting in conjunction with the newly uncovered photos undermines Hillary Clinton’s claim that she played no role in commuting the sentences of these criminals and that the pardons weren’t done for any future political favor, specifically pardons for votes. This ties intricately into the National Archive records that are being stonewalled.

A picture is worth a thousand words. These new photos undermine Hillary Clinton’s claim that she played no role in the commuted sentences granted these criminals. If that is true, then why attend a White House meeting evidently set up to discuss the pardons? How did these community leaders get an invitation to the Clinton White House? The situation screams quid pro quo said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These new photos show the importance of releasing Hillary Clinton’s other White House records”

Judicial Watch is now pursuing a lawsuit against the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration to obtain Hillary Clinton’s White House official calendar, schedule, and day planner, and related documents.

Russert tried to lift the carpet a little on Hillary Clinton’s reluctance to to get involved with the release of these records and she deferred to both hubby Bill and current ally in the case, President Bush. Thus it is once again dropped, a softball question to be sure because it doesn’t get to the meat of why the records are being sought in the first place.

The longer it takes the court to come up with a decision in the case the longer it will be before the nation knows the full extent of Bill Clinton’s night of pardons. We will probably never know everything here but one thing is for sure, the Clinton’s have something to hide otherwise it wouldn’t take such monumental efforts to get at that calendar.

For the Clinton’s this is just another episode in many scandals that continue to unfold even though Senator Clinton hasn’t achieved status as the most powerful person in the world. (scary isn’t it?)

Do the American people deserve to know what is in those records? You bet, we should understand how the person sitting in the White House will act based on their past record. Will the Clintons acquiesce and help us understand more about that fateful night where 140 criminals were put back on the street with clean records (and 30 more commuted)? Don’t count on it.

See the rest of the photos here. Try not to mistake them as mug shots.

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