Did White House staffers violate Presidential Records Act by using outside e-mail addresses to condu

[babylonsister]

http://blog.citizensforethics.org/node/718

Did White House staffers violate Presidential Records Act by using outside e-mail addresses to conduct business?
Submitted by CREW on 15 March 2007

Did they? That's what CREW wants to know.

White House staffers who dealt with with Jack Abramoff and the U.S. Attorney firings sent e-mails from outside addresses linked to the Republican National Committee (RNC) to circumvent the mandatory record-keeping system. Today, CREW sent a letter to Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), asking for an investigation into whether the White House has violated its mandatory record-keeping obligation under the Presidential Records Act (PRA).

Our letter to Chairman Waxman and the accompanying documents can be found here.

One email released by the House Judiciary Committee earlier this week, sent to Justice Department Chief of Staff D. Kyle Sampson from J. Scott Jennings, White House Deputy Political Director, uses an email account, [e-mail], on a server owned by the Republican National Committee. This raises serious questions about whether the White House was trying to deliberately evade its responsibilities under the PRA, which directs the president to take all necessary steps to maintain presidential records to provide a full accounting of all activities during his tenure.

This isn't the first time. A number of other emails from Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove's former assistant Susan Ralston to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff document Ms. Ralston's use of three outside domains: rnchq.com (used for the headquarters of the Republican National Committee), georgebush.com and aol.com. In many of these emails Ms. Ralston is communicating 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.

CREW has learned that to fulfill its statutory obligations under the PRA, the White House email system automatically copies all messages created by staff and sends them to the White House Office of Records Management for archiving. Given these development, it now appears that the White House deliberately bypassed the automatic archiving function of its own email system that was designed to ensure compliance with the PRA.

Melanie Sloan summed up CREW's position:

Now that we know that at least two White House officials have circumvented the law by using alternate email systems to discuss the U.S. Attorney firings and Jack Abramoff, we are asking Chairman Waxman to investigate whether the White House has continually violated its mandatory record-keeping obligation under the Presidential Records Act. This administration continues to disregard the law in favor of agenda-driven politics.

[The Magistrate]

1. On Its Face, Ma'am, It Would Certainly Seem So

[underpants]

2. Oh ho ho ho (huge belly laugh)

I do have to say that I am disappointed I was hoping for a gannonstroker.com email address but then this doesn't mention what Rove was using to break the law.

[Sammy Pepys]

3. Probably not......

Don't know the law intimately, but I have a hard time believing they'd be able to put anything together on that. What if they had talked about stuff like that on their personal cell phones after hours?

[DURHAM D]

4. Seems like it would depend on if they were physically in the

office at the time - for emails, cell phone calls and text messages. Would not be difficult to determine if they were in their office at the time - everything is logged.

[MADem]

6. Yeah, like Gannon's and Abramoff's visits...logged like that? NT

[Sammy Pepys]

7. But government sources, particularly political ones...

...have all sorts of access to outside entities like the party headquarters. In fact, most members of Congress will make fundraising pitches from places like the RNC/DNC....they're prohibited from conducting fundraising business on the grounds of the Capitol. So it wouldn't surprise me too much that folks like Sampson would have alternate emails addresses at places like the RNC.

[MADem]

13. Before "Go To My PC" existed for the civilian sector, I was able to go to mine

in the military. What joy--I could do work on SUNDAY too. It was only available to a very few people, and I was one of the lucky few.

[MADem]

5. I say they did. And they also get around the mandatory screening by having mail sent to the homes

of staffers, who then bring the mail in to work. It's not put on a routing slip, it's not copied for the files, it's not accounted for in any way.

They're keeping two sets of books.

Surprize, surprize, Gomer!

[LiberalFighter]

10. Or maybe they have an office if not the RNC to do their trafficking by email

[MADem]

12. Hell, we have no idea how many YAHOO or HOTMAIL or even free AOL accounts they might have, either NT

[shanti]

8. of course they did

cause they are/were guilty as the day is long and they know it!

[peacetalksforall]

9. I've often thought how these citizen and Legislature betrayals by the WH go

down.

Now, through the Libby stuff, the Attorney stuff, the Abramoff stuff, we're getting a good idea. But nuts, they're going to be shredding like crazy. Think they've hired some illegals at $4.50 an hour to do the work?

There is no line drawn between the RNC, AIPAC, AEI and the WHite House/PNAC.
There is no line drawn between Halliburton and the White House.
THere is no line drawn between right wing corporation tv, papers, mags and the White House.

As to tv - it was reported earlier that the GE/Microsoft, Time-Warner, Murdoch, Disney, etc. have gone silent on the Attorney scandal today.

[redacted]

11. OF COURSE THEY DID!

This investigation will only need about 15 minutes.