LITTLE ROCK – Former President Clinton will release thousands of domestic-policy records from his presidency nearly a year sooner than the law requires.
Clinton will make 100,000 such documents available to scholars and researchers Nov. 18, the day his presidential library opens, said Skip Rutherford, president of Clinton's nonprofit foundation.
Under the Presidential Records Act (search), former presidents can withhold the release of records for at least five years and up to 12 years under certain criteria — sometimes even longer if the documents are a matter of national security.
Clinton announced in 2003 his intention to release most records of confidential advice he received as president. His lawyer, Bruce Lindsey, said at the time that the documents wouldn't include Clinton's legal defense in the Whitewater (search) and the Monica Lewinsky-Paula Jones investigations, but would focus on domestic policy.
The papers make up a tiny part of the 630 tons of Clinton White House records that began a move Tuesday from a warehouse west of downtown Little Rock to the archives portion of the $165 million Clinton Presidential Center (search) a mile away.
The archives rooms, most more than 20,000 square feet and filled with movable stacks 11 shelves high, are mostly underground in a wing off the 150,000 square foot main museum building.
The documents will be available for review in two high-tech research rooms with special ultraviolet-protection glass walls.
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