Date

Jul 15, 1975

Description

A “memorandum of law” prepared a few months later looked more closely at the problem of protecting sensitive diplomatic information in the telephone conversation transcripts and the Nixon tapes. While Michael Sandler’s memorandum did not state as fact that Kissinger had a collection of telcons, it was the assumption. Considering that at least one senator, Lowell Weicker (R-CT), had asked about the telcons, one of the issues considered was, in a case where Congress sought access to the telcons, whether the State Department could invoke executive privilege to protect sensitive diplomatic information. Such a claim could be justified legally, although Sandler suggested there might be “practical reasons” for not doing so.

As for the vulnerability of the telcons to FOIA requests, there were “ticklish problems.” The telcons could be deemed agency records if they were generated and kept on the Department’s premises, but there also was the argument that they were “personal” papers. If the telcons included foreign policy information, if “persons other than the Secretary were permitted to read the records, or if the records helped the Secretary or others to make departmental policies or decisions, the records could well be viewed as those of an ‘agency.’” If, however, the Secretary “intended to keep the records for his personal use, if he limited access to himself, and if he segregated them into files marked ‘personal,’ than the materials should perhaps be viewed as ‘personal’ rather than ‘agency’ records,” according to Sandler.

If FOIA requests were ever made for the records, exemptions could be invoked to prevent disclosure, but that assumed that the telcons had “been properly classified.” Sandler suggested the possibility of a review and the imposition of classification categories when appropriate.

Source

Records of Monroe Leigh, box 11, Secretary’s Papers and Records File 1

Document published in following posting(s):

The Kissinger Telcons: The Story Behind the Story

Feb 13, 2024