Nixon had nothing on these guys. They've deleted countless emails to and from senior White House staff in order to hide the evidence of any wrongdoing, and in clear violation of federal law. But as we learned during another great Republican scandal, Iran-Contra, emails aren't always really deleted after you hit the delete button. The Hill needs to subpoena the Republican National Committee computer systems, now (it was the RNC that provided the senior White House staff with the emails and blackberrys they used to skirt the law). And then the Congress ought to hit any outside email services used by senior White House staff, in clear violation of White House police and federal law, with more subpoenas. Again, delete does not always mean delete.
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.
Then to add insult to injury, the White House lied today about the entire scandal:
Said [White House spokesman Scott] 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."
