Defying Senate Democrats, the Bush administration will withhold some documents written by Supreme Court nominee John Roberts Jr. while he worked for earlier Republican administrations, advisers to the White House said Sunday.
Roberts, 50, worked in the Reagan White House counsel’s office from 1982-86. He served in the Justice Department of President George H.W. Bush as principal deputy solicitor general.
Fred Thompson, a former Republican senator who is advising the nominee and who appeared Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” compared the documents to privileged conversations with a priest or a physician.
Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales, appearing on three of the Sunday news shows, warned that releasing internal documents written by Justice Department lawyers “does chill communications” within the department.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a Judiciary Committee member, said on NBC the documents are potentially an important part of Roberts’ record.
