GWB43.com, AttorneyGate and Federal Records Requirements
Related:: Judge To White House: Keep All E-Mail
Last week, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) asked Congress to investigate White House staff use of "gwb43.com" e-mail addresses while conducting official government business. (tip) The domain name is owned by the Republican National Committee (see a screenshot of whois registry info) and was probably created as a means for staffers to have e-mail conversations about the 2004 election while at work (bypassing the prohibited White House mail servers).
What's fascinating is that staff continued to use this address long after the election -- and for government business. For example, J. Scott Jennings, White House Deputy Political Director, used his account at gwb43.com to communicate with Justice Department Chief of Staff D. Kyle Sampson about the firing of eight US attorneys.
CREW -- and others, including me -- wonder if this was a deliberate attempt to evade the Presidential Records Act (PRA). Interestingly, according to the National Journal (reported in the WaPo), Karl Rove "does 'about 95 percent' of his e-mailing using his RNC-based account."
It's hard to imagine someone arguing, with a straight face, that communications on a political mail server can be construed as "privileged." But expect it to happen.
The use of outside e-mail accounts is not confined to AttorneyGate. CREW notes that Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove’s former assistant Susan Ralston used three private e-mail accounts -- rnchq.com (headquarters of the Republican National Committee), georgebush.com (re-election campaign) and aol.com -- to communicate with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Many of the mails, according to CREW, provide "inside White House information to Mr. Abramoff in response to Mr. Abramoff’s efforts to broker deals for his clients and place specified individuals in positions within the administration."
In its press release, CREW writes:
CREW has learned that to fulfill its statutory obligations under the PRA, the White House email system automatically copies all messages created by staff and sends them to the White House Office of Records Management for archiving. It appears that the White House deliberately bypassed the automatic archiving function of its own email system that was designed to ensure compliance with the PRA.
CREW currently is involved in several lawsuits challenging other improper and illegal record keeping practices of the Bush administration. In this matter, CREW cannot bring a lawsuit challenging the White House on its compliance with the PRA because of a legal precedent that relies on presidents to honor the mandatory record-keeping practices, with no judicial review.
Back Story
For those too young to remember Watergate, the 1978 PRA was a response to Nixonian secrecy. Prior to the act, Presidential communications were private. Congress made them publicly-owned but also put restrictions on how soon they could be made public, so that Presidents and advisors could be assured of confidentiality while in office.
The Act was passed in 1978. It has been modified by two Executive Orders: one from Reagan and one from Bush. The Bush change "gave former Presidents and their heirs (as well as former Vice-Presidents for the first time) indefinite authority to hold up release of White House records" as well as "permits the sitting president to deny the release of papers of a former president, even if that previous president authorizes the release of his papers."
Executive Orders are supposed to clarify how legislation will be implemented -- not "veto" portions of the law that the President doesn't like.
Update: This is a story with no legs. Not sure why -- it seems dicey on too many levels. In reverse chronological order:
- Great Falls (NY) Post Star (mentioned at very end of story)
- TPM Cafe
- Think Progress
- mLive.com (Michigan, AP)
- ABC News
- Washington Post (Dan Froomkin)
- TPM Muckraker
- Brocktown News (NV, mentioned in AP story)
Originally posted at March 23, 2007 @ 21:46
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Comments
This article gives a good background on the Presidential Record Act, and explains Bush’s Executive Order giving an unprecedented expansion of power to the presidents’ authority to control their records nicely. However, it misses a fix to this problem: legislation to repeal the order.
A bill to nullify the Bush E.O. on presidential records has passed the House, but is somehow stuck in the Senate. It has strong support from many in the Senate, but Senator Clinton is not a cosponsor of the bill, the Presidential Records Act Amendments. This is despite her assurances that she fully supports transparency in government. If Senator Clinton is really serious about wanting less secrecy, she could demonstrate her interest in openness now by signing on to the bill to repeal the Bush Executive Order that allows records to be kept out of the public domain indefinitely.
Hi, Angela!
Thanks — this article was written long before the bill was introduced. I did talk about the bill on Tuesday, Judge To White House: Keep All E-Mail.
Your note suggests I should cross-link this “forward” in time.
I was not aware that Clinton was resistant — thanks for that heads up.