Howard Dean in Newsweek


On Principles & Values: Sealed governorship records for 10 years

A large chunk of Dean's records as governor are locked in a remote state warehouse-the result of an aggressive legal strategy designed in part to protect Dean from political attacks. Dean-who has blasted the Bush administration for excessive secrecy- candidly acknowledged that politics was a major reason for locking up his own files when he left office. He told Vermont Public Radio he was putting a 10-year seal on many of his official papers because of "future political considerations. We didn't want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time."

"Most of the records are open," said a Dean staffer. Still, Dean's efforts to keep official papers secret appear unusually extensive. Last year, Dean's chief counsel sent a directive to all state agencies ordering them to cull their files and remove all correspondence that bore Dean's name-and ship them to the governor's office to be reviewed for "privilege" claims. This removed a "significant number of records" from state files.

Source: Michael Isikoff, Newsweek Dec 8, 2003

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