As associate White House counsel in 1995, U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan played a key role in building a public defense of President Bill Clinton’s claim of attorney-client privilege in a potential confrontation with Congress over a subpoena from the Senate committee investigating Whitewater, a failed Arkansas real estate venture. The committee sought notes from a meeting attended by a White House lawyer, personal lawyers for Clinton and the first lady, and senior officials.
Kagan reached out to a list of legal ethics superstars and former White House counsels to write op-eds and answer press questions in support of Clinton’s position, according to the latest batch of documents released Friday from her 1995-1996 tenure as associate counsel. She provided them with a list of “talking points” on the White House’s position.
