Giving new meaning to "off the record"

15 Mar 2007 // Via Atrios and TPM Muckraker, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) issued this press release today:

In light of e-mails released by the House Judiciary Committee this week in response to the on-going U.S. Attorney firing scandal, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent a letter today to Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), asking for an investigation into whether the White House has violated its mandatory record-keeping obligation under the Presidential Records Act (PRA).

One email, sent to Justice Department Chief of Staff D. Kyle Sampson from J. Scott Jennings, White House Deputy Political Director, uses an email account, SJennings@gwb43.com, on a server owned by the Republican National Committee. This raises serious questions about whether the White House was trying to deliberately evade its responsibilities under the PRA, which directs the president to take all necessary steps to maintain presidential records to provide a full accounting of all activities during his tenure.

A number of other emails from Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove’s former assistant Susan Ralston to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff document Ms. Ralston’s use of three outside domains: rnchq.com (used for the headquarters of the Republican National Committee), georgebush.com and aol.com. In many of these emails Ms. Ralston is communicating 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.

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.

Hmmm... doesn't this sound reminiscent of those missing Plame emails referred to by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald a year ago, in a letter to Scooter Libby's attorneys:

... we advise you that we have learned that not all email of the Office of Vice President and the Executive Office of President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system.

And then there was this unexplained, somewhat comic passage from Libby's grand jury testimony, regarding a phone call he made to Judy Miller on July 12, 2003:

Q. Okay. And what phone did you use?

A. I think either the government -- there are two phones in that office and I don't know which one I used. One is my personal home phone and the other is -- I think I used my personal home phone.

Q. And you also have a government phone there?

A. There's also a government phone there.

[. . .] Q. And the phone bills, I presume since it's a government phone, go to the government, not to you?

A. I certainly hope so. I've never been quite clear, but I'm hoping I'm not paying for that phone.

[. . .] Q. Okay. And on your personal phone, what's your long distance service?

A. AT&T, I guess.

[. . .] Q. And do you use a phone card for long-distance? Is it your practice to dial one of those numbers that --

A. No, I think on this -- well, from my home I would just use my own -- I could have used the government card and probably should have, but I think I just paid for it myself.

[. . .] Q. Okay, so you don't do the 10 cents a minute service?

A. No, sir. And I, and I don't charge it to the government usually, although I suppose I should.

Q. Okay. And your recollection is that when you spoke to Ms. Miller on that weekend you were using your personal phone at your home, but possibly your government phone at your home?

A. Yes, sir. I think it was my personal phone.

Q. Okay. Any chance you used your cell phone, your government cell phone?

A. My recollection of the call to Judith Miller is that it, it was interrupted and I think I did all of them on my, all of them on my home desk phone.

Q. Okay. And how many cell phones do you have?

A. Just the one.

Sure sounds like Fitz had reason to think Libby made some off-the-books phone calls, doesn't it? And combined with the non-archived OVP emails, it makes the hijinks of Rove's minions seem even less coincidental. Over to you, Rep. Waxman...