White House using secret GOP server instead of .gov????

[mirrera]

This may have been covered on DU, I have been busy and may have missed it. But wow...


--TrustMe.com Original Editorial---
Posted by josephcannon 3 days ago

The White House has its own internal email system, ending in the .gov suffix, as mandated by the Presidential Records Act. The law requires that public business be conducted on a public server.

Yet documents made public in the course of the U.S. Attorney Purge scandal reveal that key Administration figures used such email addresses ending with "gwb43.com."

As Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) notes:

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. It 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.
Karl Rove, we learn, does about 95% of his White House emailing from the RNC-controlled account, even though 100% of his salary is paid for by taxpayers. It is against the law for him to do partisan political work while in the White House. (During the Clinton years, allegations that Al Gore made phone calls to donors from the premises enraged Republican pundits.)

This writer makes the excellent point that the official White House communications channels are "hardened" against interception by foreign intelligence services. Can the same be said about the private RNC servers?

Did prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald know about this bypass when he subpoenaed White House emails pursuant to the Plamegate investigation? If he had, "Scooter" Libby might not have been the only one brought to trial.

We recently learned that Susan Ralston, the former assistant to Karl Rove, used three private e-mail accounts connected to the Republican party to provide "inside White House" information to Abramoff. Would Rove have been implicated in the Abramoff scandal if investigators knew about these "hidden" communications?

more at:
http://www.trustme.com/story.php?title=secret-White-House-comunication-system



http://NoBullshiRt.com

[Olney Blue]

1. Kick.

[liberal N proud]

2. The bu$h regime has worked hard to deceive the American people

It has worked very well for them until recently as many Americans blindly followed them through every disaster they created.
Why would be surprised to find the these criminals have yet another secret? I would guess that they have many more yet to be discovered and one day when they are all uncovered, it will make a great History Channel documentary.

"Living through the fall of another great empire."

[rodeodance]

3. yes, and with little governing as a result!

[rodeodance]

4. K and R

[Dr.Phool]

5. K&R

Fitzgerald should show up with US Marshalls and a search warrant to sieze the server.

[L. Coyote]

6. Email-Gate FACTS: Felons, georgewbush.com, gwb43.com , et. al.

Summation of this issue, DU posts, articles, much more:
Email-Gate FACTS: Felons, georgewbush.com, gwb43.com , et. al.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x523978

=======

This is a significant commentary. ALSO in part: "After one Abramoff/Ralston communication, a follow-up email to Jack Abramoff clearly states that people in the White House use private servers to conduct business of dubious legality:

"Your email to Susan was forwarded to Ruben Barrales and on to Jen Farley, who read it to me last night. I don't know what to think about this, but she said is better not to put this stuff in writing in their email system because it might actually limit what they can do to help us, especially since there could be lawsuits, etc. Who knows?"

=====

DU knows!!

[luckyleftyme2]

7. WHAT ELSE CAN YOU EXPECT

THEY HAVE SKIRTED THE LAW SINCE THEY'VE HAVE BEEN IN POWER. ITS TIME AN EXAMPLE WAS MADE TO SHOW THAT THEY ARE NOT UNTOUCHABLE.
THEY ALL BELONG IN ORANGE JUMP SUITS;AND ITS OUR DUTY TO PUT THEM THEIR!

[L. Coyote]

14. Ths gang of cowboys was over the fence with Iran-Contra already. n/t

[mirrera]

12. Can't believe I missed this! I am slipping...

Dammit I am losing my edge! No wonder I have been feeling kind of...happy?
I have been following the attorney thing via c-span and Air america, I should know better than to skip DU.



http://NoBullshiRt.com

[Robbien]

8. You really didn't know this until today?

All the news stories about this but you didn't know this until today.


So if a savvy DUer didn't know

it means the general public has no clue.

[mirrera]

9. I have been wicked busy...n/t

[Canuckistanian]

11. You've still got a big jump over the general public

They really haven't heard of this yet.

[babylonsister]

10. This is older news but worthy of new eyes seeing and absorbing it. K&R. nt

[Patiod]

13. That happens sometimes - we all have life outside DU

I'm embarrassed to admit that when the US Attorney firings news first came out, I hadn't been on the internet for about two weeks, and my reaction was "well, they are allowed to do that - what's the big deal?" Was glad there was DU to keep me up on the REAL scoop (God knows the MSM kept me informed enough about Anna Nicole Smith's autopsy, Lindsey Lohan's rehab status, Brittany's hair, etc.)

[SariesNightly]

15. More incriminating dirt

This is news to me, if it's against the statute Presidential Records Act. why hasn't anybody done anything to catch these criminals?

[gratuitous]

16. It also makes it a double bind for the Bushies

Because if they were transacting official government business on these private servers and domains, they're in trouble with the law, which says that those communications must be done on government servers and domains.

And if what they were doing was not official government business (and therefore okay to transact on the private servers and domains), then there's no claim of "executive privilege" to keep those commmunications hidden.

They kind of outsmarted themselves on this one, and folks such as Henry Waxman aren't going to be too receptive to their endless games of semantic shenanigans and legal penumbra jiggery-pokery.

[librechik]

17. Depends on what you mean by "secret"

all those .com public access email sites are open to the NSA, hackers, the server owners and detectives hired by your boss. The .gov servers they are supposed to use have extra security precautions. But they are archived indefinitely. You can be on the record aqnd safe, or off the record and parading your secrets before the entire cose-busting universe.

[roguevalley]

18. nothing off the white house servers is protected by exectutive privilege