Some W. House e-mails on fired attorneys may be lost

[LiberalNation]

So the conspiracy deepens.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070412/pl_nm/usa_prosecutors_emails_dc;_ylt=As5H9.zr4Cm3vou4SRR IJOADW7oF

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some White House staff wrote e-mail messages about official business on Republican Party accounts, and some may have been wrongly deleted, the administration said on Wednesday in an embarrassing disclosure tied to the probe into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

The White House said it could not rule out the possibility that some official e-mails relating to the firings had been deleted and are lost.

Democrats in Congress have been seeking copies of e-mails from the Republican National Committee as part of an investigation into whether the firing of the prosecutors last year was politically motivated.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters 22 White House officials were allowed to maintain e-mail addresses through the Republican National Committee. They included President George W. Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, and several of his deputies.

Democrats have been seeking information that might tie Rove to the decision to fire the attorneys.

Some White House aides trying to avoid violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits using government property for certain political activities, may have used the political account to communicate about official White House business, Stanzel said.

Some of those official e-mails may be lost because the RNC had a policy of deleting e-mails about every 30 days from its accounts. That policy was changed in 2004 to exclude White House officials, who are required to retain records and correspondence and everything e-mailed from a White House account is automatically archived, Stanzel said.

"Some official e-mails have potentially been lost and that is a mistake the White House is aggressively working to correct," he said.

Asked whether some of the lost e-mails could be related to the firings of the U.S. attorneys last year, Stanzel said: "That can't be ruled out."

The White House admission came as the Democratic-led Congress moved to obtain additional documents from the administration in its investigation of the firing of eight prosecutors, a case that has prompted bipartisan calls for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign.

Gonzales received a subpoena on Tuesday from the House Judiciary Committee for documents related to the firings.

The White House said Bush had asked the Justice Department to be "fully responsive" to the request.

Gonzales, who with Bush's public support has rejected calls to resign, is to appear next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which plans to authorize subpoenas of its own on Thursday for administration documents.

[Gunny]

So the conspiracy deepens.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070412/pl_nm/usa_prosecutors_emails_dc;_ylt=As5H9.zr4Cm3vou4SRR IJOADW7oF

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some White House staff wrote e-mail messages about official business on Republican Party accounts, and some may have been wrongly deleted, the administration said on Wednesday in an embarrassing disclosure tied to the probe into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

The White House said it could not rule out the possibility that some official e-mails relating to the firings had been deleted and are lost.

Democrats in Congress have been seeking copies of e-mails from the Republican National Committee as part of an investigation into whether the firing of the prosecutors last year was politically motivated.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters 22 White House officials were allowed to maintain e-mail addresses through the Republican National Committee. They included President George W. Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, and several of his deputies.

Democrats have been seeking information that might tie Rove to the decision to fire the attorneys.

Some White House aides trying to avoid violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits using government property for certain political activities, may have used the political account to communicate about official White House business, Stanzel said.

Some of those official e-mails may be lost because the RNC had a policy of deleting e-mails about every 30 days from its accounts. That policy was changed in 2004 to exclude White House officials, who are required to retain records and correspondence and everything e-mailed from a White House account is automatically archived, Stanzel said.

"Some official e-mails have potentially been lost and that is a mistake the White House is aggressively working to correct," he said.

Asked whether some of the lost e-mails could be related to the firings of the U.S. attorneys last year, Stanzel said: "That can't be ruled out."

The White House admission came as the Democratic-led Congress moved to obtain additional documents from the administration in its investigation of the firing of eight prosecutors, a case that has prompted bipartisan calls for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign.

Gonzales received a subpoena on Tuesday from the House Judiciary Committee for documents related to the firings.

The White House said Bush had asked the Justice Department to be "fully responsive" to the request.

Gonzales, who with Bush's public support has rejected calls to resign, is to appear next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which plans to authorize subpoenas of its own on Thursday for administration documents.

What conspiracy? That the President can hire or fire as he sees fit, and every President before Bush has done so?

And this investigation is to see if the firings were politically motivated? Well, DUH. Go figure. Every President has hired and fired the attorneys and put he wanted in their place. I'd say that's a stupid question with an obvious answer, and yet another example of my tax dollars being wasted by Democrats on a witchhunt.

[LiberalNation]

The lying about doesn't go over so well though.

[Baron Von Esslingen]

... and yet another example of my tax dollars being wasted by Democrats on a witchhunt.

When it gets to $64 million, call me. We'll compare notes.

Violating the Presidential Records Act is just another in a long list of scandals that this administration has yet to answer for.

[Gunny]

When it gets to $64 million, call me. We'll compare notes.

Violating the Presidential Records Act is just another in a long list of scandals that this administration has yet to answer for.

You witchhunters NEVER give up on yor neverending quest to throw shit agains the wall and see if it sticks, huh?

Cost is irrelevant. The fact is, it's stupid. It's looking for the obvious and trying to make something bad out of it for nothing BUT partisan witchhunting.

What's really funny is the tighteous indignation you dems are going to display when the next time a Dem president does it, the republicans want the same answers. Then it'll be ... what're you talking about? Every president does this. No big deal.

F-ing hypocrites from Hell with NO peers.

[Baron Von Esslingen]

What's really funny is the tighteous indignation you dems are going to display when the next time a Dem president does it, the republicans want the same answers.

That's the $64 million we spent on the last witch hunt. We'll see if Congress conducts it's oversight responsibly or whether they will act like the Newt-led republican congress of yore. At least we can be sure that Senator Leahy won't be banging his secretary while he investigates the president.

[stephanie]

Their so desperate...now their trying to say we don't have a right to delete our emails......

HOW DO YOU SAY.........DESPERATE...:poke:

[glockmail]

So the conspiracy deepens.

....

What conspiracy? The attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President, and the President's staff does the firings systematically.

How easily we forget when Clinton fired all 90 odd attorneys from the Bush 41 Administration.

Bush 43 should have done the same, but he tried to be fair, and per usual, no good deed goes unpunished.

[LiberalNation]

Like I said it was the lying about it not the firings themselves.

[glockmail]

Like I said it was the lying about it not the firings themselves.
What lies?

Seems like another attempt to "Scooter Libby" someone in the Administration. As that is the New Democrat Tactic I say tell them all nothing, nada, zero, 5th Ammendment.

[Gunny]

That's the $64 million we spent on the last witch hunt. We'll see if Congress conducts it's oversight responsibly or whether they will act like the Newt-led republican congress of yore. At least we can be sure that Senator Leahy won't be banging his secretary while he investigates the president.

I thought banging your secretary was a non-issue with you lefties? Are you just trying to make my point about the hypocrisy for me?

You can try to whitewash with the term "Oversight" all you want. If that's all it was, I'd have no problem with it. All it is in reality is partisan witch hunting.

[LiberalNation]

Well people have resigned over it so I'd say it's more than nothing. Lies, calling them incompetent for no reason. lying to congress about it, refusing to testify.

[Gunny]

Like I said it was the lying about it not the firings themselves.

Yeah ... WHAT lies?

First off, the President doesn't have to explain himself at all in this matter. Second, it is not Congress's business to even ask. "I just felt like it" should be sufficient enough reason.

And as I said, wait until this precedent being set gets thrown back in the Dem's faces. The wailing and gnashing of teeth will be of Bibilical proportion.

[manu1959]

sombody should check sandy bergers bvds

[manu1959]

That's the $64 million we spent on the last witch hunt. We'll see if Congress conducts it's oversight responsibly or whether they will act like the Newt-led republican congress of yore. At least we can be sure that Senator Leahy won't be banging his secretary while he investigates the president.

at least newt actually drilled her....big bill used a cigar....what a pussy

[CockySOB]

at least newt actually drilled her....big bill used a cigar....what a pussy

Which might be why Bill used a cigar to do the deed..... Oh, that wasn't what you meant. Sorry!

:coffee:

[Birdzeye]

Second, it is not Congress's business to even ask. "I just felt like it" should be sufficient enough reason.


So much for free speech.

I guess it didn't occur to some that there's an appearance of impropriety surrounding these particular firings, the appearance of trying to politicize the US Attorneys in order to prosecute Democrats for anything and everything and to take a hands-off position on Republican bad boys.

Key word here: appearance.

Under such circumstances, I think it's entirely appropriate for Congress to ask questions, and if they didn't, IMO they'd be derelict in their duties.

[Gunny]

So much for free speech.

I guess it didn't occur to some that there's an appearance of impropriety surrounding these particular firings, the appearance of trying to politicize the US Attorneys in order to prosecute Democrats for anything and everything and to take a hands-off position on Republican bad boys.

Key word here: appearance.

Under such circumstances, I think it's entirely appropriate for Congress to ask questions, and if they didn't, IMO they'd be derelict in their duties.

Has nothing to do with free speech.

There is no more appearance of impropriety in these firings than in any other, except the ones contrived by the Democrats using the whinings of a disgruntled former-employee.

How can there be impropriety if he can do it just becaus ehe wants to?

[Samantha]

Their so desperate...now their trying to say we don't have a right to delete our emails......

HOW DO YOU SAY.........DESPERATE...:poke:There are laws against it, they are not new laws.



Apparently, the RNC, provided cover e-mail addresses for White House staffers to use so as to avoid federal record keeping requirements. Now we have news that the RNC routinely deleted these emails.

It is essential that congress immediately, today, issues orders to confisticate RNC hard drives to prevent further purges of records, and to prevent the hard drives from being wiped at a deeper level, since some deletions can be retrieved.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel reported that 22 Whitehouse employees used RNC emails, including Karl Rove and a number of his assistants.

The only way to insure that RNC operatives do not electronically remove all vestiges of the records is to impound the machines. This is eerily familiar, like the erased audio recordings that Nixon Secretary Rosemary Woods tried to explain... http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_rob_kall_070412_congress_must_issue_.htm

I just hope it's not too late. The Bush admin is hiding and covering up like the Nixon admin.