Orrin Hatch: “And we do have mutual friendship. I have done some checking on this, and I thought I would bring it do the attention of…”

“And we do have mutual friendship. I have done some checking on this, and I thought I would bring it do the attention of the Senator. They tell me at the White House that they have never, the Justice Department has never given out these materials requested by the Democrats--not in the Bork case, not in any other case. Now, in the Bork case they did give materials that pertained to his dismissal of Archibald Cox during Watergate, specific materials, but not a widespread fishing expedition. And there is a reason they do not want to give these documents up--because they are privileged, they are a work product of the Solicitor General's Office, they are crucial to the Solicitor General's Office functioning well. I bring that to my friend's attention because the arguments that have been brought up have been not persuasive, they are not accurate, and frankly in the other people beside Judge Bork, there is no record at all that the Justice Department ever gave those documents to those people. Somebody may have leaked them, but the Justice Department did not give them. I thank the Senator. I just wanted to tell the Senator that I think this is a red herring.”