(Waxman) Committee Directs RNC to Preserve White House Emails

[sabra]

Source: House Oversight Committee

Citing evidence that senior White House officials are using RNC and other political email accounts to avoid leaving a record of official communications, Chairman Waxman directs the Republican National Committee and the Bush-Cheney ’04 Campaign to preserve the emails of White House officials and to meet with Committee staff to explain how the accounts are managed and what steps are being taken to protect the emails from destruction and tampering.

Read more: http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1225

[mod mom]

1. I bet their are a few people sweating over this. GOOD!

[Kablooie]

44. Yeah, they're probably sweating but that just makes them more slippery.

No seems to be able to catch ANY of the big fish.
Just the little guppies that aren't as agile.

Damn, I wish SOMETHING BIG would break soon.
I really feel the Bushies have so many tricks up their sleeves that
the Dems won't ever be able to unmask them.

[John Q. Citizen]

2. From the blogesphere to the House oversight committee. Nice!

[wordpix]

23. exactly, some higher-ups and their staffs are reading us here at DU

:hi:

[Morgana LaFey]

35. Well, it's not like they couldn't have figured it out on their own

I hope you're right 'cause there's a lot that gets discovered and known here, but it isn't exactly secret from the document dump...!

[dkofos]

3. This should piss some people off

Good for you Henry!!

[gratuitous]

4. Those e-mails are prima facie evidence of a crime

The law is pretty strict on this point, and was enacted for precisely this instance: Official government business is to be transacted on official government domains and servers, not private ones. The mere fact that these e-mails originated and were passed along through RNC and other political e-mail accounts is prima facie evidence that a crime has been committed.

And just as a motorist who crosses the center line might draw the attention of an alert traffic cop, whatever else ensues from stopping the vehicle and chatting with the driver, all results in prosecutable offenses.

[never cry wolf]

9. By the same token, it is a bit confusing

While government business must be on government domains, political business may not be conducted on these domains. Therefore I see the need for both, even realizing that everything this admin does is political. It is a very blurry line theoretically although in this case I am sure that outside servers were used to avoid the archiving.

Even if the separation were kept pure, official government business only conducted on government servers and private political business only conducted on RNC servers was the political business conducted on the government's time using their equipment and facilities?

:shrug:

[gratuitous]

22. I think the argument answers itself

The appointment of U.S. Attorneys is clearly a function of the Department of Justice, and as such should be considered official government business, into which political considerations are not supposed to enter (ha, ha). The DOJ of course consults with the White House, but that too is part of the official business of government, not to be subject to political considerations. After all, U.S. Attorneys are not just U.S. Attorneys for Republicans, but for all Americans in a federal judicial district. Just like the President, whether he's a Democrat or a Republican, is supposed to be the President for all Americans.

[Roy]

31. Tony Snow would disagree....

I'm sure I heard the statement from him and others that "the president is supposed to represent the people who elected him."

I said to myself upon hearing this "that this is the very thinking that got them thrown out of power and many of them and hopefully more to come thrown in jail."

It is amazing that they actually do believe this crap and have the audacity to attempt to convince others that it is true.

[gratuitous]

33. Another point (swiped from TPM)

Another point, that I just swiped from Talking Points Memo, is that if White House personnel were sending and receiving e-mails on non-governmental accounts, that means that either they were (1) conducting official business on that server (a crime); or (B) using the server for non-official business, and whatever they did on that server isn't covered by executive privilege.

JMM opines that Rove and his pals may have been just a bit too clever for their own good. I agree.

[Canuckistanian]

42. They can't have it both ways

Either they claim "executive privilege" or they cop to a plea of obstruction.

Either way, it's bad news for Shrub.

[gratuitous]

43. Yeah, I think they've tripped over their own lies

And now, like Q-bert on the last level, it's just a jump down, with the little screech and the sickening splat.

[The Wizard]

5. Waxman already has the emails

The Administration will run into this trap denying anything exists. Lying to Congress is an impeachable offense.
The only people worried about being under oath and with a transcript are those who are culpable.

[Hepburn]

14. IMO......

...seems to me you are totally correct.

[Epiphany4z]

19. Gee do ya think

they will need a warrant to get the e mails?

[caledesi]

30. Waxman does NOT have all the emails. Some were through

AOL and the like. He knows this and that is why is trying to hunt them down.

[Jackpine Radical]

40. Really? Waxman has the gwb43 emails? The whole bunch?

In that case, the corporate media no longer matter. We can recruit a million people to go nailing up broadsides on the lamp posts. We can get the word out one way or another, once we have the rats securely wrapped up.

[soothsayer]

6. damn this is getting good!

[DemReadingDU]

7. WooHoo!

:woohoo:

[msongs]

8. don't you delete most emails? we do here. funny that politicos would save theirs

if they are on private servers and NOT on the government's accounts.

Msongs
www.youtube.com/videos/msongs

[Lochloosa]

16. You think you delete emails.

Most likely they are still recoverable from your hard drive.

That's how pedophiles get caught. They think they have deleted their photos from their computer, till they take it to someone to have it worked on. If you know what you are doing just about everything is still there.

[Roland99]

25. Or still on the email server (such as if they are using Exchange Server).

I have my own domain and send/receive email that way. I can't imagine my host keeps copies of every SMTP/POP3 message.

[elfin]

10. Waxman is probably too late - BUT

if the correspondence has been destroyed irretrievably - that is also big news. I love Waxman!

[radfringe]

11. beautiful.... WHOO-WHOOO

[Rosa Luxemburg]

12. Excellent!

[hootinholler]

13. About time Henry!

Granted, you do have a boat load o crap to wade through.

-Hoot

[Bandit]

15. Gee sorry we can't give you those e-mails we erased them long ago..

What ya gunna do about it? :middle finger: I miss the middle finger smilie. :shrug:

[L. Coyote]

17. WOW. Abramoff ask for Bush to skew casino deal for political reasons!!

Abramoff writes, "Dammit, ... was not suppoed to go into the WH system"

Talk about blatant consiracy.

Be sure to read this one:

http://oversight.house.gov/Documents/20070326112419-30085.pdf

I smell a real bonfire. It will take a lot more than Nicole to put this one out!!

[caledesi]

37. Just read it. Juicy isn't the word! nt

[EVDebs]

41. Abramoff, CIA, GOP funding ... tick tock, tick tock...

Did U.S. intelligence agencies assist in funneling rivers of cash from suspect defense contractors into the campaign coffers of pro-war Republican lawmakers? Was U.S. taxpayer money secretly used to subvert American democracy ?

Cunningham, Abramoff investigations lead here; was Gonzalez trying to keep this kind of investigation, an obstruction of justice, from carrying on under the current Congress' investigative powers ?

John Dowd, Monica Goodling's attny, might have info on all of this...maybe he should be testifying too. Intell funding channelled into GOP accounts would be quite a bombshell politically. Maybe the Dems would want to head this off at the pass ????

[hootinholler]

18. The Money paragraph...

In addition, the Committee requests that you or your designee meet with Committee staff
during the week of April 2,2007, to discuss the following five matters:
(1) Who has access to the e-mail accounts maintained by the RNC;
(2) What policies, guidance, and procedures govern the use and preservation of the email
accounts maintained bv the RNC that have been used bv White House
officials;
(3) What agreements, if any, has the RNC entered into with the White House, the
National Archives, or other government agencies regarding the e-mail accounts
maintained by the RNC that have been used by White House officials;
(4) What steps have been taken to preserve the e-mail accounts maintained by the
RNC that have been used by White House officials;
(5) What assurance can the RNC provide the Committee that no e-mails involving
official White House business have been destroyed or altered.

-Hoot

[peacetalksforall]

20. I'm confused. There is also the nrsc and the gopsenators. They share

the server with the RNC. There may be more. Why just the RNC?

[peacetalksforall]

21. What about geography - can they be corresponding on political

business on government property and who paid for the berry's and desktops or laptops and who is paying for the 'lines' if they can conduct political business on government property.

What is or where is the dividing line?

Another primer on how our government works.

We used to trust that our representatives were taking care of us.

Now we know that only a few are taking care of us.

Waxman - a representative hero.

[Roland99]

24. This should have been done a week ago!!!!

[emulatorloo]

26. KICK and rec n/t

[Gman]

27. They're writing zeros to the hard drives as we speak

[Robbien]

28. Now to get government emails one has to ask the GOP

scary

[Kurovski]

29. K&R.(nt)

[seafan]

32. This looks like a job for *the good guys* at NSA. *They* have these e-mails.

Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do.... whatcha gonna do when they come for you.....

[Vinca]

34. Question from a technically challenged person.

If any of said emails have "gone missing" (i.e., now at the bottom of the Potomac), are they stored somewhere in cyberspace until the end of time?

[cyberpj]

39. see #16 and #25 above. nt

[Spazito]

36. Oh my, the chickens are beginning to "roost" and they aren't

producing eggs, they're producing evidence. Damn, there is no way my popcorn supplier is going to be able to keep up my demand for the foreseeable future!

[cyberpj]

38. As if they're going to listen to that. How would they even know if tampering was done? nt

[L. Coyote]

45. kick Abramoff in the toosh. n/t