Full opinion text
ORDER Per Curiam. In light of the recent indictment of former Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Espy, it is no longer necessary to maintain under seal any portion of the Court’s opinion issued on June 17, 1997. It is, therefore, ORDERED, on the Court’s own motion, that the opinion be amended as follows: The previously sealed portions are hereby unsealed. The Clerk is directed to file and issue the unredacted opinion. Footnote 24 of the opinion issued on June 17,1997, shall be deleted. [Editor’s Note: A different footnote 24 is included as part of this published opinion.] Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 95ms00192). Before: WALD, GINSBURG and ROGERS, Circuit Judges. WALD, Circuit Judge: This case involves an effort by the Office of the Independent Counsel (“OIC”) to compel performance of a subpoena duces tecum issued by the grand jury investigating former Secretary of Agriculture Alphonso Michael (Mike) Espy (“Espy”) and served on the Counsel to the President (“White House Counsel”). The White House provided several folders of documents to the OIC in response to the subpoena but withheld 84 documents as privileged. After ordering that the withheld documents be produced for in camera review, the district court upheld the White House’s claims of privilege in full. We now vacate the district court’s opinion and remand for the court to conduct a more detailed review of the documents consistent with the principles set out in this opinion. I. Background A Factual Background Allegations that Espy may have improperly accepted gifts from individuals and organizations with business before the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) first surfaced publicly in March of 1994. These allegations led to the appointment of an Independent Counsel, on September 9,1994, to investigate whether Espy had unlawfully accepted gifts and related matters and to prosecute any related violations of federal law that the Independent Counsel reasonably believed had occurred. See In re Alphonso (Mike) Espy, No. 94-2 (D.C.Cir. Spec. Div.1994); see also In re Espy, 80 F.3d 501 (C.A.D.C.1996) (per curiam). This investigation into Espy’s actions is still ongoing. The same allegations also led the President of the United States to direct the White House Counsel to investigate Espy’s conduct in order to advise the President on whether he should take executive action against Espy. On October 3, 1994, Espy announced his resignation, effective December 31, 1994. A little over a week later, on October 11, 1994, the White House publicly released a report on Espy produced by the White House Counsel. The report stated that the President had asked the White House Counsel to address two issues: “(1) whether the President should direct that any further action be taken with respect to Secretary Espy’s conduct; and (2) what actions should be taken to ensure that similar incidents are avoided by other Members of the Cabinet.” After detailing several areas in which questions had been raised regarding Espy’s conduct, the report concluded that no further executive action need be taken against Espy since he had announced his resignation, reimbursed the cost of questionable transactions, recused himself from matters involving meat and poultry inspection and undertaken screening measures for his travel. The report also recommended that efforts be undertaken to ensure that all cabinet members and other executive branch officers be given ethics training and be familiarized with applicable ethical standards for executive branch officers. On October 14, 1994, the grand jury issued the subpoena duces tecum at issue in this case. The subpoena seeks all documents on Espy and other subjects of the OIC’s investigation that were “accumulated for, relating in any way to, or considered in any fashion, by those persons who were consulted and/or contributed directly or indirectly to all drafts and/or versions” of the White House Counsel’s report. Within this broad category of documents relating to the White House Counsel’s report, the subpoena specifically requests notes of any meetings in the White House concerning Espy and of any conversations between Espy or his counsel and White House employees. On October 20, 1994, the White House issued a press statement stating that it had received a subpoena for documents relating to the White House Counsel’s report and would comply with the subpoena. On November 17, 1994, the White House produced several folders of documents for the OIC, which the White House maintained represented all responsive documents except those withheld on the basis of privilege. On December 12,1994, at the OIC’s request, the White House produced a privilege log identifying the date, author, and recipient of each document withheld as well as a general statement of the nature of each document and the basis for the privilege on which the document was withheld. This privilege log indicated that 84 documents were withheld on grounds of the deliberative process privilege, with one document additionally withheld on grounds of attorney-client privilege. In a later draft of the privilege log, the White House lists the privilege basis of all 84 documents as being “executive/deliberative privilege.” The OIC negotiated with the White House for access to the withheld documents for several months, finally filing a motion to compel production on June 7, 1995. The White House resisted the motion, arguing that the withheld documents came within both the privilege for presidential communications, recognized in United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1974) (Nixon), and the deliberative process privilege that protects the deliberations and decisionmaking process of executive officials generally. After a hearing on the motion to compel, the district court ordered the White House to produce the withheld documents for in camera review and the White House complied. Each document produced was accompanied by an ex parte cover sheet that explained the purpose of the document. The OIC also made an ex parte submission justifying the grand jury’s need for the documents. On September 30, 1996, the court denied the motion to compel. The memorandum opinion accompanying the denial quoted from Nixon to the effect that the “generalized assertion of privilege [for presidential communications] must yield to the demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial,” 418 U.S. at 713, 94 S.Ct. at 3110, but then concluded that the White House had properly asserted the claimed privileges in this case. In reaching this conclusion, the court stated that it had carefully reviewed the documents, but did not discuss the documents in any further detail and provided no analysis of the grand jury’s asserted need for the documents. The OIC appeals from the district court’s decision. The OIC argues that, at a minimum, the district court’s order should be vacated and the matter remanded because the district court failed to provide any account of its reasoning in denying the OIC’s motion to enforce the subpoena. On the merits, the OIC maintains that the district court erred in denying the motion to compel because the White House had waived its claims of privilege by releasing the final White House Counsel’s report, stating it would comply with the subpoena, and unduly delaying in invoking privilege. The OIC further argues that the presidential communications privilege does not apply to the withheld documents because none of the documents was sent to or received from the President; the only document that the President received regarding the Espy investigation was the White House Counsel’s final report, which was publicly released. Alternatively, the OIC claims that even if the withheld documents do enjoy the presidential privilege, the district court should have applied a less restrictive need standard than that articulated in Nixon, because this case involves a grand jury subpoena instead of a criminal trial subpoena, and the grand jury’s need for the documents is sufficient to overcome the claims of executive privilege raised in this case. Although the OIC does not separately discuss the applicability of the deliberative process privilege in any detail, it maintains in passing that the need to obtain evidence that may shed light on governmental misconduct outweighs the deliberative process privilege. The White House challenges each of these arguments. It insists that it has not waived its claims of privilege and that the withheld documents come under the presidential communications privilege because they were generated in response to the President’s request for advice on whether to retain a cabinet officer, one of the President’s core functions under Article II of the Constitution. The White House also notes that the deliberative privilege would apply to the documents in their entirety because the factual material in the documents is inseparable from the documents’ deliberative portions. The White House contends that the same standard of need applies when the presidential privilege is raised in response to a grand jury subpoena as when a criminal trial subpoena is involved, and the OIC has failed to demonstrate a sufficient need to justify release under either the presidential privilege or the deliberative process privilege. Finally, the White House maintains that, since the district court reviewed the documents in camera, it provided sufficient explanation for its decision to deny the motion to compel even though it did not discuss the documents individually. B. Legal Background: On Executive Privilege Generally and the Deference Due to the District Court Since the beginnings of our nation, executive officials have claimed a variety of privileges to resist disclosure of information the confidentiality of which they felt was crucial to fulfillment of the unique role and responsibilities of the executive branch of our government. Courts ruled early that the executive had a right to withhold documents that might reveal military or state secrets. See United States v. Reynolds, 345 U.S. 1, 6-8, 73 S.Ct. 528, 531-32, 97 L.Ed. 727 (1953); Chicago & Southern Air Lines, Inc. v. Waterman Steamship Corp., 333 U.S. 103, 111, 68 S.Ct. 431, 436, 92 L.Ed. 568 (1948); Totten v. United States, 92 U.S. 105, 106-07, 23 L.Ed. 605 (1875). The courts have also granted the executive a right to withhold the identity of government informers in some circumstances, see Roviaro v. United States, 353 U.S. 53, 59-61, 77 S.Ct. 623, 627-28, 1 L.Ed.2d 639 (1957), and a qualified right to withhold information related to pending investigations. See Friedman v. Bache Halsey Stuart Shields, Inc., 738 F.2d 1336, 1341-43 (D.C.Cir.1984). Other privileges sanctioned by the Supreme Court include the grant of absolute immunity to the President from civil liability for official acts, see Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731, 749, 102 S.Ct. 2690, 2701, 73 L.Ed.2d 349 (1982) (Fitzgerald), and from judicial compulsion to perform a discretionary act. See Franklin v. Massachusetts, 505 U.S. 788, 802-03,112 S.Ct. 2767, 2776-77, 120 L.Ed.2d 636 (1992) (plurality opinion); Swan v. Clinton, 100 F.3d 973, 977-78 (D.C.Cir.1996). The most frequent form of executive privilege raised in the judicial arena is the deliberative process privilege; it allows the government to withhold documents and other materials that would reveal “advisory opinions, recommendations and deliberations comprising part of a process by which governmental decisions and policies are formulated.” Carl Zeiss Stiftung v. V.E.B. Carl Zeiss, Jena, 40 F.R.D. 318, 324 (D.D.C.1966), aff'd, 384 F.2d 979 (D.C.Cir.1967); accord NLRB v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 421 U.S. 132, 151-53, 95 S.Ct. 1504, 1516-18, 44 L.Ed.2d 29 (1975); EPA v. Mink, 410 U.S. 73, 86-93, 93 S.Ct. 827, 835-39, 35 L.Ed.2d 119 (1973). Although this privilege is most commonly encountered in Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) litigation, it originated as a common law privilege. See Wolfe v. Department of Health and Human Services, 839 F.2d 768, 773 (D.C.Cir.1988) (en banc); Jordan v. Department of Justice, 591 F.2d 753, 772 (D.C.Cir.1978) (en banc). Two requirements are essential to the deliberative process privilege; the material must be predecisional and it must be deliberative. See Army Times Publ’g Co. v. Department of the Air Force, 998 F.2d 1067, 1070 (D.C.Cir.1993); Wolfe, 839 F.2d at 774. Both requirements stem from the privilege’s “ultimate purposed which] ... is to prevent injury to the quality of agency decisions” by allowing government officials freedom to debate alternative approaches in private. Sears, 421 U.S. at 151, 95 S.Ct. at 1516-17. The deliberative process privilege does not shield documents that simply state or explain a decision the government has already made or protect material that is purely factual, unless the material is so inextricably intertwined with the deliberative sections of documents that its disclosure would inevitably reveal the government’s deliberations. See id. at 150-54, 95 S.Ct. at 1516-18; Mink, 410 U.S. at 87-91, 93 S.Ct. at 836-38; Wolfe, 839 F.2d at 774; see generally Russell L. Weaver & James T.R. Jones, The Deliberative Process Privilege, 54 Mo.L.Rev. 279, 290-98 (1989). The deliberative process privilege is a qualified privilege and can be overcome by a sufficient showing of need. This need determination is to be made flexibly on a case-by-case, ad hoc basis. “[E]ach time [the deliberative process privilege] is asserted the district court must undertake a fresh balancing of the competing interests,” taking into account factors such as “the relevance of the evidence,” “the availability of other evidence,” “the seriousness of the litigation,” “the role of the government,” and the “possibility of future timidity by government employees.” In re Subpoena Served Upon the Comptroller of the Currency, 967 F.2d 630, 634 (D.C.Cir.1992) (internal quotations omitted) (quoting In re Franklin Nat’l Bank Securities Litig., 478 F.Supp. 577, 583 (E.D.N.Y.1979)); see also Tuite v. Henry, 98 F.3d 1411, 1417 (D.C.Cir.1996) (describing need in the context of the law enforcement investigatory privilege, which involves balancing similar factors, as “an elastic concept”); Developments in the Law — Privileged Communications, 98 Harv. L.Rev. 1450, 1621 (1985) (“courts simply engage in an ad hoc balancing of the evidentiary need against the harm that may result from disclosure”); Larkin, supra, § 5.03 at 5-89 to 5-92 (“need for [privileged materials] may vary considerably, depending on the circumstances’/^. For example, where there is reason to Ibebeve the documents sought may shed light on government misconduct, “the privilege is routinely denied,” on the grounds that shielding internal government deliberations in this context does not serve “the public’s interest in honest, effective government.'’ Texaco Puerto Rico, Inc. v. Departments of Consumer Affairs, 60 F.3d 867, 885 (1st Cir.1995); see also In re Comptroller of the Currency, 967 F.2d at 634 (“the privilege may be overridden where necessary ... to ‘shed light on alleged government malfeasance’ ”) (quoting Franklin Nat’l Bank, 478 F.Supp. at 582); Wetlaufer, supra, at 852 n. 25, 855 (listing cases). Although executive privilege in general is no stranger to the courtroom, one form of the executive privilege is invoked only rarely and that is the privilege to preserve the confidentiality of presidential communications. Hints of a presidential communications privilege made an early appearance in Marbury v. Madison where Chief Justice Marshall suggested that for a court to intrude “into the secrets of the cabinet” would give the appearance of “intermeddling] with the prerogatives of the executive.” 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 170, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803). Four years later, in 1807, Marshall again addressed the presidential privilege during the trial of Aaron Burr on charges of treason. President Jefferson asserted the privilege in an effort to avoid producing a letter that he had received from General Wilkinson, one of Burr’s main accusers. Marshall, sitting on circuit, issued a subpoena for the letter, ruling that “[i]f [the letter] does contain any matter which it would be imprudent to disclose, which it is not the wish of the executive to disclose, such matter, if it be not immediately and essentially applicable to the point, will, of course, be suppressed.” United States v. Burr, 25 F. Cas. 30, 37 (C.C.Va. 1807) (No. 14,692d). Although Burr was acquitted in his treason trial before there were further proceedings on his subpoena, he was immediately put on trial again on misdemeanor charges and as a result sought production of another letter Wilkinson had sent to Jefferson. See Paul A. Freund, The Supreme Court, 1973 Term — Foreword: On Presidential Privilege, 88 Harv. L. Rev. 13, 22-31 (1974). In neither instance, however, was Marshall forced to definitively decide whether such a presidential privilege existed and if so, in what form. In Marbury, Marshall found that the question of whether a commission as justice of the peace had been issued was a matter of legal and public record, not a confidential cabinet matter, setting the stage for the Court’s pronouncement there that “[i]t is, emphatically, the province and duty of the judicial department, to say what the law is.” 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) at 177. In the Burr misdemeanor trial, Jefferson responded to the subpoena by sending Wilkinson’s letter to George Hay, the U.S. Attorney prosecuting Burr, with instructions that the U.S. Attorney should determine what portions should be withheld. This delegation induced Marshall to order that the letter be provided to Burr in its entirety, because “[t]he propriety of withholding [the letter] must be decided by [the President] himself.” United States v. Burr, 25 F. Cas. 187, 192 (C.C.Va.1807) (No. 14,694). The presidential communications privilege did not resurface in court for over a hundred and fifty years. Presidential claims of a right to preserve the confidentiality of information and documents figured more prominently in executive-congressional relations, but these claims too were most often essentially assertions of the deliberative process privilege. Moreover, given the restrictions on congressional standing and the courts’ reluctance to interfere in political battles, few executive-congressional disputes over access to information have ended up in the courts. As a result, it was not until the 1970s and Watergate-related lawsuits seeking access to President Nixon’s tapes as well as other materials that the existence of the presidential privilege was definitively established as a necessary derivation from the President’s constitutional status in a separation of powers regime. In this case, the White House is asserting both the deliberative process privilege and the presidential communications privilege. Our review of the withheld documents indicates that several documents are either wholly factual or contain segregatable factual sections that would not come under the deliberative process privilege. Consequently, we must decide whether the White House properly asserted the presidential communications privilege over the documents. As a preliminary matter we must first explain the standard under which we should review the district court’s ruling that the presidential privilege applied to the withheld documents. Ordinarily, this court will review a district court’s ruling on a subpoena for the production of documentary evidence only for arbitrariness or abuse of discretion. See In re Comptroller of the Currency, 967 F.2d at 633; In re Sealed Case, 877 F.2d 976, 981-82 (D.C.Cir.1989). No deference is given, however, if the ruling “rests upon a misapprehension of the relevant legal standard or is unsupported by the record.” In re Subpoena on Comptroller of Currency, 967 F.2d at 633. In order to defer we also need to have some articulation of the district court’s reasons for its ruling. See In re Sealed Case (Government Records), 950 F.2d 736, 738 (D.C.Cir.1991) (appeals court cannot apply deferential standard when district court did not provide reasons for denying subpoena or did not review documents in camera). Here, the district court provided no explanation of its denial of the motion to compel. The denial took the form of a blanket ruling, with no individualized discussion of the documents. Since the district court reviewed the withheld documents in camera before denying the OIC’s motion to compel, the absence of detailed findings would not, on its own, preclude us from according our usual deference to the district court’s opinion. However, the court also failed to provide any explanation of its legal reasoning. It did not address the OIC’s claim that the White House had waived its privileges or analyze whether the presidential communications privilege applies to documents not seen by the President. Moreover, while the court quoted Nixon’s statement to the effect that the presidential privilege must yield to a specific demonstration of need, it never discussed why Nixon applies to grand jury subpoenas as well as trial subpoenas nor indicated why the OIC’s demonstration of need was deficient. Because the district court not only failed to make factual findings but also failed to provide any explanation of its legal reasoning, we believe that no deference to the district court’s denial of the OIC’s motion to compel is appropriate. II. Waiver We turn first to the OIC’s contention that the White House has waived its privilege claims; if we find that waiver has occurred, we need not proceed further. In support of its waiver argument, the OIC notes that the White House publicly released the White House Counsel’s report, issued a press statement indicating it would comply with the OIC’s subpoena, and did not formally invoke privilege until after the OIC filed a motion to compel. Only after the briefs in this appeal were submitted did the White House inform us that it had provided Espy’s counsel with a document nearly identical to one of the withheld documents, document 63, the only difference being that document 63 contained certain handwritten notations that the released version lacked. The OIC argues that the release of document 63 is further evidence of a privilege waiver. We do not credit the OIC’s arguments for waiver. The White House press statement did not explicitly declare that the White House would forego any and all claims of privilege that might apply to the documents. Instead, it described the documents sought in the subpoena and noted “[t]he subpoena requires that documents be produced on November 10, 1994. The White House will comply.” The OIC agreed to extend the return date of the subpoena to November 17, and on that date the White House did in fact produce several folders of documents. “Since executive privilege exists to aid the governmental decisionmaking process, a waiver should not be lightly inferred.” SCM Corp. v. United, States, 82 Cust.Ct. 351, 473 F.Supp. 791, 796 (1979); see also Nixon v. Sirica (Sirica), 487 F.2d 700, 717 (D.C.Cir.1973) (explicit statement by President Nixon that “[executive privilege will not be invoked” considered one factor in assessing need to preserve confidentiality of subpoenaed materials, but not held to constitute a waiver). The press statement was not an official response to the subpoena, and it is clear from the record that the OIC was well aware the White House would be asserting privileges in regard to certain documents. Shortly after the statement was issued the White House Counsel informed the OIC that it believed some of the material was privileged, provoking lengthy negotiations between the two over the status of the withheld documents. There is nought to indicate that the press statement misled the OIC. Nor did the White House have an obligation to formally invoke its privileges in advance of the motion to compel. In its response to the subpoena, the White House informed the OIC that it believed the withheld documents were privileged, thus satisfying Rule 45(c)(2)(B) and Rule 45(d)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which together require that “a party objecting to a subpoena on the basis of privilege must both (1) object to the subpoena and (2) state the claim of privilege within [the stipulated period] of service.” Twite, 98 F.3d at 1416; see also In re Sealed Case, 856 F.2d 268, 272 n. 3 (D.C.Cir.1988) (where government’s claim of privilege is well taken, remedy for any delay is not waiver but fees and sanctions). The motion to compel was the first event which could have forced disclosure of the documents. Cf. 3 Weinstein’s Federal Evidence § 503.09[4] at 503-44 (failure to assert attorney-client privilege at a hearing at which privileged information is sought may result in waiver of the privilege). Since the OIC was clearly aware in advance of the motion to compel that the White House likely would be asserting privilege, it was not prejudiced by any alleged delay in the White House’s formally invoking its privileges. The White House’s release of the White House Counsel’s final report also does not constitute waiver of any privileges attaching to the documents generated in the course of producing the report. It is true that voluntary disclosure of privileged material subject to the attorney-client privilege to unnecessary third parties in the attorney-client privilege context “waives the privilege, not only as to the specific communication disclosed but often as to all other communications relating to the same subject matter.” In re Sealed Case, 676 F.2d 793, 809 (D.C.Cir.1982); accord In re Sealed Case, 29 F.3d 715, 719-20 (D.C.Cir.1994); see generally 3 Weinstein’s Federal Evidence § 511. But this all-or-nothing approach has not been adopted with regard to executive privileges generally, or to the deliberative process privilege in particular. Instead, courts have said that release of a document only waives these privileges for the document or information specifically released, and not for related materials. See Mobil Oil Corp. v. United States EPA, 879 F.2d 698, 700-02, 703 (9th Cir.1989); Mehl v. United States EPA, 797 F.Supp. 43, 47-48 (D.D.C.1992); Larkin, su pra, § 5.05 at 5-114.7 to 5-114.14; see also Russell v. Department of the Air Force, 682 F.2d 1045, 1048-49 (D.C.Cir.1982) (although not addressing waiver directly, holding that deliberative process privilege applies to early drafts of Air Force report on use of herbicides in Vietnam despite public release of the final report). This limited approach to waiver in the executive privilege context is designed to ensure that agencies do not forego voluntarily disclosing some privileged material out of the fear that by doing so they are exposing other, more sensitive documents. See Assembly of the State of California v. United States Department of Commerce, 968 F.2d 916, 922 n. 5 (9th Cir.1992); Mobil Oil Corp., 879 F.2d at 701; Mehl, 797 F.Supp. at 47-48. On that basis, we find that the White House’s release of the final report does not waive the privilege in regard to the documents the White House generated in producing the ultimate version. However, the White House has waived its claims of privilege in regard to the specific documents that it voluntarily revealed to third parties outside the White House, namely the final report itself and the typewritten text of document 63, which was sent to Espy’s Counsel. Our review reveals that none of the withheld documents is identical to the final White House Counsel report, that no other withheld document is identical to document 63 and that document 63 has handwritten notations that the White House claims were not on the document sent to Espy’s counsel. Thus, although the White House has waived its privileges regarding the typed text of document 63, the handwritten notations remain subject to our privilege analysis, and if found privileged can be redacted from document 63 before it is released to the grand jury. In sum, with the exception of document 63 we find that the White House has not waived its privileges as to the withheld documents. We therefore proceed to determine the merits of the White House’s claims of privilege. III. The Presidential Communications Privilege Judicial discussion of the presidential communications privilege exploded in the early to mid-1970s when the investigation into the Watergate break-in uncovered the fact that President Nixon had made, and still had in his possession, tape recordings of his conversations in the Oval Office and other locales. This revelation led the Watergate Special Prosecutor to subpoena the tapes for use in the criminal investigation of the break-in. President Nixon asserted the presidential communications privilege in response, and also in several subsequent lawsuits that sought access' to the tapes and other presidential materials generated by his administration. These lawsuits, referred to generically as the Nixon cases, remain a quarter century later the leading — if not the only— decisions on the scope of the presidential communications privilege. We begin our analysis of the White House’s assertion of the presidential privilege in this case by examining in detail the precedent in the Nixon cases. We will then address two specific issues regarding the scope and operation of the privilege presented by this case that are not expressly answered by the earlier decisions: how far down the line of command from the President does the presidential privilege extend, and what kind of demon'stration of need must be shown to justify release to a grand jury of materials that qualify for such a privilege. A. The Nixon Cases and the General Contours of the Presidential Communications Privilege We first addressed President Nixon’s assertion of the presidential privilege over the Watergate tapes in Sirica. Sirica involved a subpoena for nine tapes issued by the grand jury investigating the Watergate break-in. The district' court had ordered President Nixon to produce the tapes for in camera review, and on appeal we affirmed that decision, stating that “application of Executive privilege depends on a weighing of the public interest protected by the privilege against the public interests that would be served by disclosure in a particular .case.” 487 F.2d at 716. We initially recognized a “great public interest” in preserving “the confidentiality of conversations that take place in the President’s performance of his official duties” because such confidentiality is needed to protect “the effectiveness of the executive decision-making process,” as a result, we said, presidential conversations “are presumptively privileged.” Id. at 717. But we further held that this privilege could be overcome by a sufficient showing of need by a grand jury, and ruled that President Nixon’s assertion of privilege “must fail in the face of the uniquely powerful showing made by the Special Prosecutor in this case.” Id. We ordered that the tapes be turned over to the court for in camera review, however, rather than given to the grand jury directly, to ensure that only material relevant to the Watergate inquiry was released. Id. at 719-22. President Nixon did not appeal our decision in Sirica, and thus it was not until a year later, in Nixon, that the question of whether an executive privilege of confidentiality for presidential communications existed reached the Supreme Court. Nixon concerned a subpoena issued by the Watergate Special Prosecutor for additional tapes, this time for use in the pending trial of seven individuals indicted by the Watergate grand jury. In a unanimous opinion, the Court agreed that there was “a presumptive privilege for Presidential communications,” 418 U.S. at 708, 94 S.Ct. at 3107, founded on “a President’s generalized interest in confidentiality.” Id. at 711, 94 S.Ct. at 3109. It found such a privilege necessary to guarantee the candor of presidential advisers and to provide “[a] President and those who assist him ... [with] free[dom] to explore alternatives in the process of shaping policies and making decisions and to do so in a way many would be unwilling to express except privately.” 418 U.S. at 708, 94 S.Ct. at 3107. Although not expressly provided for in the Constitution, the privilege nonetheless has constitutional origins; it is “inextricably rooted in the separation of powers under the Constitution,” id., and also “flow[s] from the nature of enumerated powers” of the President. Id at 705 & n. 16, 94 S.Ct. at 3106 & n. 16. But, the Court insisted, “neither the doctrine of separation of powers, nor the need for confidentiality of high-level communications, without more, can sustain an absolute, unqualified Presidential privilege of immunity from judicial process under all circumstances.” Id. at 706, 94 S.Ct. at 3106. Turning to the precise issue at hand, the Court held that an assertion of executive privilege “based only on the generalized interest in confidentiality .... must yield to the demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial.” Id. at 713, 94 S.Ct. at 3110. The Court remanded for the district court to perform an in camera review in which relevant and admissible evidence in the tapes would be isolated for release to the Special Prosecutor; the confidentiality of non-relevant material on the tapes was to be preserved. On remand, the President was also to be given an opportunity to raise more particularized claims of privilege. Id. at 714-15 & n. 21, 94 S.Ct. at 3110-11 & n. 21. The Nixon Court explicitly limited its ruling to demands for presidential materials relevant to a criminal trial, stating “[w]e are not here concerned with the balance between the President’s generalized interest in confidentiality and the need for relevant evidence in civil litigation, nor with that between the confidentiality interest and congressional demands for information.” Id. at 712 n. 19, 94 S.Ct. at 3109 n. 19. It fell to the remaining Nixon eases to address the scope of the presidential communications privilege in other contexts. In Senate Committee, a deeision that pre-dated Nixon, this court refused to enforce a subpoena for tapes issued by the Senate Committee investigating illegal activities connected to the 1972 election, on the grounds that the Senate Committee had not demonstrated that the tapes were “demonstrably critical to the responsible fulfilment of the Committee’s functions.” 498 F.2d at 731. Subsequently, the Court of Claims held that the presidential communications privilege could be overcome by the evidentiary demands of a civil trial, see Sun Oil Co. v. United States, 206 CT.C1. 742, 514 F.2d 1020, 1024 (Ct.C1.1975), and in Dellums v. Powell this court agreed, holding that an adequate showing of need in a civil trial would also defeat the privilege “at least where, as here, the action is tantamount to a charge of civil conspiracy among high officers of government to deny a class of citizens their constitutional rights and where there has been sufficient evidentiary substantiation to avoid the inference that the demand reflects mere harassment.” 561 F.2d 242, 247 (D.C.Cir.1977); see also Dellums v. Powell, 642 F.2d 1351 (D.C.Cir.1980) (remanding to give President Nixon further opportunity to assert more particularized claims of privilege). The Supreme Court had its next encounter with the presidential communications privilege in Nixon v. Administrator of General Services (GSA), which concerned the operation of the privilege in the context of congressional legislation. Congress enacted the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act (“PRMPA”), which transferred custody of the Nixon tapes along with a vast number of other presidential documents from the Nixon administration to the custody of the General Services Administrator. President Nixon challenged PRMPA as unconstitutional, in part because it infringed on the presidential privilege. The Court first held that a former President could assert the privilege on his own, but his claim would be given less weight than that of an incumbent President. 433 U.S. 425, 449, 97 S.Ct. 2777, 2793, 53 L.Ed.2d 867 (1977). Moreover, it said the privilege was “limited to communications ‘in performance of [a President’s] responsibilities,’ ‘of his office,’ and made ‘in the process of shaping policies and making decisions.’ ” Id. at 449, 97 S.Ct. at 2793 (quoting Nixon) (citations omitted). The Court then noted that the only intrusion into the confidentiality of presidential communications in the case was the screening of the materials by archivists, since the statute provided that the Administrator would promulgate regulations which allowed claims of privilege to be raised before public access occurred. This screening by government archivists who had performed the same task for past Presidents without any apparent interference with presidential confidentiality was viewed by the Court as “a very limited intrusion,” and also as justified in light of the substantial public interests served by the Act. Id. at 450-55, 97 S.Ct. at 2793. The Nixon cases establish the contours of the presidential communications privilege^ The President can invoke the privilege when asked to produce documents or other materials that reflect presidential decisionmaking and deliberations and that the President believes should remain eonfidentiáT) If the President does so, the documents become presumptively privileged. However, the privilege is qualified, not absolute, and can be overcome by an adequate showing of need. If a court believes that an adequate showing of need has been demonstrated, it should then proceed to review the documents in camera to excise non-relevant material. The remaining relevant material should be released. Further, the President should be given an opportunity to raise more particularized claims of privilege if a court rules that the presidential communications privilege alone is not a sufficient basis on which to withhold the document. While the presidential communications privilege and the deliberative process privilege are closely affiliated, the two privileges are distinct and have different scopes. Both are executive privileges designed to protect executive branch decisionmaking, but one applies to decisionmaking of executive officials generally, the other specifically to decisionmaking of the President. The presidential privilege is rooted in constitutional separation of powers principles and the President’s unique constitutional role; the deliberative process privilege is primarily a common law privilege. See Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. at 753 & n. 35, 102 S.Ct. at 2703 & n. 35. Consequently, congressional or judicial negation of the presidential communications privilege is subject to greater scrutiny than denial of the deliberative privilege. See 26A Charles Alan Wright & Kenneth W. Graham, Jr., Federal Practice and Procedure § 5673, at 37; contra Freund, supra, at 20 (commenting that question of whether presidential privilege is rooted in the common law or the Constitution is not “very meaningful,” but not discussing effect different derivation has on congressional power). In addition, unlike the deliberative process privilege, the presidential communications privilege applies to documents in their entirety, and covers final and postdecisional materials as well as pre-deliberative ones. Even though the presidential privilege is based on the need to preserve the President’s access to candid advice, none of the cases suggest that it encompasses only the deliberative or advice portions of documents. Indeed, Nixon argued that the presidential privilege must be qualified to ensure full access to facts in judicial proceedings, thereby assuming that factual material comes under the privilege. 418 U.S. at 709, 94 S.Ct. at 3108; but see Larkin, supra, § 6.01 at 6-1 (asserting, without explanation, that the presidential privilege does not “protect purely factual material”). There is no indication either that the presidential privilege is restricted to pre-decisional materials. GSA cautioned that the privilege only applies to communications made in the process of arriving at presidential decisions, but by this we believe the Court meant that the privilege was limited to materials connected to presidential decisionmaking, as opposed to other executive branch decisionmaking, and not that only pre-decisional materials were covered. 433 U.S. at 449, 97 S.Ct. at 2793. Nor would exclusion of final or post-decisional materials make sense, given the Nixon cases’ concern that the President be given sufficient room to operate effectively. These materials often will be revelatory of the President’s deliberations — as, for example, when the President decides to pursue a particular course of action, but asks his advisers to submit follow-up reports so that he can monitor whether this course of action is likely to be successful. The release of final and postdecisional materials would also limit the President’s ability to communicate his decisions privately, thereby interfering with his ability to exercise control over the executive branch. Finally, while both the deliberative process privilege and the presidential privilege are qualified privileges, the Nixon cases suggest that the presidential communications privilege is more difficult to surmount. In regard to both, courts must balance the public interests at stake in determining whether the privilege should yield in a particular case, and must specifically consider the need of the party seeking privileged evidence. But this balancing is more ad hoc in the context of the deliberative process privilege, and includes consideration of additional factors such as whether the government is a party to the litigation. Moreover, the privilege disappears altogether when there is any reason to believe government misconduct occurred. On the other hand, a party seeking to overcome the presidential privilege seemingly must always provide a focused demonstration of need, even when there are allegations of misconduct by high-level officials. In holding that the Watergate Special Prosecutor had provided a sufficient showing of evidentiary need to obtain tapes of President Nixon’s conversations, the Supreme Court made no mention of the fact that the tapes were sought for use in a trial of former presidential assistants charged with engaging in a criminal conspiracy while in office. Accord Senate Committee, 498 F.2d at 731 (noting .that presidential privilege is not intended to shield governmental misconduct but arguing that showing of need turns on extent to which subpoenaed evidence is necessary for government institution to fulfill its responsibilities, not on type of conduct evidence may reveal); contra 26A Wright & Graham, supra, § 5673, at 53-54 (quoting Senate Committee’s not-a-shield language and arguing that allegations of misconduct qualify the privilege, but not addressing Senate Committee’s comment that need showing turns on function for which evidence is sought and not on conduct revealed by evidence). These differences between the presidential communications privilege and the deliberative privilege demonstrate that the presidential privilege affords greater protection against disclosure. Consequently, should we conclude as to any document that the presidential privilege applies but that the OIC has demonstrated a sufficient showing of need, there is no reason to examine whether the documents also come under the deliberative process privilege. A fortiori, if release is required under the presidential privilege, it will certainly be required under the deliberative process privilege. Hence, we would need to address application of the deliberative process privilege as to any document only if we determine that the withheld document is not subject to the presidential privilege. B. How Far Down the Line Does the Presidential Communications Privilege Go? The withheld documents in this case include materials used in the investigation and formulation of several earlier drafts of the White House Counsel’s report, notes of meetings among White House advisers, and draft press briefings. It is undisputed that none of these documents was actually viewed by the President. As a result, the key issue in this case is whether any, and if so which, of these documents come under the presidential communications privilege. Does the privilege only extend to direct communications with the President, or does it extend further to include communications that involve his chief advisers? And if the privilege does extend past the President, how far down into his circle of advisers does it extend? Most of the Nixon cases involved subpoenas for tapes of conversations in which President Nixon was a participant, and did not call upon the courts to determine whether the presidential privilege also covered communications in which the President did not directly participate. The language used to describe the scope of the privilege in the opinions vacillates between broad and narrow depictions of the privilege. In Nixon the Court referred to “[a] President’s acknowledged need for confidentiality in the communications of his office,” 418 U.S. at 712-13, 94 S.Ct. at 3110 (emphasis added) and elaborated that “[a] president and those who assist him must be free to explore alternatives in the process of shaping policies and making decisions,” id. at 708, 94 S.Ct. at 3107 (emphasis added), suggesting that actual presidential involvement in the communication is not a prerequisite to privilege. See also id. at 705, 94 S.Ct. at 3106 (privilege grounded in the need to protect “communications between high Government officials and those who advise and assist them in the performance of their manifold duties”). But Nixon also uses language that appears to tie the privilege to the President; the opinion repeatedly refers to the privilege as a “privilege of confidentiality of Presidential communications,” id. at 705, 94 S.Ct. at 3106 (emphasis added), and as rooted in “[t]he expectation of a President to the confidentiality of his conversations and correspondence.” Id. at 708, 94 S.Ct. at 3107 (emphasis added). Similar variation can be found in Sirica, which describes the privilege interchangeably as designed to “protect the effectiveness of the executive decision-making process” and as intended to “maintain[ ] the confidentiality of conversations that take place in the President’s performance of his official duties.” 487 F.2d at 717 (emphasis added); see also Dellums, 561 F.2d at 246, 247 (describing the privilege at one point as covering “confidential communications with the President” and at another as “attaching] to the communications, submissions and deliberations essential to the conduct of the office of the [President”). The scope of the presidential communications privilege did arise in GSA and in Sun Oil, but was not decided in either opinion. Many of the documents which PRMPA gave over to GSA custody had never been seen by the President. After remarking that President Nixon could “legitimately assert the Presidential privilege, of course, only as to those materials whose contents fall within the scope of the privilege,” the Court noted that “[o]f the estimated 42 million pages of documents and 880 tape recordings whose custody is at stake, the District Court concluded that the appellant’s claim of Presidential privilege could apply at most to the 200,000 items with which the appellant was personally familiar.” 433 U.S. at 449, 97 S.Ct. at 2793 (emphasis added); see also id. at 454, 97 S.Ct. at 2795-96 (only a “small fraction of the materials ... implicate Presidential confidentiality”). Since, however, the Court found that the public interests served by PRMPA were sufficient to overcome the presidential communications privilege, it never had to decide which materials came under the privilege. The three-member district court that upheld the statute had explicitly commented that it need not consider “whether the privilege that attaches to presidential communications extends to communications never directly received by the President but rather channelled in a variety of ways to him or his advisers,” because it believed the statute would be constitutional “even if a large proportion of the materials falling within the Act were thought protected.” Nixon v. Administrator of General Servs., 408 F.Supp. 321, 345 n. 29 (D.D.C.1976). The same situation occurred in Sun Oil, which involved a •claim of presidential communications privilege over memoranda that circulated between two presidential aides. The Court of Claims never discussed whether the memoranda actually came under the privilege, but rather assumed the privilege applied and held that even so the memoranda should be released because the plaintiffs had made out a sufficient showing of need. 514 F.2d at 1022, 1024. A case that did directly touch on the question of how far down the line the presidential communications privilege extends was Association of American Physicians and Surgeons v. Clinton (AAPS). AAPS involved an effort to enjoin President Clinton’s Task Force on National Health Care Reform and its subgroups from meeting unless they complied with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). In holding that FACA’s exemption for advisory groups composed solely of officers or employees of the government applied to the Task Force even though it was chaired by the President’s wife, Hillary Rod-ham Clinton, this court commented that an interpretation of FACA as covering a Task Force that reports directly to the President might well represent an unconstitutional intrusion on the presidential communications privilege. This privilege, we argued, “attaches not only to direct communications with the President, but also to discussions between his senior advisers[, who] ... must be able to hold confidential meetings to discuss advice they secretly will render to the President.” 997 F.2d 898, 909 (D.C.Cir.1993). But in AAPS this court did not actually rule on the scope of the privilege, or determine whether the public interests underlying FACA justified interference with the privilege, since it found that “a strong argument” could be made for exempting the Task Force based on the statutory text. Id. at 905. There are acknowledgedly strong arguments in favor of holding that the presidential communications privilege applies to only those communications that directly involve the President. This approach comports with the principle that “the President’s unique status under the Constitution distinguishes him from other executive officials,” Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. at 750, 102 S.Ct. at 2701, particularly in separation of powers analysis. See Wetlaufer, supra, at 901-02. The Constitution after all vests the executive power not in the executive branch, but in the President; it is the President who, as “the chief constitutional officer of the Executive branch, [is] entrusted with supervisory and policy responsibilities of the utmost discretion and sensitivity.” Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. at 750, 102 S.Ct. at 2701. Nixon identified the President’s Article II powers and responsibilities as the constitutional basis of the presidential communications privilege. 418 U.S. at 705 & n. 16, 94 S.Ct. at 3106 & n. 16. Since the Constitution assigns these responsibilities to the President alone, arguably the privilege of confidentiality that derives from them also should be the President’s alone. The uniqueness of the President has frequently led courts to recognize that the President enjoys more extensive privileges than other executive branch officers. For example, the President is absolutely immune from damages liability for official acts, but presidential aides receive only qualified immunity. Compare Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. at 749-54, 102 S.Ct. at 2701-03, with Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 808-13, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2732-36, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982); see also Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 520-24, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2812-14, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985) (holding whether an executive official receive absolute immunity depends on the function the official was performing when she engaged in the actions being challenged). In Franklin the Court emphasized that the separation of powers concerns that arise when the President is personally subjected to judicial process are not implicated when a court exercises jurisdiction over other executive branch officials. 505 U.S. at 801-02, 112 S.Ct. at 2775-76. And in In re Kessler, this court recently rejected the claim that because the President is allowed to appeal a discovery order without being held in contempt the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration should be able to do so as well, noting that “for purposes of separation of powers, the President stands in an entirely different position than other members of the executive branch.” 100 F.3d 1015, 1017 (D.C.Cir.1996). An additional reason to restrict the presidential communications privilege to direct communications with the President is the general rule, underscored by the Supreme Court in Nixon, that privileges should be narrowly construed: “exceptions to the demand for every man’s evidence are not lightly created nor expansively construed, for they are in derogation of the search for truth.” 418 U.S. at 710, 94 S.Ct. at 3108; accord Jaffee v. Redmond, — U.S. -, -, —-, 116 S.Ct. 1923, 1932, 1933, 135 L.Ed.2d 337 (1996) (Scalia, J., dissenting); Trammel v. United States, 445 U.S. 40, 50, 100 S.Ct. 906, 912, 63 L.Ed.2d 186 (1980); In Re Grand Jury Subpoena Duces Tecum, 112 F.3d 910, 918 (8th Cir.1997). The argument for a narrow construction is particularly strong in cases like this one where the public’s ability to know how its government is being conducted is at stake. In performing his constitutional duties the President may obtain advice and assistance from a broad array of executive officials — cabinet officers, employees in the Executive Office of the President, and agency staff with special expertise, as well as individuals whose sole function in the White House is to provide the President with advice and assistance. See, e.g., Meyer v. Bush, 981 F.2d 1288, 1293-94 (D.C.Cir.1993) (holding President’s Task Force on Regulatory Relief was intended only to advise and assist the President and was not subject to FOIA, even though the Task Force included cabinet officers as members). Indeed, it has been publicly noted that the parts of the executive branch which “directly report[] to the President ha[ve] grown dramatically in the past few decades,” Peter M. Shane, Legal Disagreement and Negotiation in a Government of Laws: The Case of Executive Privilege Claims Against Congress, 71 Minn. L. Rev. 461, 463 (1987); see also Thomas E. Cronin, The State of the Presidency 243-47 (2d ed.1980) (discussing growth of White House staff and its effects). Extending presidential privilege to the communications of presidential advisers not directly involving the President inevitably creates the risk that a broad array of materials in many areas of the executive branch will become “sequesterfed]” from public view. Wolfe, 815 F.2d at 1533. President Nixon’s attempt to invoke presidential privilege to prevent release of evidence indicating that high level executive officers engaged in illegal acts is perhaps the starkest example of potential for abuse of the privilege. And openness in government has always been thought crucial to ensuring that the people remain in control of their government. According to James Madison, [a] popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. Letter from James Madison to W.T. Barry (Aug. 4,1822), in 9 Writings of James Madison 103 (GaiJlard Hunt, ed.1910); see also Soucie, 448 F.2d at 1080 (In enacting FOIA, “Congress recognized that the public cannot make intelligent decisions without [adequate] information, and that governmental institutions become unresponsive to public needs if knowledge of their activities is denied to the people and their representatives”). The very reason that presidential communications deserve special protection, namely the President’s unique powers and profound responsibilities, is simultaneously the very reason why securing as much public knowledge of presidential actions as is consistent with the needs of governing is of paramount importance. But a very powerful case can also be made for extending the presidential communications privilege beyond those materials with which the President is “personally familiar,” and at the end of the day we find the arguments for a limited extension of the privilege beyond the President to his immediate advisers more convincing. Nixon does not specifically establish how far down the chain of command the presidential communication privilege extends, but it does make absolutely clear that the privilege itself is rooted in the need for confidentiality to ensure that presidential decisionmaking is of the highest caliber, informed by honest advice and full knowledge. Confidentiality is what ensures the expression of “candid, objective, and even blunt or harsh opinions” and the comprehensive exploration of all policy alternatives before a presidential course of action is selected. See Nixon, 418 U.S. at 708, 94 S.Ct. at 3107-08; see also GSA, 433 U.S. at 449, 97 S.Ct. at 2793. Several commentators have argued that presidential advisers may not be as likely to “temper candor with a concern for appearances and for their own interests to the detriment of the decisionmaking process,” Nixon, 418 U.S. at 705, 94 S.Ct. at 3106, as the Supreme Court feared. See, e.g., Wetlaufer, supra, at 886-90; 26A Wright & Miller, supra, § 5673 at 38-39. But — even if we were free to ignore Nixon, which we are not — we are not so sanguine that presidential advisers will never be dissuaded from expressing unpopular but correct opinions out of a fear of disclosure, or that able individuals will not shrink from assuming a position as presidential adviser in the first place if by doing so they step unprotected into the limelight. And the critical role that confidentiality plays in ensuring an adequate exploration of alternatives cannot be gainsaid. If presidential advisers must assume they will be held to account publicly for all approaches that were advanced, considered but ultimately rejected, they will almost inevitably be inclined to avoid serious consideration of novel or controversial approaches to presidential problems. Presidential advisers do not explore alternatives only in conversations with the President or pull their final advice to him out of thin air — if they do, their advice is not likely to be worth much. Rather, the most valuable advisers will investigate the factual context of a problem in detail, obtain input from all others with significant expertise in the area, and perform detailed analyses of several different policy options before coming to closure on a recommendation for the Chief Executive. The President himself must make decisions relying substantially, if not entirely, on the information and analysis supplied by advisers. “Even the most sensitive issues of national security must be brought to the point of presidential decision by staff, who assemble data and views, and then winnow and shape them for the President.” Peter L. Strauss, The Place of Agencies in Government: Separation of Powers and the Fourth Branch, 84 Colum. L. Rev. 573, 661 (1984). In the vast majority of cases, few if any of the documents advisers generate in the course of their o