White House On E-Mails: "We Screwed Up"

Senate Judiciary Committee Seeks Missing White House E-Mails As Part Of Probe Of Prosecutor Firings

(CBS/AP) 
White House officials could not say how many e-mails may have been lost. Meetings Thursday between lawmakers' aides and lawyers for the White House and RNC shed little new light, according to letters sent to the Gonzales and the RNC by the chairmen of congressional committees.

Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said RNC lawyer Rob Kelner reported that roughly 50 White House officials have had e-mail accounts on the GOP committee's servers during Bush's tenure, but the RNC may be able to recover only those sent from 2004 on. That's when the RNC put a hold on an automatic purge policy.

It was unclear, Waxman wrote, whether the RNC had or would be able to recover e-mails written by White House officials, including Rove, and sent on the committee's account.

A second Democratic House chairman, the Judiciary Committee's John Conyers of Michigan, in a separate letter asked RNC Chairman Robert M. Duncan to provide all e-mails from any government employee regarding the firings, directly to his panel rather than to the White House first.

"We would consider that to be an unjustified delay in responding to our request and potentially as an obstruction of our investigation," Conyers wrote.

The RNC did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department prepared to release more documents detailing the decisions, and their aftermath, to fire the eight prosecutors. The department has already given more than 3,400 pages of e-mails, schedules, memos and other documents to congressional panels.

On Capitol Hill, Democrats tried to stave off charges of setting perjury traps for witnesses. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., released 10 questions the panel would be asking Gonzales.

"'I don't know' will not be an adequate response to any question by the committee," said Schumer, who is leading the investigation. Gonzales, who in the past has issued conflicting accounts of his role in the firings, emerged Thursday from weeks of closed-door preparations for his testimony to attend the funeral of an FBI agent in Readington Township, N.J.

Also Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee authorized Leahy to issue subpoenas that would require the administration to surrender hundreds more documents and force two officials, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General William Moschella and White House political aide Scott Jennings, to reveal their roles in the firings. The panel delayed for a week a vote on whether to authorize a subpoena for Rove's deputy, Sara Taylor.

Also Thursday, House and Senate Judiciary Committee members interviewed Mike Battle, the former head of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys who carried out the firings. On Friday, they were to call back Kyle Sampson, Gonzales' former chief of staff who quit amid the uproar and testified last month that his former boss was involved in the planning.

Leahy has not issued any subpoenas, but permission by his committee gives him authority to require testimony from all eight of the fired U.S. attorneys and several White House and Justice Department officials named as having had roles in the firings. The White House has refused to make officials such as Rove available to testify under oath.

[kcstan11]

It's time to impeach this whole stinkin administration ... from the White House gardener right up to DUMBYA ....

[randalds]

No wonder $10 Billion got misplaced in Iraq and Walter Reed got as bad as it did. The whole junta is so F'd Up, they have to start all over daily; they can't keep up with records or documents. The New-Ku-Ler codes must be handwritten on a piece of paper that's taped to the inside of the football's case, unless they're lost.
Posted by firststate at 02:27 AM : Apr 14, 2007

Personally I have little doubt that a large piece of that missing $10 billion is safely stashed away in bank accounts in Dubai waiting for the end of this presidency so Cheney can pick it up. I'm also sure that Papa Doc Bush (George H.W.) has his share of it stashed away somewhere too from his cut that came the way of the Carlye Group. After all he can't depend on his idiot son Baby Doc Bush to be smart enough to grab any, so he has Babs with her finger to his back to make him do it for him.

[firststate]

I'd be more comfortable if someone else's forensic experts were working on the data retrieval. These experts could just as easily be making sure they got rid of all the emails.

There are definitely criminal acts involved. Deleting the emails was a crime, end of story. Numbnuts, himself couldn't lawfully delete them. The effort involved in really deleting them would make the effort required to "unintentionally" erase the Nixon Watergate tapes pale in comparison, even though the tapes had been subjected to numerous erasures. If the Nixon Watergate conversations had been transmitted on phone lines throughout the Mid-Atlantic and recorded at various locations with time and transmission details embedded on the tape, with backup copies made at some locations, then successfully erasing all the tapes for the same time-span, including the backups several times over, would begin to compare to deleting JUST ONE of the emails.

Even hardcore bushies should hope the deletions were intended to hide evidence. If it were an accident, the DichNBush team aren't competent to handle a McDonald's order. No wonder $10 Billion got misplaced in Iraq and Walter Reed got as bad as it did. The whole junta is so F'd Up, they have to start all over daily; they can't keep up with records or documents. The New-Ku-Ler codes must be handwritten on a piece of paper that's taped to the inside of the football's case, unless they're lost.

[waynabq]

Who is this jerk to say someone is lying? What does he know that no one else knows?
Posted by lawandorder6 at 12:20 PM : Apr 13, 2007

If you support Bush and his cronies, your handle is definitely a "misnomer".

[david1737]

There comes a point when even the most loyal of people have to step back and question themselves. If you still support the Bush Administration at this point, then just ask yourself the following question. Is the Bush Administration truly taking our country in the right direction?

[toldyouso21]

"But while Perino pushed back on questions about the e-mails, she also made an uncommonly candid admission. "

Meaning piglet is generally a big, fat, little liar.

[bobnjersey]

[They believe that anything they do is, by definition, good and right, and therefore there is never anything wrong with attempts to hide it or even misleading the country about what they did.]

this little trait right here is really the most troubling of all ... cause this means that there aint no end to this until someone else decides it's over.

[shingles1]

Glenn Greenwald has a nice post which catalogs just how common this Administration "accidentally" loses information and evidence, particularly when it's vital to an ongoing investigation. It's not just once or twice, but CONSTANT, almost as if it's STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE for these clowns.

And I quote:

This administration does not believe it is subject to oversight or the rule of law. They hate investigations and scrutiny and do everything possible -- legal and illegal -- to block them...

...They affirmatively believe in lying and destroying evidence and obstructing investigations in order to conceal their behavior. They believe that anything they do is, by definition, good and right, and therefore there is never anything wrong with attempts to hide it or even misleading the country about what they did.

[randalds]

Here's what you don't seem to know "jerk". The emails cannot be deleted or lost. The average teenager could find them. I could very easily find them as could you, assuming you are able to take your head out of your backside.


Posted by frankly6 at 02:10 PM : Apr 13, 2007

I wouldn't bet real money on that last part frankly. I mean it's not fair to him since as a Bush supporter his head is permanently stuck up there.

[forthepeopl1]

its time to march down to washington

[inventagod2]

Karl Rove, AGAIN???

[j0hnwi11iams]

"What we are doing to fix the Problem": Gentlemen, start your shredders.

Add yet another reason for impeachment. Power should bear the burden of proof. As far as I am concerned, they are guilty until they can prove their innocence. "Lost" emails, indeed.

[frankly6]

Who is this jerk to say someone is lying? What does he know that no one else knows?
Posted by lawandorder6 at 12:20 PM : Apr 13, 2007


lawandorder6

Here's what you don't seem to know "jerk". The emails cannot be deleted or lost. The average teenager could find them. I could very easily find them as could you, assuming you are able to take your head out of your backside.

[nyckate]

lawandorder6 - you must be one of the dumber users of the net yet -- in order for those e-mails to have been deleted off the servers (the one sent from and the one sent to) Rove would have had to hire an expert to go into BOTH servers to specifically delete his e-mails.

It becomes clearer and clearer that its only the dumbest of the dumb still trying to defend BushCo -- I almost feel sorry for the rest that got taken in by the media perception of Bush that Rove sold them - but then again they were pretty stupid too for a while - bet their daddies bought a Pinto or two in their lifetime!!

[forthepeopl1]

Karl Rove's lawyer on Friday dismissed the notion that President Bush's chief political adviser intentionally deleted his own e-mails from a Republican-sponsored server, saying Rove believed the communications were being preserved in accordance with the law.

ok they want us to beleive this..just like they wanted us to beleive that the war was to for the protection of americans..

they better hang him to with all the rest of bush crime family..

[david1737]

Perhaps the "missing" e-mails are with the WMD, which they can't find either?

Enough is Enough

Neo-Con-Artists out!

[panhandlpete]

Does anyone else sense that there appears to be a sadistic force operating in the shadows of this WH? This is the epitomy of stupidity coming from this WH to think that computer experts are going to buy this lame excuse for "lost e-mails", and Sen.Leahy's committee should subpoena email accounts along with the hard drives, if necessary.

BUT, even when these folks are exposed in the bright light of day with their "hands in the cookie jar", they just smirk and go on to the next opportunity to do harm to the Constitution and our Laws, suffering NO CONSEQUENCE. Oh, I forgot, WHAT LAWS?...they don't have to operate under FISA laws, or any others if National Security is involved. So, don't be surprised to hear that many emails involve NS or claim executive privilege, or something! COVERUPS...

Interesting that 18 minutes of tape began Nixon takedown.....what will be the end story for these emails and attorney firings?

[sandy19731]

Obama / Leahy '08

[bobnjersey]

[Who is this jerk to say someone is lying? What does he know that no one else knows?]

the question you should be asking is ... what does everyone else seem to know that YOU still do not know?

[lawandorder6]

Who is this jerk to say someone is lying? What does he know that no one else knows?