Monday, June 18, 2007

When emails attack

For the last few months, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been looking into accusations that the White House “violated the Presidential Records Act” by using email accounts maintained by the RNC and the Bush-Cheney ‘04 campaign for “for official purposes” like communicating with federal agencies about federal appointments and policies and the like.

House investigators learned months ago that the Bush(whacked) Administration used republican National Committee email accounts, but now it’s looking as though the use was far greater than previously disclosed, including 140,216 emails sent by Karl Rove alone.

And have I mentioned that the RNC oversaw “extensive destruction” of many of the emails, including all email records for 51 White House officials.

Something’s rotten in the state District of Columbia… and it ain’t the swamp.

The report states:

“Given the heavy reliance by White House officials on RNC e-mail accounts, the high rank of the White House officials involved, and the large quantity of missing e-mails, the potential violation of the Presidential Records Act may be extensive.”
So when the report says that ‘the potential violation of the Presidential Records Act may be extensive” anyone with a brain has to take pause…

The report concludes that the RNC account use was far greater than they were led to believe when White House spokesperson Dana Perino claimed that 50 White House officials used RNC email accounts “over the course of the administration.” Turns out at least 88 White House officials used the RNC e-mail accounts.

Other findings from the report:

  • The committee says it may need to “issue compulsory process” to force the cooperation of the Bush-Cheney ‘04 campaign as the campaign has “unjustifiably refused” to provide the Committee with even the most basic information about the accounts, including the number of e-mails that have been preserved.
  • The RNC has preserved only 130 e-mails sent TO Karl Rove during Bush’s first term and NO e-mails sent by Rove prior to November 2003, and for most of the other White House staff the RNC has no e-mails from before the fall of 2006. While there is a thought that some federal agencies “have preserved official communications that were destroyed by the RNC,” there are probably hundreds, if not thousands, more out there that will never be seen again… and that’s just wrong.
  • According to a deposition from Rove’s former assistant Susan Ralston back in 2001, Alberto Gonzales, who was then a White House counsel, “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.” Which would put him into even more trouble than he already is in…

What does all this mean other than being a huge wet-dream for Liberals everywhere?

It means that this administration’s actions of doing what they want – law be damned – might be nearing an end.

Stay tuned…

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