Missing: RNC E-Mails of White House Officials

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Mon Jun 18, 2007 at 07:28:20 PM EST
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The House Oversight Committee has issued a report finding that e-mails of White House officials who used their RNC account are missing.

E-mail records are missing for 51 of the 88 White House officials who had electronic message accounts with the Republican National Committee, the House Oversight Committee said Monday.

The Bush administration may have committed "extensive" violations of a law requiring that certain records be preserved, said the committee's Democratic chairman, adding that the panel will deepen its probe into the use of political e-mail accounts.

The full report is here (pdf). Dan Froomkin has some highlights:

More...

There has been extensive destruction of the e-mails of White House officials by the RNC. Of the 88 White House officials who received RNC e-mail accounts, the RNC has preserved no e-mails for 51 officials.... In addition, there are major gaps in the e-mail records of the 37 White House officials for whom the RNC did preserve e-mails. The RNC has preserved only 130 e-mails sent to Mr. Rove during President Bush's first term and no e-mails sent by Mr. Rove prior to November 2003. . . .

" .... There is evidence that the Office of White House Counsel under Alberto Gonzales may have known that White House officials were using RNC e-mail accounts for official business, but took no action to preserve these presidential records."

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Missing: RNC E-Mails of White House Officials | 9 comments (9 topical)

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Heh. ;-) (5.00 / 1) (#8)
by Edger on Tue Jun 19, 2007 at 04:56:29 AM EST

I guess no one clicked the link...

Deja vu (none / 0) (#1)
by Al on Mon Jun 18, 2007 at 07:55:55 PM EST

This is beginning to sound more and more like the Nixon tapes.

why, why, why?? (none / 0) (#2)
by profmarcus on Mon Jun 18, 2007 at 08:13:38 PM EST

why are these people still in office...? why haven't we stormed the white house with rakes and hoes, buckets of tar and sacks of feathers, and run the entire lot of them out of town on a rail...?

And, yes, I DO take it personally

Presidential Records Act not criminal statute (none / 0) (#3)
by magster on Mon Jun 18, 2007 at 08:23:06 PM EST

Someone needs to tie this in to a criminal obstruction of justice statute before this aspect of the story really gets going.

A conscious choice (none / 0) (#4)
by riddlerandy on Mon Jun 18, 2007 at 09:17:33 PM EST

It appears that someone made the calcuation that it would be better to face possible punishment for destroying emails than face the consequences of making those emails public

Rove is not a happy guy (none / 0) (#5)
by Edger on Mon Jun 18, 2007 at 09:35:47 PM EST

The RNC has preserved only 130 e-mails sent to Mr. Rove during President Bush's first term and no e-mails sent by Mr. Rove prior to November 2003. . .

Mr. Rove spent many painful hours regretting the tragedy. "If he had hair, he would have pulled it out," said Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney. "He was fit to be tied."
"Those emails are now missing?!?" Rove reportedly said in astonishment yesterday.

Astonishment? (none / 0) (#7)
by FaulknA on Tue Jun 19, 2007 at 12:11:10 AM EST

I doubt it. In fact, I'd bet money that he knew all along. It will be a cold day in Hell before I believe anything this piece of excrement says


: Well... a bit more than ::astonishment:: (none / 0) (#9)
by Edger on Tue Jun 19, 2007 at 05:09:46 AM EST

Rove then demanded to know who the h___ deleted them and was "absolutely crestfallen" to learn that he had done so.
"I was just trying to tidy up my electronic desktop," he sobbed.

Rove Doesn't Even Have His Lawyer Around (none / 0) (#6)
by Jeralyn on Mon Jun 18, 2007 at 10:16:00 PM EST

The Wapo reports Luskin is trying a case in France.