Presidential Records Evasion
The Presidential Records Act (PRA) -- 44 U.S.C. section 2203 -- reads, "Through the implementation of records management controls and other necessary actions, the President shall take all such steps as may be necessary to assure" that the activities of the White House "are adequately documented." Passed in 1978 by Congress to counteract Richard Nixon's attempts to seal and destroy some of his papers, the PRA was intended to make Executive Branch leaders accountable by ensuring eventual public access to White House decision-making. In recent weeks, through the congressional investigation into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, more evidence has come to light suggesting that senior White House officials have been using political e-mail accounts provided by the Republican National Committee (RNC), apparently in an effort to evade the PRA. This week, the RNC informed House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) that it had destroyed all e-mail records from White House officials in 2001, 2002, and 2003. "In 2004, the RNC exempted White House officials from its policy of purging all e-mail," but the RNC claims the system still allowed individual users, like Karl Rove, to personally delete such records. "The White House has not done a good enough job overseeing staff using political e-mail accounts to assure compliance with the Presidential Records Act," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said. As a result, Stanzel noted that "we may not have preserved all e-mails that deal with White House business."
WHITE HOUSE POLICY: The White House now says that roughly 50 White House officials, including 22 current aides, used e-mail accounts controlled by the RNC to send messages, including some related to the prosecutor firings. In a letter addressed to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales yesterday, Waxman revealed disturbing information he obtained from private briefings from the White House and RNC regarding the extensive volume of e-mails that may have been destroyed. Waxman said that RNC counsel Rob Kelner told him that the earliest e-mail records the RNC retains are from 2004, and the Committee only has e-mail records for 35 of the 50 White House officials that had political accounts. Moreover, Waxman said that White House officials retained the ability to delete e-mails from RNC accounts even after a policy was instituted in 2004 to retain the records. One government watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, reported yesterday from confidential sources that the Executive Office of the President had lost over five million e-mails generated between March 2003 and October 2005.
ROVE WAS A SPECIAL CASE: Even though the RNC claims it began archiving e-mails in 2004, the Committee said there appear to be no records from White House senior political adviser Karl Rove until 2005, leaving open "the possibility that Rove had personally deleted the missing e-mails." Rove -- a Blackberry addict who does "about 95 percent" of his e-mailing on RNC accounts -- received special attention from the RNC in 2005. According to Kelner, the Committee took action specifically and singularly against Rove in 2005 to keep him "from deleting his e-mails from the RNC server." The automatic archive policy specifically targeted at Rove raises questions about his intent to intentionally evade compliance with the Presidential Records Act and escape accountability.
MORE WHITE HOUSE CREDIBILITY ISSUES: At a March 27, 2007, press briefing, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino claimed that only a "handful" of White House staffers had political e-mail accounts. Yesterday, Perino was forced to admit that it was actually "a very large handful." Speaking in her own defense, Perino offered, "When I said a 'handful,' I was asked based on something that I didn't know." In that same March 27 briefing, Perino also claimed the RNC had been archiving e-mails and that the system was "something that was in place" for years. Yesterday, amidst revelations that RNC emails had not been retained, Perino backed off that statement and said, "We have developed a better understanding of how the RNC archived or did not archive certain e-mails." The White House's inconsistent statements have raised questions about whether the e-mails did actually disappear as it claims. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) questioned the White House's credibility: "They say they have not been preserved. I don't believe that. You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've gone through too many servers." Leahy added, "This sounds like the administration's version of the dog ate my homework. ... Just when this administration is finally subjected to meaningful oversight, it cannot produce the necessary information." Data-recovery experts say "erasing an e-mail message beyond hope of retrieval is not easy." ABC News reported that wiping data from a hard drive or tape backup often requires special software designed explicitly to cover any trace of deleted information.
CLINTON V. BUSH: On May 5, 1993, then-Assistant to President Clinton and Staff Secretary John Podesta wrote a memo to all presidential staff explaining that the PRA required all staff members to maintain all records, including e-mails. "Podesta stated that the use of external e-mail networks was prohibited because records would not be saved as required." CREW reports that the Bush administration has refused to make public its own record-keeping policy. Stanzel said, "We don't share internal White House memos." In Stanzel's press call with reporters this week, he acknowledged that the handbook given to all White House staffers reads, "Federal law requires the preservation of electronic communications sent or received by White House staff. ... As a result, personnel working on behalf of the EOP [Executive Office of the President] are expected to only use government-provided e-mail services for all official communication." Washington Post online columnist Dan Froomkin, who was on the call, reported, "Stanzel refused to publicly release the relevant portions of the White House staff manual and denied my request to make public the transcript of the call." Said Podesta of the Bush White House, "At the end of the day, it looks like they were trying to avoid the records act...by operating official business off the official systems."
WHITE HOUSE POLICY: The White House now says that roughly 50 White House officials, including 22 current aides, used e-mail accounts controlled by the RNC to send messages, including some related to the prosecutor firings. In a letter addressed to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales yesterday, Waxman revealed disturbing information he obtained from private briefings from the White House and RNC regarding the extensive volume of e-mails that may have been destroyed. Waxman said that RNC counsel Rob Kelner told him that the earliest e-mail records the RNC retains are from 2004, and the Committee only has e-mail records for 35 of the 50 White House officials that had political accounts. Moreover, Waxman said that White House officials retained the ability to delete e-mails from RNC accounts even after a policy was instituted in 2004 to retain the records. One government watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, reported yesterday from confidential sources that the Executive Office of the President had lost over five million e-mails generated between March 2003 and October 2005.
ROVE WAS A SPECIAL CASE: Even though the RNC claims it began archiving e-mails in 2004, the Committee said there appear to be no records from White House senior political adviser Karl Rove until 2005, leaving open "the possibility that Rove had personally deleted the missing e-mails." Rove -- a Blackberry addict who does "about 95 percent" of his e-mailing on RNC accounts -- received special attention from the RNC in 2005. According to Kelner, the Committee took action specifically and singularly against Rove in 2005 to keep him "from deleting his e-mails from the RNC server." The automatic archive policy specifically targeted at Rove raises questions about his intent to intentionally evade compliance with the Presidential Records Act and escape accountability.
MORE WHITE HOUSE CREDIBILITY ISSUES: At a March 27, 2007, press briefing, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino claimed that only a "handful" of White House staffers had political e-mail accounts. Yesterday, Perino was forced to admit that it was actually "a very large handful." Speaking in her own defense, Perino offered, "When I said a 'handful,' I was asked based on something that I didn't know." In that same March 27 briefing, Perino also claimed the RNC had been archiving e-mails and that the system was "something that was in place" for years. Yesterday, amidst revelations that RNC emails had not been retained, Perino backed off that statement and said, "We have developed a better understanding of how the RNC archived or did not archive certain e-mails." The White House's inconsistent statements have raised questions about whether the e-mails did actually disappear as it claims. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) questioned the White House's credibility: "They say they have not been preserved. I don't believe that. You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've gone through too many servers." Leahy added, "This sounds like the administration's version of the dog ate my homework. ... Just when this administration is finally subjected to meaningful oversight, it cannot produce the necessary information." Data-recovery experts say "erasing an e-mail message beyond hope of retrieval is not easy." ABC News reported that wiping data from a hard drive or tape backup often requires special software designed explicitly to cover any trace of deleted information.
CLINTON V. BUSH: On May 5, 1993, then-Assistant to President Clinton and Staff Secretary John Podesta wrote a memo to all presidential staff explaining that the PRA required all staff members to maintain all records, including e-mails. "Podesta stated that the use of external e-mail networks was prohibited because records would not be saved as required." CREW reports that the Bush administration has refused to make public its own record-keeping policy. Stanzel said, "We don't share internal White House memos." In Stanzel's press call with reporters this week, he acknowledged that the handbook given to all White House staffers reads, "Federal law requires the preservation of electronic communications sent or received by White House staff. ... As a result, personnel working on behalf of the EOP [Executive Office of the President] are expected to only use government-provided e-mail services for all official communication." Washington Post online columnist Dan Froomkin, who was on the call, reported, "Stanzel refused to publicly release the relevant portions of the White House staff manual and denied my request to make public the transcript of the call." Said Podesta of the Bush White House, "At the end of the day, it looks like they were trying to avoid the records act...by operating official business off the official systems."
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