"[Do] not suppose that... official communications will ever be seen or known out of the offices. Reserve as to all their proceedings is the fundamental maxim of the Executive department." --Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Hawkins, 1800. ME 10:160"It is essential for the public interest that I should receive all the information possible respecting either matters or persons connected with the public. To induce people to give this information, they must feel assured that when deposited with me it is secret and sacred. Honest men might justifiably withhold information, if they expected the communication would be made public, and commit them to war with their neighbors and friends. This imposes the duty on me of considering such information as mere suggestions for inquiry, and to put me on my guard; and to injure no man by forming any opinion until the suggestion be verified. Long experience in this school has by no means strengthened the disposition to believe too easily. On the contrary, it has begotten an incredulity which leaves no one's character in danger from any hasty conclusion." --Thomas Jefferson to John Smith, 1807. ME 11:203
The raw nerve of this blowhard "Jefferson" to imply we need executive privilege!
Ok, you got me there. I concede this arguement to you.