On the recordJune 28, 2012
I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts. This should be labeled ``Fast and Foolish'' or maybe ``Fast and Fake.'' We are not talking about gunwalking here. We are doing nothing to help the family of Brian Terry recover. What we're talking about are interoffice emails between the administration executives in the AG's office. I want everyone here to be willing to turn over all of their interoffice emails. But, more importantly, let's talk about whether there's precedence for the assertion of executive privilege. And let me just point to a number of cases when executive privilege was asserted for noninvolved Presidential communications. In October 1981, President Reagan asserted executive privilege over internal deliberations within the Department of the Interior concerning, interestingly enough, the Mineral Lands Leasing Act. In October 1982, President Reagan asserted executive privilege over internal EPA files concerning Superfund provisions. In July 1986, President Reagan asserted executive privilege over documents written by William Rehnquist when he was the head of the OLC at DOJ. In August 1991, President George H.W. Bush asserted executive privilege over an internal Defense Department memorandum regarding an aircraft development contract. In December 2011, President George W. Bush asserted executive privilege over internal Justice Department materials relating to prosecutorial decisionmaking. It has been done many, many times before by Republican Presidents.…
