Driving on a small island 12 miles off the coast of Maine recently (its year-round population hovering around 400 people), I passed a hand-drawn sign nailed to an electricity post. “RELEASE THE FILES.” The sign made me smile – something about the easy transferability of its three-word appeal, over time, over successive presidential administrations, over various scandals. Its brevity left other questions open, like why release, or release for whose sake? And, which files exactly? This was not a sign capable of offending or readily dividing opinion. And yet, despite its simple message and its pronounced distance from Washington, DC…

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