Ouch.

The National Archives filed its failed motion to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that Judicial Watch's original Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was overly broad.  In the alternative, the Archives asked the court to stay the lawsuit for one year, citing a lack of resources and a backlog of requests.  Judge Friedman rejected both requests.  Here’s a quick excerpt from Judge Friedman’s ruling (which you can read in its entirety here):

"[The National Archives] argues that [Judicial Watch's] request is inadequate because it is overbroad...otherwise valid FOIA requests are not overbroad or unreasonable simply because they seek a very large number of documents…[The Archives] should have been better prepared to process the large number of FOIA requests it received upon making President Clinton’s records available…The Court will deny defendant's request for a stay of one year, and instead grant a stay of six months.  Defendant is ordered to provide the Court with a status report regarding the processing of responsive documents approximately thirty days before the expiration of the stay."

So why are we after Hillary’s health care records?

Because we feel it is important for the American people to have the full story of Hillary Clinton’s time in the White House.  (She is arguably the most powerful member of the U.S. Senate, and, of course, maintains even higher aspirations.)  As we’ve argued many times, Hillary Clinton was more corrupt as a co-president than first lady and these records relate to Senator Clinton’s most infamous policy initiative, her failed attempt to implement a government takeover of the nation’s healthcare system.

Our investigation already uncovered documents that show how Hillary Clinton and the Clinton administration approached health care reform – secrecy, smears, and the misuse of government computers to track private and political information on citizens.

So far, a small category of Health Care Task Force-related documents have been released at the Clinton Presidential library, but the majority of these records have not been disclosed.  You may recall that the National Archives has admitted in correspondence to Judicial Watch that there are approximately 3,022,030 textual records, 2,884 pages of electronic records, 1,021 photographs, 3 videotapes and 3 audiotapes that must be reviewed.

With respect to this ruling, we are pleased the court saw through the National Archives' feeble attempt to stonewall the release of these records.  It is time for the National Archives to stop stonewalling and to start complying with the law.  In the meantime, we expect that the Clintons and the Bush White House will expedite the release of these documents as well.