Another nonoperative statement by the Clintons

Remember how Bill Clinton's people denied that he was blocking any of his papers concerning Hillary and that it was all the National Archives' fault. Well, turns out that that statement is not so true. Imagine that.

The National Archives is withholding from the public about 2,600 pages of records at President Clinton's direction, despite a public assurance by one of his top aides last month that Mr. Clinton "has not blocked the release of a single document."

The 2,600 pages, stored at Mr. Clinton's library in Arkansas, were deemed to contain "confidential advice" and, therefore, "closed" under the Presidential Records Act, an Archives spokeswoman, Susan Cooper, told The New York Sun yesterday.

An official who oversees the presidential libraries operated by the federal government, Susan Fawcett, said in a recent interview that the records were withheld in accordance with a letter Mr. Clinton wrote in 1994 exercising his right to hold back certain types of files and another letter in 2002 about narrowing the scope of his earlier instructions. Asked by National Journal whether Mr. Clinton had "total control" over the closure of records under the confidential-advice provisions of the law, Ms. Fawcett said he did.

....An attorney who specializes in the Presidential Records Act, Scott Nelson of Public Citizen Litigation Group, said Mr. Lindsey's statement may have meant that neither he nor Mr. Clinton had singled out any specific document for withholding, even though Mr. Clinton's "general instruction" caused certain records to be closed. "It's possible that all the statements were made in perfect good faith, but in truth, the result is that the Archives — they are withholding material and that's because of President Clinton's election in 1994," Mr. Nelson said.

Ms. Cooper said the 2,600 pages of advice are part of about 24,000 pages of closed Clinton White House records. The bulk of the closures likely involve records found in domestic policy and health care files that Mr. Clinton authorized for processing before the library began accepting record requests from the public in 2006.

As if Bill wanted the papers opened up, they'd be open to the public. There might be nothing in there, but the Clintons are just fueling more speculation by their behavior.