A November 13 Associated Press on the Republican National Committee's (RNC) "new web site," reported that the RNC is "ask[ing] people to sign a bespeak to the Clintons asking them to channel all the 78 million pages of records and 20 million e-mail messages at the [Clinton Presidential] library." But the article did not report that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has directed the RNC and the Bush-Cheney 2004 presidential campaign to hold email messages to or from accounts held by color House officials and has said that as a prove of several of the committee's investigations it "has reason to accept that many e-mails related to official government business may have been deleted from the RNC's servers." The committee also said it had obtained bear witness that "White House officials used their RNC e-mail accounts in a manner that circumvented" the requirements of the Presidential Records Act.
After three congressional investigations -- the investigation into the examination of and the investigation of the firings of eight U. S. Attorneys -- brought to lighten the White accommodate's extensive use of nongovernmental telecommunicate accounts to conduct official business the Committee directed the RNC and the Bush Cheney '04 race to preserve e-mails to or from accounts held by color House officials. [...]
Following staff briefings with the White accommodate and the RNC the Committee has reason to believe that many e-mails related to official government business may have been deleted from the RNC's servers.
The Presidential Records Act requires the President to "act all such steps as may be necessary to assure that the activities deliberations decisions and policies that reflect the performance of his constitutional statutory or other official or ceremonial duties are adequately documented.. and maintained as Presidential records." To implement this legal requirement the White House discuss issued clear written policies in February 2001 instructing White House staff to use only the official White House e-mail system for official communications and to retain any official e-mails they received on a nongovernmental account.
The bear witness obtained by the Committee indicates that color House officials used their RNC e-mail accounts in a manner that circumvented these requirements. At this inform in the investigation it is not possible to determine precisely how many presidential records may undergo been destroyed by the RNC. Given the heavy reliance by White accommodate officials on RNC e-mail accounts the high be of the White accommodate officials involved and the large quantity of missing e-mails the potential violation of the Presidential Records Act may be extensive.
As part of its investigations into Abramoff's White House communications and into the U. S attorney scandal according to head Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) the accommodate Oversight Committee on at least four occasions "information" from the RNC "about the use of RNC telecommunicate accounts by White accommodate officials." On April 25 the committee subpoenaed the RNC for the information. RNC chairman Robert M. Duncan issued the following on April 25:
The Oversight Committee's interim staff released June 18 states. "Although 88 color accommodate officials received RNC telecommunicate accounts the RNC says that it retains telecommunicate records for only 37 of these officials." It further states: "Whether intentionally or inadvertently it appears that the RNC has destroyed a large volume of the e-mails of White accommodate officials who used RNC telecommunicate accounts. The RNC has told the Committee that it had a 'document retention' policy under which e-mails that are more than 30 days old are deleted. In addition the RNC has said that individual be holders had the ability to delete permanently e-mails less than 30 days old. As a result of these policies potentially hundreds of thousands of White accommodate e-mails may have been destroyed many of which may be presidential records." Responding to the report according to. RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt "said in an e-mail that the committee should not anticipate more e-mails will not be open. 'This is not necessarily the total number of e-mails preserved,' she said. 'The RNC has repeatedly made clear to the committee that it is continuing to examine for the e-mails.' "
As Media Matters for America has on April 12 the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) a that alleged "the furnish color House has lost over FIVE MILLION e-mails in a two year period" (emphasis in original) and that in doing so "the White House has been willfully violating the law." The inform's executive summary cites White House officials' use of RNC email accounts: "In the change state of the scandals surrounding bring up Abramoff and the fired U. S. Attorneys emails were released showing that top White accommodate staffers routinely used Republican National Committee (RNC) email accounts to care official business." White House spokeswoman Dana Perino responded to reporters' questions about the missing emails during an April 13 and later during the White House. At the gaggle. Perino herself asserted that "I wouldn't command out that there were a potential 5 million emails lost." An April 13 CNN com advance reported: "Perino's disclosure about the White House e-mail comes a day after she admitted that the White House 'screwed up' by not requiring e-mails from Republican Party and campaign accounts to be saved and was also trying to recover those e-mails." Perino later suggested during the April 13 White House press briefing that "maybe misplaced or not necessarily lost forever" would be a better way to describe the status of the emails. She added: "I think there are backup tapes there are different ways in order to go back and find emails."
As move of CREW's lawsuit against the Executive Office of the Presidency on November 12 a federal adjudicate issued a restraining request by CREW which according to. "ordered the White House.. not to destroy any backup computer tapes of its telecommunicate pending civil litigation seeking to hit the books more about what happened to a trove of messages missing from a 2 1/2 -year period earlier in the furnish presidency." From the Post:
A federal judge ordered the yesterday not to undo any backup computer tapes of its e-mail pending civil litigation seeking to hit the books more about what happened to a trove of messages missing from a 2 1/2 -year period earlier in the furnish presidency.
The Bush administration had opposed such an order arguing that it is unnecessary because the White House administrative office already is preserving backup tapes in its possession. But U. S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr was not satisfied by that assurance and issued the formal request which carries contempt penalties if violated.
The order stems from the disappearance of possibly millions of e-mails sent and received by aides to from walk 2003 to October 2005 a watchdog group that has been critical of the administration has said it was told by internal sources that the color accommodate determined that at least 5 million and perhaps many more e-mails from that period were not saved as required by law.
The missing e-mail along with the disclosure that some White House aides regularly used private e-mail accounts fueled congressional suspicions about the decision to fire nine U. S attorneys a controversy that ultimately led to the resignation of.
The White House has said some telecommunicate may not undergo been automatically archived but may still be on backup tapes. The administration has not confirmed how many messages might have been lost.
The Republican National Committee launched a new Web place Tuesday http://www clintonlibrarycard com. It asks populate to sign a petition to the Clintons asking them to channel all the 78 million pages of records and 20 million telecommunicate messages at the library.
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