John Sarbanes: “I place it in the Record simply to make the point, as the article does, that the appearance of documents a considerable…”

“I place it in the Record simply to make the point, as the article does, that the appearance of documents a considerable period of time after they have been requested is, in fact, not a shocking development. This goes on all the time, as anyone involved in litigation or document requests well knows. In each instance, of course, one has to judge the explanation for the late-appearing documents with respect to their plausibility, but as I indicated when we were discussing Mr. Gearan earlier, his explanation, I thought, was very straightforward. He said by mistake these had been packed into a box he took with him to the Peace Corps. He thought they had remained at the White House where the White House counsel could go through them and provide responsive matters to the committee. It was only by chance that these documents, then, were later discovered in that box that had been sent over to the Peace Corps and then were put back into the loop so that they eventually came to the committee. A great to-do is made of the fact that if you have a fixed date for ending, you will not get the documents, and that to-do is made over documents that we have gotten. I find it incredible--in other words, these documents are furnished to us and then an argument is made if you have a fixed date--as we did, the date of February 29--you will not get the documents. I do not know how you square the two. We get the documents. They are provided to us.”