GWB43.com, AttorneyGate and Federal Records Requirements

[maddezmom]

GWB43.com, AttorneyGate and Federal Records Requirements
Last week, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) has asked Congress to investigate White House staff use of "gwb43.com" e-mail addresses while conducting official government business. (tip) The domain name is owned by the Republican National Committee (see a screenshot of whois registry info) and was probably created as a means for staffers to have e-mail conversations about the 2004 election while at work (bypassing the prohibited White House mail servers).
What's fascinating is that staff continued to use this address long after the election -- and for government business. For example, J. Scott Jennings, White House Deputy Political Director, used his account at gwb43.com to communicate with Justice Department Chief of Staff D. Kyle Sampson about the firing of eight US attorneys.

CREW -- and others, including me -- wonder if this was a deliberate attempt to evade the Presidential Records Act (PRA). Interestingly, according to the National Journal (reported in the WaPo), Karl Rove "does 'about 95 percent' of his e-mailing using his RNC-based account."

It's hard to imagine someone arguing, with a straight face, that communications on a political mail server can be construed as "privileged." But expect it to happen.

The use of outside e-mail accounts is not confined to AttorneyGate. CREW notes that Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove’s former assistant Susan Ralston used three private e-mail accounts -- rnchq.com (headquarters of the Republican National Committee), georgebush.com (re-election campaign) and aol.com -- to communicate with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Many of the mails, according to CREW, provide "inside White House information to Mr. Abramoff in response to Mr. Abramoff’s efforts to broker deals for his clients and place specified individuals in positions within the administration."

more:http://uspolitics.about.com/b/a/208051.htm

[formercia]

1. I wonder if Junior will claim executive privilege on the sites.

this is about to get interesting.

[Senator]

2. There is No "After the Election"

Only "before the next election."

This is all about Stealing the Election in 2008.

--

[ClayZ]

3. K and R....Hopefully that will be dificult for them to do,

FROM JAIL!

[bobthedrummer]

4. The case brought against Mr. Cheney and his National Energy Policy Development Group

(NEPDG) after continual refusals to release requested documents to the GAO may be another Rosetta Stone of corruption within the Bush administration.

The GAO did take Mr. Cheney and his NEPDG to US District Court in DC less than a week before the September 11, 2001 attacks.

With all the public interest about various probable corruption networks within this administration the NEPDG case should be reopened.

Here's a parent thread about the NEPDG case with links to many other probable corruption issues. This thread is now archived-it was started a week ago.

NEPDG DU collaborative investigation thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x440721

[bobthedrummer]

5. House Oversight Committee: The Abramoff Investigation-White House contacts

these were known then: Karl Rove, Susan Bonzon Ralston, Barry Jackson, Ken Mehlman, Ruben Barrales, Jennifer Farley.
http://oversight.house.gov/abramoff/index2.asp

There's a lot more suspects tonight.

[L. Coyote]

6. Do any Black Hole IPs show up in all this? n/t