Waxman to Republicans: Hold onto those emails

March 26, 2007

The Bush gang seems to have a preoccupation with email, or more specifically, using email accounts that aren’t archived under law.

When White House deputy political director J. Scott Jennings communicated with Justice Department officials about the appointment of a controversial U.S. Attorney, he used a private email account registered to the Republican National Committee. When Karl Rove sends emails, 95% of the time, he avoids his White House account and uses an RNC account. The White House public affairs office reportedly does the same thing. The president has decided not to use email at all because, as he put it, he’s concerned about “different record requests that could happen to a president.”

This may sound like trivia, but it raises a series of questions. Why are White House officials, working on government business, using private RNC email accounts instead of their White House accounts? Perhaps because the Presidential Records Act mandates thorough record-keeping, which Rove & Co. have hoped to avoid. In other words, White House emails leave a paper trail; RNC emails don’t. If you’re in the West Wing and you don’t want anyone, ever, to find out what you’re up to, you’d avoid using the email system that ensures accountability.

With this in mind, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) had a good idea.

Today, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) issued letters to the Republican National Committee and the Bush-Cheney ’04 Campaign directing them to preserve all emails by and for White House officials, and to meet with the committee about the legal issues involved in conducting official government business using partisan email accounts. From Waxman’s letter:

“The e-mails of White House officials maintained on RNC e-mail accounts may be relevant to multiple congressional investigations. For this reason, the Committee directs you to preserve all e-mails sent or received by White House officials using e-mail accounts under your control.”

It sounds like a wise approach. I just hope it’s not too late.

Waxman seems to appreciate the fact that White House emails, sent through RNC addresses, are likely the key to revealing important communications from senior White House officials. His correspondence today asks the RNC and BC04 officials to meet with House Oversight and Government Reform Committee staffers as early as next week to respond to five issues:

(1) Who has access to the e-mail accounts maintained by the RNC;

(2) What policies, guidance, and procedures govern the use and preservation of the email accounts maintained by the RNC that have been used by White House officials;

(3) What agreements, if any, has the RNC entered into with the White House, the National Archives, or other government agencies regarding the e-mail accounts maintained by the RNC that have been used by White House officials;

(4) What steps have been taken to preserve the e-mail accounts maintained by the RNC that have been used by White House officials;

(5) What assurance can the RNC provide the Committee that no e-mails involving official White House business have been destroyed or altered.

Good questions, all. And as long as we’re on the subject, I thought I’d remind readers of similar questions Dan Froomkin posed to the president’s communications office.

1) Does White House policy allow White House staffers to use non-White House e-mail addresses for official White House business? Does it prohibit it? What is the policy?

2) Would these e-mails be treated any differently from official White House e-mails when it comes to archiving or subpoena purposes?

3) Does it create either impropriety or the appearance of impropriety that gwb43.com is a domain owned by the Republican National Committee?

4) Do other White House staffers regularly use non-White House e-mail accounts for White House business, and if so, why?

5) Does non-White House e-mail fulfill security requirements for White House communications?

6) If other non-White House e-mail accounts are used, who are the providers for all of the other accounts? (Any others besides the RNC?)

7) Does White House policy allow White House staffers to use non-White House e-mail addresses from their computers, even for non-official business? I’m told that during the Clinton administration, access to external e-mail, including Web mail, was shut off from White House (eop.gov) computers. Was there a conscious change of policy by the Bush administration?

8) Have there been any recent changes in policy relating to e-mail practices, or are changes in policy contemplated?

Stay tuned.

Out of curiosity—what does “the virtual rendition of smoke rising from the chimney” look like?

Probably a lot like the NRC….

  • Let me guess, they just completed their 2007 spring cleaning and/or all their emails were recently lost when a disk went bad.

    I can’t believe it took Waxman this long to think of this. The bloggers saw the need for this for how long now?

    sigh.

  • racerx # 2 is right. Politicians need bloggers on their payroll, not to write blogs but to read them. Who they gonna call? Carpetbusters.

  • Waxman has been very very busy, and he couldn’t do anything until he had control. Give him a break.

  • And to think, I have been entertaining the term “taint” in regard to what Bush and his minions have done to our bodypolitik. It is now apparent that the term “cancer” would be more appropriate. It’s gonna take a whole lot of Congressional chemo to cure U.S. -Kevo

  • One issue that should definitely be raised in all this is the question of security and classified information. If White House officials are routinely using RNC email to conduct business, I’d like to know whether these email accounts have been used to discuss classified business. If so, what steps have been taken to ensure that no one without the proper classification accesses these emails?

  • With any luck, they’ve already been very, very thorough wiping their hard drives yet at the same time forgot to shred the backup tapes at their offsite location.

  • I’m not surprised a sub-human who “sees things on the internets” doesn’t use e-mail. Does it use the phone?

    They say Revolution sows the seeds of its own demiss. I’m willing to take the chance.

  • “Secure email” is an oxymoron.
    Their secrets will eventually come out, but in delicious drips and drops.
    Forgive my sadistic pleasure in watching such protracted anguish come to those who were so willing to torture others.

  • Since the National Security folks seem to be keeping track of so many emails and since the White House seems somewhat paranoid, don’t you think that the NSA has been keeping the records of the lesser WH folks?

  • Dumb non-lawyer’s question: Is there some reason the RNC would be legally required to keep these records just because Waxman asks them to? If they defy him and trash their archives, can they be sent to prison?

    One other thought. We’ve been hearing of late that the NSA is secretly intercepting and recording virtually all domestic email traffic. If so, and if the RNC trashes its email archives in defiance of Waxman, could the relevant emails be culled from the NSA’s databases? (Talk about hoist on your own petard.)

  • I’m just contemplating the delicious possibility that by keeping the e-mails off the WH servers, and using the RNC server, Rove may have also made them exempt from any claims of executive privilege.

    Oh, what a tangled web…

  • he’s concerned about “different record requests that could happen to a president.”

    Is it me or does this scream: “I’ve got something to hide!”

    In answer to ms. flowers’ question, from what little I know about security in general, if you’re close to the pResident, you’re being watched. Add to that whatever security checks necessary to work at that level and I’d say yes, there should be a fairly detailed record of these people’s lives.

    What I don’t know is whether BushBrat can call the NSA, CIA and/or SS and say “Y’all stop monitorin Turd Blossom’s internons.”

  • “The president has decided not to use email at all because, as he put it, he’s concerned about “different record requests that could happen to a president.”

    Oh, please. The man probably can’t work a computer.

  • (5) What assurance can the RNC provide the Committee that no e-mails involving official White House business have been destroyed or altered. — Waxman

    Every assurance, for certain. What’s one more lie among publicans? And they’ll have those empty puters to prove it, too.

  • Is there some reason the RNC would be legally required to keep these records just because Waxman asks them to? If they defy him and trash their archives, can they be sent to prison?

    Presidential records are by law the property of the United States.Trashing them would not be a good idea. (Nor is it a good idea for Karl Rove, a man with a security clearance, to be getting email forwarded to a mail server that doesn’t handle encryption.)

    As for Bush, he used email as TX Gov, but signed off on email in January 2001.

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