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Supreme Court nominee's e-mails to go public before confirmation hearings

Friday, June 18, 2010

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ever wish you could comb through a public figure's e-mail?

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's e-mails are about to go public as part of the Senate Judiciary Committee's preparations for her confirmation hearings in a little more than a week.

The William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark., is set today to release about 80,000 pages of e-mails — about 11,000 of them written by Kagan. It's the final installment of documents related to her service as a domestic policy aide and White House counsel to former President Bill Clinton.

It's the third week in a row the files will be made public on a Friday afternoon — the customary time in official Washington for dribbling out unfavorable information or disclosures one hopes won't draw too much attention.

Another roughly 80,000 pages of paper files already have been released, revealing Kagan's role in managing the scandals of the Clinton administration, her pragmatic streak dealing with complex issues such as tobacco regulation and her political instincts weighing in on issues such as abortion, gun control and drug sentencing.