Tony Snowjobs the Deleted RNC Email Scandal

[blogslut]

From today's WH Press conference with Tony Snow:

Q Waxman's committee has put out an interim report on the issue of the RNC emails showing, they say, that there was more use of those emails than the White House suggested, indicating possibly widespread violation of the Presidential Records Act. It's, like, 140,000 emails of Rove's, so the White House Counsel's Office is aware that official business was being conducted through this party (inaudible) system? Can you respond to all that and what --

MR. SNOW: Look, I can't respond specifically to things that the committee may have put out. But those email accounts were set up, A, on a model based on the prior administration, which had done it the same way, in order to try to avoid Hatch Act violations. And we'll just -- we'll leave it at that. I mean, these were designed precisely to avoid Hatch Act violations that prohibit the use of government assets for certain political activities.

Q What have you all found in looking at these emails and emails related to the U.S. attorneys --

MR. SNOW: I don't have any comment.

Q Tony, thank you; two questions. Channel 6 in --

MR. SNOW: I'll tell you what, let me back up -- a couple of things. Number one, again, I'm still trying to -- Hutch, I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to get at here. I want to make sure I give you a satisfactory answer. What you're talking about is?

Q Well, you all are going back and saying, remember, how many you could save that might be relevant to that inquiry.

MR. SNOW: Right.

Q I'm wondering where that stands. And are you prepared to give up whatever you found at --

MR. SNOW: Well, number one, I'm not going to get into any conversations we may be having with Senator Waxman's committee about what they may be requesting. But, again, the way the system works, any email sent to or received from White House emails are automatically archived. And the RNC has had an email preservation policy for White House staffers, as well. We've sort of been through this -- I'm not sure exactly what the start date was -- we'll just have to see how Counsel's Office responds to Representative Waxman's request.

Q We have been through this, but you were saying at the time there were, like, 50 staffers -- Waxman is saying, no, it's more like 88, and there are indications -- I mean, 140,000 emails is a lot of emails.

MR. SNOW: That is a whole lot of email.

Q And that's just Rove, that's not all the other folks.

MR. SNOW: That's a whole lot of email, absolutely right.

Oh boy

[spanone]

1. Did I hear him correct??? Clinton did it?

[BOSSHOG]

4. Yes. The evil "previous administration."

Code words for the right wing hate and disinformation machine.

[elehhhhna]

8. "A previous Admin" probably means GWHB's

[sabra]

Even Snow couldn't spin out of that one...

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

2. WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!! We Have A Majority In The Senate Now Without Lieberman! Waxman's Been Promoted!

Senator Waxman? :wtf:

[gratuitous]

3. Oooh, blame Clinton! Ten points for Tony!

Yeah, the system the White House used was designed to "avoid" violations of the Hatch Act, you know, just like the Clinton administration. What a load of hooey. The parallel system was set up to avoid the Presidential Records Act, and everyone in the room knew it. Of course, the guardians of our public discourse in the press would never have the bad taste to mention it.

But of course, Tony can't comment (once he's put out his version of the "truth") on anything the Waxman Committee might be asking about. No real reason for that self-imposed restriction, but the good stenographers just copy it down as if it were true.

[madokie]

14. as long as billy did it too

forget that billy was scum to them at the time of his administration and that they proceeded to undo all the good things he had done. fuc tony snow

[blogslut]

5. moar

Q Tony, on the question of the emails, one of the things that the committee found was that a significant portion, I think close to half of the emails had gone between email addresses with a .gov address. How, then, if you say that this was set up to avoid Hatch Act violations, is that avoiding Hatch Act violations if these emails --

MR. SNOW: Again, I will let the lawyers work that out. I'm not going to try to pretend to be the legal --

Q Can the lawyers come talk to us about that?

MR. SNOW: Well, first, let's wait and see what Representative Waxman has to offer. I'm sure at the appropriate point we will have a response.

Q Following on that, the Chairman says that Alberto Gonzales, then White House Counsel, that there's evidence to suggest he was aware that Karl Rove and others were using RNC-related email for government business.

MR. SNOW: Again, that's an allegation and we'll respond to it in due course.

Q Is this being viewed as a serious concern in the White House now?

MR. SNOW: I have not had a conversation with Fred about it, so I don't know. I mean, obviously -- let me put it this way, we've seen a number of times right now where people have been putting together investigations to see what sticks. They have had very little success so far. This is an administration that is very careful about obeying the law. We take it seriously. The White House legal Counsel's Office takes it seriously. And we will look at whatever requests for information people on the Hill may have to offer. We have also made it clear that we are willing to cooperate on a number of fronts, but beyond that, I cannot and shall not go.

link: http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070618006209&newsLang=en

[Spazito]

9. According to Susan Ralston the White House Counsel's Office

has been aware SINCE 2001 that Rove was using RNC-related e-mail for government business:

Q Were other White House officials aware that Mr. Rove in 2001 was providing e-mails from his political accounts to investigators who were looking at Enron?

A I believe so, because all of the documents collected were turned over to the White House Counsel's Office.

Q Similarly, with respect to the six or seven subpoenas from Mr. Fitzgerald, or whatever the number was from Mr. Fitzgerald, were White House officials aware that you and Mr. Rove were providing e-mails sent and received on his political accounts to Mr. Fitzgerald?

A All the documents that we collected in those investigations or for those requests as well were turned over to the White House Counsel's Office to then submit.

http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070618105351.pdf

[jtrockville]

6. Two scandals, WHITEHOUSE.GOV emails and RNC domains

Apparently the Bush administration knew since 2005 of ~5 million missing emails from the WHITEHOUSE.GOV domain and, in violation of the Presidential Records Act, abandoned a plan to recover them back then. Communication using the RNC domains are a separate issue/scandal.

I wonder if Waxman is following up on BOTH these PRA violations.

[theNotoriousP.I.G.]

11. When you say "missing"

what does that mean exactly? I was under the impression that they still exist on servers somewhere and can still be recovered and the only way they could truly have "disappeared" is if the servers were destroyed or purposefully scrubbed.

[jtrockville]

12. Not sure if they can be retrieved

CREW spells out the difference between the two separate scandals (RNC domain emails and WHITEHOUSE.GOV emails) in this fact sheet they posted about their "Without a Trace" report. They don't mention whether email from any of the servers can still be retrieved or not.
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/27675

But whether or not the emails can be retrieved, according to CREW, the Bush administration has already committed 3 violations of the Presidential Records Act - see the "Without a Trace" executive summary:
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/27604

[Bitwit1234]

7. Clinton, Clinton, Clinton, Clinton.

Damn since everytime they get caught in a bind they blame Clinton. They say they are following Clinton's lead.

Well why in the hell aren't the following Clinton's lead in all the good things he did for this country...And besides, when complaints were made about Clinton, the Christmas card list was too long, he had too many over the week end visitors. etc etc why didn't the Clinton administration just say...well why can't we do it, bush did.

[tanyev]

10. Yes, Tony, the Clinton administration did set up two different lines of communication

after the Republicans made such a hullabaloo out of VP Gore making some fund-raising calls from the White House. If the political assets were used only for political activities, that would be OK. But it's NOT OK to use RNC assets to make policy decisions and to circumvent open-records laws. Understand the difference? (I know you do, but you'll never admit it.)

[Enrique]

13. if BIll Clinton jumped off a bridge

would Tony advise Bush jump off too? Huh, Tony?