CREW: WH Violated Presidential Records Act -Used OUTSIDE E-MAIL To Evade Responsibility In Purge

[kpete]

Did White House staffers violate Presidential Records Act by using outside e-mail addresses to conduct business?
Submitted by CREW on 15 March 2007 - 2:06pm. Bush Administration | Jack Abramoff | Justice Department | Susan Ralston
Did they? That's what CREW wants to know.

White House staffers who dealt with with Jack Abramoff and the U.S. Attorney firings sent e-mails from outside addresses linked to the Republican National Committee (RNC) to circumvent the mandatory record-keeping system. Today, CREW sent a letter to Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), asking for an investigation into whether the White House has violated its mandatory record-keeping obligation under the Presidential Records Act (PRA).

Our letter to Chairman Waxman and the accompanying documents can be found here.
http://www.citizensforethics.org/press/newsrelease.php?view=214

One email released by the House Judiciary Committee earlier this week, sent to Justice Department Chief of Staff D. Kyle Sampson from J. Scott Jennings, White House Deputy Political Director, uses an email account, [e-mail], on a server owned by the Republican National Committee. This raises serious questions about whether the White House was trying to deliberately evade its responsibilities under the PRA, which directs the president to take all necessary steps to maintain presidential records to provide a full accounting of all activities during his tenure.

This isn't the first time. A number of other emails from Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove's former assistant Susan Ralston to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff document Ms. Ralston's use of three outside domains: rnchq.com (used for the headquarters of the Republican National Committee), georgebush.com and aol.com. In many of these emails Ms. Ralston is communicating inside White House information to Mr. Abramoff in response to Mr. Abramoff's efforts to broker deals for his clients and place specified individuals in positions within the administration.

CREW has learned that to fulfill its statutory obligations under the PRA, the White House email system automatically copies all messages created by staff and sends them to the White House Office of Records Management for archiving. Given these development, it now appears that the White House deliberately bypassed the automatic archiving function of its own email system that was designed to ensure compliance with the PRA.

Melanie Sloan summed up CREW's position:
more at:
http://blog.citizensforethics.org/node/718

[Breeze54]

1. I was wondering

what that gwb.com was, when I read those e-mails!

http://www.judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/DOJdocsPt3070313.pdf

:kick: & R'd

[NewJeffCT]

2. but, if it was all legitimate

why did they need to use outside email?

:sarcasm:

[formercia]

3. RICO n/t

[ncteechur]

10. Yes, RICO--shoudn't the FBI (I know, I Know) be advised to investigate?

[Supersedeas]

4. Nothing to see here: Feed them more sweaty hairy images of KSM, right Abrams?

[merh]

5. And all of those records - the ones of the private outside mail

source are not protected by Executive Priviledge, they should subpoena the whole lot of them.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

7. Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! too clever by half. nt.

[guruoo]

18. They can hardly claim national security as an excuse, either -n/t

[Starfury]

21. Not to mention they've all been copied and stored for us by AT&T...

[Morgana LaFey]

6. Excellent, excellent

These people are on the ball.

[Blackhatjack]

8. Mark this day, THIS IS BIG BIG BIG !!!!!! Now send the Repub Natl Committee A Subpoena...

Ok now the door is open.... Waxman needs to send the Republican National Committee a subpoena and a letter demanding that they preserve all communications utilizing their email system for Congressional review.

Boy oh Boy, we are going to get to look inside the heart of the beast ... can you imagine what we will find there. And this is all legitimate.

This is about as significant as it gets. This will connect a lot of dots .... and may just bring down this ADministration.

[Supersedeas]

26. hiding from history--filthy Repig weasels

[Gwerlain]

33. Shut up before they start deleting it!

;)

[blogslut]

9. And, being that the email addresses were registered to the RNC

Isn't that some sort of conflict of interest?

[Blackhatjack]

11. This needs to get to the Greatest Page -- K & R .....

[Kingofalldems]

12. As I said on another thread--Will Mr. Fitzgerald have any interest

in this? I would think so.

[progressoid]

13. Nope.

His investigations are done. He has said so publicly, "I do not expect to file any further charges, the investigation was inactive prior to the trial," the Chicago-based federal attorney who led the prosecution said. "We're all going back to our day jobs."

[merh]

14. kick

& recommended

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

15. Impound that email server, now. BIG K & R!

That drip...drip..drip is getting louder evey minute.

[Jack Rabbit]

16. Impeach. Indict. Imprison.

[loudsue]

17. Can somebody pass the butter for the popcorn? This is getting good!

K & R

This DEFINITELY looks like RICO.

:kick:

[merh]

22. and gonzales has already lied to congress

seems that mail fraud is a given too.

scheme to defraud the citizens of the honest services of the lawfully appointed prosecutors.

:popcorn:

[ClayZ]

19. Ah Ha! Pass the popcorn! K and R

:popcorn:

[bananarepublican]

20. K&R! 'Hide the Whitehouse e-mail sausage', spy on the American 'fodder-units'! n/t

[Heywood J]

23. Someone needs to keep a comprehensive list

of everything coming out, to present to Representatives as reasons for impeachment. They can't ignore it if we bury them in paperwork.

[wildflowergardener]

24. emails

Wouldn't that be something, if they got caught because of their own practice of tracking everyone's emails?

Meg

[BuyingThyme]

25. I think they've got it backwards.

The reason they're using an RNC server is because the RNC is running the White House (including the Justice Department, maybe the NSA, perhaps the FBI...).

[intheflow]

27. It's hard to believe the same people who want to limit everyone else's access

to the Internet feel free to circumvent and manipulate it for their own devious purposes. On second thought, given this corrupt administration, it's not hard to believe at all. :(

K&R

*On edit: I have to remember to use that spell check button more often!

[Buttercup McToots]

28. Geeesez

Waxman!!!
He's the busiest guy in town!

:bounce:

[Blackhatjack]

29. Significance here is that the RNC was a willing participant w/WH to evade the law...

So the RNC has no defense to subpoenoes for their records, ALL THEIR EMAIL RECORDS, and subpoenoes for top individuals with knowledge to testify before Congressional Committees investigating this matter.

I said it before, and it has been alluded to by several online posters, there is a WHITE HOUSE INSIDER feeding the incriminating information to the DEMs and the press. Must be driving Bush/Cheney/Rove crazy trying to ID that person, while keeping that search quiet.

Those RNC emails will likely give us a clear view into what the WH was really doing since they never thought these emails would become public.

[DemReadingDU]

30. Indeed, who is leaking out all these emails!

[Blackhatjack]

31. There is no doubt an 'insider' in the WHite House feeding this outside...

Bush likely has made so many enemies in mistreating the very people he put in place that someone has had enought and is feeding the information to the press.

People just do not appreciate how damaging this revelation is that shows the WHite House used the RNC email system to break the law on preservation of White House/Presidential records.

When you get inside the RNC AND the WHITE HOUSE, you will begin to see how corrupt and evil these actions have been.

[DemReadingDU]

32. Yeh, an insider!

Someone is definitly risking a lot to do this.

But nary a peep about the link between the RNC and White House on the TV news. The media is still controlled by the right wing :(


edit to add: my spouse hadn't heard about gwb43.com on TV yet until I sent him this link
http://www.citizensforethics.org/press/newsrelease.php?view=214