Dan Froomkin: Countless White House E-Mails Deleted (WP, 4/12)

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/04/12/BL2007041200941.html

Countless White House E-Mails Deleted

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, April 12, 2007; 11:24 AM

Countless e-mails to and from many key White House staffers have been deleted -- lost to history and placed out of reach of congressional subpoenas -- due to a brazen violation of internal White House policy that was allowed to continue for more than six years, the White House acknowledged yesterday.

The leading culprit appears to be President Bush's enormously influential political adviser Karl Rove, who reportedly used his Republican National Committee-provided Blackberry and e-mail accounts for most of his electronic communication.

Until 2004, all e-mail on RNC accounts was routinely deleted after 30 days. Since 2004, White House staffers using those accounts have been able to save their e-mail indefinitely -- but have also been able to delete whatever they felt like deleting. By comparison, the White House e-mail system preserves absolutely everything forever, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.

The White House yesterday said it has no idea how many e-mails have been lost.

In an afternoon conference call with reporters, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel spread the blame all around. "White House policy did not give clear enough guidance," he said. "The oversight of that wasn't aggressive enough." And individual White House staffers "did not do a good enough job of following existing preservation policy -- or seeking guidance."

Said Stanzel: "I guess the bottom line is that our policy at the White House was not clear enough for employees."

more...

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Another admission that those in this administration have absolutely no idea how to run a government.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. They have a very good idea how to run a government

It's an evil idea, but they know how to do it. They also believe they'll get away with it, and I'm not yet convinced they're wrong.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. I should have said 'a democratic, open government'!

[DCKit]

4. Or that the laws specifically written to cover these circumstances apply only to Democrats

Rove, Cheney and the others, vets (and I use the term in jest) of four decades in politics, much of that IN the WH didn't know what they were doing???? I'm offended they think we're actually that stupid.

[Blackhatjack]

5. This comes on the heels of their assurance that all the RNC emails had been preserved...

I guess they just needed more time to make sure they had deleted all the incriminating emails before turning over their responses to Leahy and his committee.