Government to release more Clinton records

WASHINGTON — The National Archives said Wednesday that it will release previously restricted records from the Clinton White House on Supreme Court nominations, Osama bin Laden and Vice President Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign.

About 1,000 pages of documents will be released Friday through the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, part of a months-long release of White House records. About 20,000 pages of records from Clinton's two terms have been disseminated since February.

The White House papers have been closely reviewed by media organizations and historians as former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton considers a second presidential campaign.

The latest batch of memos and papers will cover a number of topics, including the Supreme Court nominations of Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer along with papers related to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was nominated by then-President Bill Clinton to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1997. Other documents pertain to bin Laden, issues in Rwanda, Haiti and Sudan.

It will also cover Gore's unsuccessful presidential bid and Clinton's nomination of Lani Guinier to lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in 1993. Guinier's nomination was withdrawn following criticism of her academic writings. Clinton opted to choose Deval Patrick, now Massachusetts governor, who led the division from 1994 to 1997.

Previously released papers have shed light on the Clinton administration's unsuccessful attempt to overhaul the health care system, Republicans' sweeping victories in the 1994 mid-term elections and Clinton's handling of foreign policy.

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