Yoo: It's Not the Crime, It's the Coverup--I Know a Thing or Two About Missing E-mails

[kpete]

Yoo: It's Not the Crime, It's the Coverup--I Know a Thing or Two About Missing E-mails Hotlist
by Jesselyn Radack
Sat Feb 27, 2010 at 05:32:00 AM PST

"Missing e-mails" are the common denominator of every single Bush-era scandal, from the authoring of the torture memos to the U.S. Attorney Massacre. Since the Justice Department has proven itself absolutely unwilling and unable to police itself, an independent prosecutor or investigative body, with subpoena power, needs to conduct a criminal inquiry into the systematic destruction of evidence and obstruction of justice--namely, "missing e-mails."

It's a CRIME. See 18 U.S.C. § 2510, specifically § 2517. Senator Leahy made this point at yesterday's poorly-attended Senate Judiciary Committee hearing (4 senators at a "Full Committee" hearing) into the the Justice Department's shoddy investigation into the torture memos. BTW, why didn't they subpoena Margolis' ass since he was the man-behind-the-curtain who overrode the entire OPR Report and the most relevant witness? Or Yoo and Bybee?

I know a thing or two about missing e-mails: they never really disappear. The Justice Department has been using this lame excuse since they first pulled it in the case of "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh on which I blew the whistle because critical e-mails "disappeared" in contravention of a federal court order. Even back then (2002), I was able to resurrect the e-mails.

...............

"Missing e-mails" sounds so innocuous, so accidental (the sole witness at yesterday's hearing, Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler, said the whitewash ethics report "does not suggest there is anything nefarious.") But in case anyone needs further evidence of the bad faith here, consider that the Justice Department didn't bother to notify the National Archives--whose very mission is to collect such information--before OPR's ethics report was released last week. If John Yoo, Alberto Gonzales and countless others have benefited from curiously and mysteriously missing e-mails that document their role in criminal wrongdoing, then there needs to be some independent intervention. Because all of the bad actors have skated on their actual crimes, we can still give meaning to the old adage that "it's not the crime, but the cover-up" that will ultimately get them.

more:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/2/27/841265/-Yoo:-Its-Not-the-Crime,-Its-the-CoverupI-Know-a-Thing-or-Two-About-Missing-E-mails

[pleah]

1. K&R

[noise]

2. Radack makes a good point about the missing witnesses

If the Senate Judiciary Committee truly cares about representing the public then they must have the officials involved show up to explain their conduct.

[bertman]

11. Missing witnesses?? How about the MISSING SENATORS? Those assholes were staying as

far away from an investigation into BushCo as they could get. They didn't want to be accused of holding an Executive Branch member accountable of ANYTHING.

[rhett o rick]

3. k & r

[formercia]

4. K&R n/t

[annabanana]

5. "missing emails" is the "dog ate my homework" for the DOJ.

If we fall for it.. or if we allow the DoJ to appear to fall for it, we are not doing our job.

[noise]

6. This is not acceptable conduct

at all. It doesn't matter if the Democratic party lacks the will to do their job. By that I mean that I'm not buying the line that suggests this is all on the DOJ. The SJC has oversight responsibility which doesn't entail ceding their power to a jerk like Margolis.

[Hissyspit]

7. kick nt

[Hubert Flottz]

8. Now Now...

Don't look back...

[SpiralHawk]

9. k and r

eom

[DisgustedInMN]

10. I'm not holding my breath...

.. waiting for Team Obama's justice dept to do the right thing on any of the war crimes committed by BushCo. As far as I can see, Barack Obama has chosen to endorse the evil by pretending it didn't happen.

[bertman]

12. A kick for exposure. Thanks, kpete. nt

[Hekate]

13. Kick

:-(

[proReality]

14. Kick n/t