CREW is reporting FIVE MILLION Emails Might Be Lost at White House

[Vinnie From Indy]

"Today, CREW issued a new report, WITHOUT A TRACE: The Missing White House Emails and Violations of the PRA, and made the shocking new disclosure that the Bush White House has lost over FIVE MILLION e-mails in a two year period. The report also details the legal issues behind the growing controversy over the White House e-mail scandal.

Through two confidential sources, CREW learned that the Executive Office of the President (EOP) has lost over FIVE MILLION emails generated between March 2003 and October 2005. The White House counsel’s office was advised of these problems in 2005 and CREW has been told that the White House was given a plan of action to recover these emails, but to date nothing has been done to rectify this significant loss of records."

http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/27603

[HereSince1628]

1. Oh LORDY! If they find them, I'm available to get paid to search them

for the directions to where the skeletons are buried.

Damn. This could be lucrative. Anyone got an LLC organized under literature review?

[crappyjazz]

2. Having trouble with that link

C&L has the same link as well, but the link doesn't work for me ... might be just me though

[Robbien]

5. Wouldn't surprise me that CREW is on a bit of overload this afternoon

they are getting quite a bit of attention with this news release.

[crappyjazz]

8. Good point

I'll try to be patient :)

[EFerrari]

3. Go, CREW!

k&r

[myrna minx]

4. Interesting that the dates are from right before the war and

and through the election the election and up to Libby's indictment. :eyes: NO matter how they'll try to spin this, it really stinks.

[mtnester]

6. I myself have the most technical explanation that is easily understood by everyone for this...

bull....shit


See? I knew I could explain it in easy terms that everyone could understand.

[onecent]

7. Who is CREW?? I'm sorry I'm not familiar with it? Thanks n/t

[Mojambo]

9. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. n/t

[Robbien]

10. CREW is the one who has been doing a lot of the follow up

on so many of the fraud issues of BushCo.

Most of the information we have comes from FOIAs filed by CREW.

It would be a good idea to check out their site. Their blog is one of my daily must reads. Just don't go there right now, it is a real busy day for them.

http://blog.citizensforethics.org/

[AuntPatsy]

12. Have they been ignored all these years when attempting to shine

the light on what has been from the start apparent ethic violations from our nations highest offices, quite a few of them in fact, more than should allow anyone to feel any comfort at all as long as they continue on.

[seafan]

11. Entire press release here, due to high site traffic

No copyright indicated, so will post entire release, due to high site traffic.

CREW RELEASES NEW REPORT - WITHOUT A TRACE: The Missing White House Emails and Violations of the PRA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APRIL 12, 2007



Washington, DC Ñ Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today has released a report, WITHOUT A TRACE: The Missing White House Emails and the Violations of the Presidential Records Act, detailing the legal issues behind the story of the White House e-mail scandal.

In a startling new revelation, CREW has also learned through two confidential sources that the Executive Office of the President (EOP) has lost over five million emails generated between March 2003 and October 2005. The White House counsel's office was advised of these problems in 2005 and CREW has been told that the White House was given a plan of action to recover these emails, but to date nothing has been done to rectify this significant loss of records.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said today, "It's clear that the White House has been willfully violating the law, the only question now is to what extent? The ever changing excuses offered by the administration Ð that they didn't want to violate the Hatch Act, that staff wasn't clear on the law Ð are patently ridiculous. Very convenient that embarrassing Ð and potentially incriminating Ð emails have gone missing. It's the Nixon White House all over again."

WITHOUT A TRACE covers the following areas:

Presidential Records Act (PRA): Enacted in 1978, requires the president to preserve all presidential records, which are defined as those records relating to the "activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that reflect the performance of constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties..."

Clinton Administration Policy: In 1993, then-Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary John Podesta sent a memo to all presidential staff explaining that the PRA required all staff members to maintain all records, including emails. Podesta stated that the use of external email networks was prohibited because records would not be saved as required. The 1997 White House Manual and a 2000 memo issued by Mark Lindsay, then Assistant to the President for Management and Administration echoed this policy, requiring staff to use only the White House email system for official communications.

Bush Administration Policy: The Bush Administration has refused to make public its record-keeping policy. A confidential source provided CREW with a 2002 document indicating the use of "non-EOP messaging-enabled mechanisms should not be used for official business."

Bush Administration Practice: In the wake of the scandals surrounding Jack Abramoff and the fired U.S. Attorneys, emails were released showing that top White House staffers routinely used Republican National Committee (RNC) email accounts to conduct official business. For example, J. Scott Jennings, White House Deputy Political Director, used an RNC account to communicate with the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales regarding the appointments of new U.S. Attorneys. Similarly, Susan Ralston, a former aide to Karl Rove, used RNC email accounts to communicate with Abramoff about appointments to the Department of the Interior.

PRA Violations: 1) The administration failed to implement adequate record-keeping systems to archive presidential email records; 2) two confidential sources independently informed CREW that the administration abandoned a plan to recover more than five million missing emails; 3) White House staff used outside email accounts to conduct presidential business, ensuring that emails were not adequately preserved. In fact, former Abramoff associate Kevin Ring said in an email to Abramoff that Ralston had told him not to send emails to her official White House account "because it might actually limit what they can do to help us, especially since there could be lawsuits, etc."

Hatch Act Excuse: The administration has claimed that Rove, Jennings and other staffers use RNC accounts to avoid violating the Hatch Act. This is untrue. The Hatch Act prohibits White House staff from using official resources for purely "political" purposes. "Political" refers to the president's role as either a candidate for office or as the leader of his party. Email communications regarding presidential appointments for U.S. Attorney and Interior Department positions clearly fall within the PRA as making appointment is an official presidential function and does not relate to the president's role as party leader.

http://www.citizensforethics.org/041207WithoutATraceFullReport.pdf (link to full report)

[Robbien]

15. Thanks. The Hatch Act explanation needs to be announced from the rooftops

These guys are real pieces of work. They try to make the government a one party government and then when caught try to say that we cannot see what they are doing because it is political party work.

And they keep doing it, even today.

[Double T]

13. bush loses EVERYTHING in multiple millions, billions and trillions.........

'WE' can't afford HIM anymore!!

[TahitiNut]

14. They've gone buh-bye with all the unpaired socks and $9 billion.

:eyes: