NYT: Missing E-Mail May Be Related to Prosecutors

[babylonsister]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/washington/13emails.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1176473088-xEfxTC4BSgH0BOWXp0hL1w

Missing E-Mail May Be Related to Prosecutors


By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: April 13, 2007

WASHINGTON, April 12—The White House said Thursday that missing e-mail messages sent on Republican Party accounts may include some relating to the firing of eight United States attorneys.

The disclosure became a fresh political problem for the White House, as Democrats stepped up their inquiry into whether Karl Rove and other top aides to President Bush used the e-mail accounts maintained by the Republican National Committee to circumvent record-keeping requirements.

It also exposed the dual electronic lives led by Mr. Rove and 21 other White House officials who maintain separate e-mail accounts for government business and work on political campaigns — and raised serious questions, in the eyes of Democrats, about whether political accounts were used to conduct official work without leaving a paper trail.

The clash also seemed to push the White House and Democrats closer to a serious confrontation over executive privilege, with the White House counsel, Fred F. Fielding, asserting that the administration has control over countless other e-mail messages that the Republican National Committee has archived. Democrats are insisting that they are entitled to get the e-mail messages directly from the national committee.

Representative Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat who is chairman of a House committee looking into the use of political e-mail accounts, wrote a letter to the attorney general on Thursday saying he had “particular concerns about Karl Rove” after a briefing his aides received from Rob Kelner, a lawyer for the Republican National Committee.

Mr. Rove uses several e-mail accounts, including one with the Republican National Committee, one with the White House and a private domain account that is registered to the political consulting company he once owned. Mr. Waxman said Mr. Kelner reported that in 2005, the national committee adopted a new policy, specifically aimed at Mr. Rove, which “removed Mr. Rove’s ability to personally delete his e-mails from the R.N.C. server.”

Mr. Waxman also said he now had “serious concerns about the White House’s compliance with the Presidential Records Act,” a 1978 law that requires administrations to keep records of deliberations, decisions and policies. The congressman asked for an inventory of all communications by White House officials on nongovernment e-mail accounts.

more...

[paparush]

1. This just in: Missing Emails relate to EVERYTHING!!!!!!

[Hart2008]

2. 4 years of ROVE's Email is MISSING!

"The RNC is missing at least four years' worth of e-mail from White House senior adviser Karl Rove that is being sought"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/12/AR2007041202408_pf.html


http://rungaryhart.com

:kick: HART 2008! :kick:

[Lobster Martini]

3. Rant against sloppy journalism # -- I've lost count

So, what NYT is saying is that the missing e-mail messages may or may not concern the U.S. attorneys, they're not sure; the e-mails may or may not be retrievable, the Internet security consultant isn't sure; and the Democrats may or may not be correct when they say that the Republicans are withholding information or possibly detroying evidence. Of course that last one's correct, but that's not exactly new information. Thanks so much, NYT. Try including a fact.

[babylonsister]

4. And that's the education the NYT's readers are getting. Hopefully,

more facts will emerge and the NYT's won't be so tentative.

[MidwestTransplant]

5. Well this makes no sense. The RNC email was only for political non official

communication. So does this mean it was in fact political or did the WH try to get around the records keeping act. Hmmmmmmm