http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0707/Waxman_seeks_RNC_emails_from_Fielding.htmlJuly 25, 2007
Waxman seeks RNC e-mails from White House Counsel Fielding
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) wants White House Counsel Fred Fielding to turn over any e-mails his office has from White House aides on Republican National Committee accounts. Waxman is giving Fielding until Aug. 17 to comply with his request.
Waxman also wants to know whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who served as White House counsel from 2001 to 2005, was aware that White House aides were using the RNC accounts to evade federal record-keeping requirements. An investigation by Waxman's committee found that 88 White House officials have used the RNC accounts, although the RNC no longer has e-mails from 51 of those people. The RNC also deleted all e-mails prior to 2006.
"It would be a matter of serious concern if Mr. Gonzales or other attorneys in the Office of White House Counsel were aware that White House officials were using RNC e-mails accounts to conduct official business, but ignored these apparent violations of the Presidential Records Act," Waxman said his letter to Fielding.
Waxman wants Fielding's office to provide copies of any e-mails in its possession related to the "investigation of Enron or the Vice President's energy task force," the Valerie Plame leak probe, or "any other investigation prior to March 26, 2007." Waxman first requested information on the policies and uses of the RNC e-mail accounts that month, but Fielding's office has not responded to that request.
Waxman also wants the names of any White House officials, including in Fielding's office, "who reviewed or were otherwise aware of the existence of these e-mails."
Susan Ralston, former assistant to Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff, told the Oversight and Gov't Reform Committee that she and Rove searched his RNC-controlled e-mail account for any messages related to Enron or the Plame leak and turned those e-mails over to the White House counsel's office.
Some White House officials were authorized to use the RNC accounts to conduct political work, although Democrats now suspect that the accounts were in fact used to evade the federal law on retaining presidential records. The existence of such communications was first uncovered when Democrats began looking into the firing of nine U.S. attorneys last year and notice e-mails from senior aides using the RNC accounts or others controlled by the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign.
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