Share and save this post:
Got a tip for a post?:
Email us | Anonymous form
Also in PEEK
The Iraqi Tribunal Charade --the Media Plays Along
Barry Lando
Is Dick Cheney Trying to Create His Own 4th Branch of Government?
Guest Blogger
Giuliani ‘More Concerned With Image Than Safety’ During Anthrax Scare
Guest Blogger
This post, written by Steven Reynolds, originally appeared on the All Spin Zone
This will sound naive, for sure, but why isn't anyone talking about sending someone to jail for breaking the law? Yeah, I know Richard said it first, but it can't be said often enough. 88 people in the White House used the RNC and the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign email systems in order to hide what they were doing and circumvent the law. And you can bet that nobody will take responsibility in this White House. From the Oversight Committee (Lots of goodies at The Gavel and ThinkProgress, as well.):
The Presidential Records Act requires the President to "take 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 Counsel 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 evidence obtained by the Committee indicates that White House officials used their RNC e-mail accounts in a manner that circumvented these requirements. At this point in the investigation, it is not possible to determine precisely how many presidential records may have been destroyed by the RNC. 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.
There are next steps, as well. Federal agencies (25 of them) aren't wholly cooperative, but some of those emails may have gone to them and be archived in those systems. So the Oversight Committee will look there. They'll try to find out what Gonzales knew and when did he know it. He was supposed to be advising the President on keeping things legal, after all. Maybe some subpoenas of the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign, because they're surely not going to voluntarily cooperate with an investigation.
Yeah, someone should go to jail. Could we maybe charge them under RICO? Because this sure does appear to be organized. Maybe, though, the Bushies will just claim they are incompetent. They've been shown to be incompetent so many, many times that people will likely believe it.
Tagged as: white house, rnc, emails
Steven Reynolds, formally known as "Spin Dentist", is a regular blogger on the All Spin Zone
No comments:
Post a Comment