Condoleezza Rice and Executive Privilege

[Douglas Laycock]

         I can understand in principle arguments why she should not testify 
in public, although those arguments are hard to maintain when she is all 
over the press.  I cannot understand at all why if she testifies in 
private, she cannot be under oath.  That seems to be explicitly reserving 
the right to lie; it is hard to imagine any other function.

         The local radio here reports that Matt Drudge reported today that 
the Clinton Administration refused to let Richard Clarke testify to a 
Congressional committee on Y2K in 1999, when he was National Security 
Advisor, invoking executive privilege.  I have no idea what the 
circumstances were, what the arguments were, or whether Drudge has the 
facts right.  I think Clarke was on the National Security staff; I don't 
think he was ever National Security Advisor.  That was Sandy Berger.




Douglas Laycock
University of Texas Law School
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