Even more criminality at the White House. We're nearly numb to it, as every month some new revelation of corruption emerges.
Dan Froomkin has been following the matter closely:
Countless White House E-Mails Deleted :
Countless e-mails to and from many key White House staffers have been deleted -- lost to history and placed out of reach of congressional subpoenas -- due to a brazen violation of internal White House policy that was allowed to continue for more than six years, the White House acknowledged yesterday.The leading culprit appears to be President Bush's enormously influential political adviser Karl Rove, who reportedly used his Republican National Committee-provided Blackberry and e-mail accounts for most of his electronic communication.
Why delete if there wasn't criminal behavior going on? 2008 can't come soon enough.
Said Stanzel: “I guess the bottom line is that our policy at the White House was not clear enough for employees.”But when I asked Stanzel to read out loud the White House e-mail policy, it seemed clear enough to me: “Federal law requires the preservation of electronic communications sent or received by White House staff,” says the handbook that all staffers are given and expected to read and comply with.
“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.”
The handbook further explains: “The official EOP e-mail system is designed to automatically comply with records management requirements.”
And if that wasn't clear enough, the handbook notes -- as was the case in the Clinton administration -- that “commercial or free e-mail sites and chat rooms are blocked from the EOP network to help staff members ensure compliance and to prevent the circumvention of the records management requirements.”
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, which lasted more than an hour but which -- due to Stanzel's refusal or inability to provide straight answers on many issues -- raised more questions than it answered.
Technorati Tags: corruption, crackberry, Rove
