Today's Article
Numerous
potentially illegal
Bush Administration
emails have been
'misplaced'.
potentially illegal
Bush Administration
emails have been
'misplaced'.
The American Spark
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Numerous Questionable White House Email Messages 'Missing'
By Cliff Montgomery - June 19th, 2007
Fifty-one of the 88 White House officials who had email accounts with the Republican National Committee
(RNC) claim to have lost their messages, the House Oversight Committee told the Associated Press (AP) on
Monday.
The Bush Administration may well have perpetuated "extensive" violations of a law which requires the
preservation of certain records, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA).
Rep. Waxman also told AP that the committee will further its probe into the Bush Administration's apparent
illegal use of Republican Party email accounts.
The Oversight Committee's interim report states the number of White House officials who were given RNC
email accounts, as well as the total number of messages, were greater than previously thought.
The Bush Administration has claimed that around 50 White House officials also had RNC email accounts
during Bush's tenure. But the House panel discovered that at least 88 officials had such accounts at the RNC.
To be fair, the RNC has preserved messages from some of the most frequent users, including 140,216 emails
sent or received by Bush's top White House spin doctor, Karl Rove. But "the RNC has preserved no emails for
51 officials," declares the interim report, released by Waxman.
One of those 51 is Ken Mehlman, a former White House spin doctor who made heavy use of his RNC account,
according to the report.
"Given the heavy reliance by White House officials on RNC email accounts, the high rank of the White House
officials involved, and the large quantity of missing emails," the report added, "the potential violation of the
Presidential Records Act may be extensive."
The records law requires presidents to ensure that "the activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that
reflect the performance" of their duties are "adequately documented...and maintained," pointed out the report.
And there may be another issue in play here--whether White House officials utilized the email accounts of a
political party to conduct administration activities, in an illegal attempt to avoid constitutionally-binding oversight
from Congress and the Supreme Court.
The House panel is in touch with several federal agencies to discover if their records "contain some of the
White House emails that have been destroyed by the RNC," according to the committee report.
The Oversight Committee's findings "should be a matter of grave concern for anyone who values open
government," Waxman said in a statement.
Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the RNC, countered that the report may merely put forth Democratic
partisan claims as fact.
"Not only have we been clear that we are continuing our efforts to search for emails, but there is no basis for
an assumption that any email not already found would be of an official nature," she told AP.
But the White House spokeswoman has performed two deliberate logical fallacies here: 1.) Empty
Statement--Saying you are searching for emails does not mean you are actually doing so; and we cannot take
a biased spokesperson's claim as fact; 2.) Argument From Ignorance--Falsely claiming that a lack of proof
regarding one position is somehow an innate proof of the opposite position, i.e., arguing that a lack of certain
proof the lost emails were "of an official nature" is itself a flimsy 'proof' that they must not have been official at
all. Lack of proof is never proof, Ms. Schmitt.
With so many White House officials holding so many RNC email accounts and producing so many account
messages, it's quite reasonable that at least some of them may have wrongly been of an official nature. We
may never have a final proof on this matter--but that doesn't mean we take leave of our senses and deny
obvious probabilities.
The report also severely criticized Alberto Gonzales, the current attorney general, for his actions while heading
the White House Counsel's office. Under Gonzales' watch the office "may have known that White House
officials were using RNC email accounts for official business, but took no action to preserve these presidential
records," said the committee report.
Snow said of this statement: "That's an allegation. We'll respond to it in due course."
But that's a half-truth from Mr. Snow. It is indeed a self-admitted allegation: the report clearly said that
Gonzales' office "may have known" about these actions. But these allegations appear to have a lot of facts to
back up the statements.
For instance, it quoted "clear written policies" from the White House Counsel's office in early 2001, reminding
staffers "to use only the official White House email system for official communications and to retain any official
emails they received on a non-governmental account."
The panel report adds that more recent evidence "indicates that White House officials used their RNC email
accounts in a manner that circumvented these [stated] requirements."
Like what you're reading so far? Then why not order a full year (52 issues) of the The American Spark
e-newsletter for only $15? A major article covering an story not being told in the Corporate Press will be
delivered to your email every Monday morning for a full year, for less than 30 cents an issue. Order Now!
By Cliff Montgomery - June 19th, 2007
Fifty-one of the 88 White House officials who had email accounts with the Republican National Committee
(RNC) claim to have lost their messages, the House Oversight Committee told the Associated Press (AP) on
Monday.
The Bush Administration may well have perpetuated "extensive" violations of a law which requires the
preservation of certain records, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA).
Rep. Waxman also told AP that the committee will further its probe into the Bush Administration's apparent
illegal use of Republican Party email accounts.
The Oversight Committee's interim report states the number of White House officials who were given RNC
email accounts, as well as the total number of messages, were greater than previously thought.
The Bush Administration has claimed that around 50 White House officials also had RNC email accounts
during Bush's tenure. But the House panel discovered that at least 88 officials had such accounts at the RNC.
To be fair, the RNC has preserved messages from some of the most frequent users, including 140,216 emails
sent or received by Bush's top White House spin doctor, Karl Rove. But "the RNC has preserved no emails for
51 officials," declares the interim report, released by Waxman.
One of those 51 is Ken Mehlman, a former White House spin doctor who made heavy use of his RNC account,
according to the report.
"Given the heavy reliance by White House officials on RNC email accounts, the high rank of the White House
officials involved, and the large quantity of missing emails," the report added, "the potential violation of the
Presidential Records Act may be extensive."
The records law requires presidents to ensure that "the activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that
reflect the performance" of their duties are "adequately documented...and maintained," pointed out the report.
And there may be another issue in play here--whether White House officials utilized the email accounts of a
political party to conduct administration activities, in an illegal attempt to avoid constitutionally-binding oversight
from Congress and the Supreme Court.
The House panel is in touch with several federal agencies to discover if their records "contain some of the
White House emails that have been destroyed by the RNC," according to the committee report.
The Oversight Committee's findings "should be a matter of grave concern for anyone who values open
government," Waxman said in a statement.
Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the RNC, countered that the report may merely put forth Democratic
partisan claims as fact.
"Not only have we been clear that we are continuing our efforts to search for emails, but there is no basis for
an assumption that any email not already found would be of an official nature," she told AP.
But the White House spokeswoman has performed two deliberate logical fallacies here: 1.) Empty
Statement--Saying you are searching for emails does not mean you are actually doing so; and we cannot take
a biased spokesperson's claim as fact; 2.) Argument From Ignorance--Falsely claiming that a lack of proof
regarding one position is somehow an innate proof of the opposite position, i.e., arguing that a lack of certain
proof the lost emails were "of an official nature" is itself a flimsy 'proof' that they must not have been official at
all. Lack of proof is never proof, Ms. Schmitt.
With so many White House officials holding so many RNC email accounts and producing so many account
messages, it's quite reasonable that at least some of them may have wrongly been of an official nature. We
may never have a final proof on this matter--but that doesn't mean we take leave of our senses and deny
obvious probabilities.
The report also severely criticized Alberto Gonzales, the current attorney general, for his actions while heading
the White House Counsel's office. Under Gonzales' watch the office "may have known that White House
officials were using RNC email accounts for official business, but took no action to preserve these presidential
records," said the committee report.
Snow said of this statement: "That's an allegation. We'll respond to it in due course."
But that's a half-truth from Mr. Snow. It is indeed a self-admitted allegation: the report clearly said that
Gonzales' office "may have known" about these actions. But these allegations appear to have a lot of facts to
back up the statements.
For instance, it quoted "clear written policies" from the White House Counsel's office in early 2001, reminding
staffers "to use only the official White House email system for official communications and to retain any official
emails they received on a non-governmental account."
The panel report adds that more recent evidence "indicates that White House officials used their RNC email
accounts in a manner that circumvented these [stated] requirements."
Like what you're reading so far? Then why not order a full year (52 issues) of the The American Spark
e-newsletter for only $15? A major article covering an story not being told in the Corporate Press will be
delivered to your email every Monday morning for a full year, for less than 30 cents an issue. Order Now!