White House E-Mails

28 Mar 2007 // The public disclosure that some White House aides conduct official business using external e-mail accounts -- possibly to avert the White House e-mail system's automatic archiving -- has alarmed Congressional investigators, has piqued the interest of a (scant) few reporters, and has had a sobering effect on White House staffers.

But in the latter case, rather than properly move all their communication into the suitably secure and documented realm of the White House servers, some Bush aides are apparently instead scurrying to put more and more of their communications out of reach of history -- and, they hope, subpoenas.

Paul Bedard writes for U.S. News: "The growing controversy over the firing of federal prosecutors and what administration officials knew about it is renewing concerns among Bush aides over the less-than-secret aspect of E-emails. Those concerns were elevated this week when a House chairman asked that all aides retain their E-mails.

"But just a week after E-mails in the U.S. attorneys case became a main focus of congressional Democrats probing the firings, several aides said that they stopped using the White House system except for purely professional correspondence.

"'We just got a bit lazy,' said one aide. 'We knew E-mails could be subpoenaed. We saw that with the Clintons but I don't think anybody saw that we were doing anything wrong.'

"But the release of White House emails to the Democrats and the expanded request for more from Rep. Henry Waxman has iced the system. At least two aides said that they have subsequently bought their own private E-mail system through a cellular phone or Blackberry server. When asked how he communicated, one aide pulled out a new personal cellphone and said, 'texting.'"

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino was asked about the external e-mail traffic at yesterday's briefing:

"Q What's the White House view on the congressional Democrat calls for safeguarding political emails by the party or by anyone in the White House who may have a sort of political email account?

"MS. PERINO: What I know -- I checked into this -- is that certain White House officials and staff members who have responsibilities that straddle both worlds, that have responsibilities in communication, regular interface with political organizations, do have a separate email account for those political communications. That is entirely appropriate, especially when you think of it in this case, that the practice is in place and followed precisely to avoid any inadvertent violations of what is called the Hatch Act. And so there are some members of the administration that do straddle both worlds. And so under an abundance of caution so that they don't violate the Hatch Act, they have these separate emails.

"Q So is that traffic being safeguarded, if you will, for Congress to look at, if it decides?

"MS. PERINO: With respect to presidential records, an email that is sent to or from a White House email address is automatically archived, even if the other person is not using a White House email account. I believe our -- well, I know that our White House Counsel's Office is in communication with the RNC's (Republican National Committee] general counsel to make sure that those archivings have taken place.

"Q So if someone sent aide X an email at one of these political accounts, are you saying that it would be archived on the --

"MS. PERINO: As a general matter, I believe that to be true, but as I said, the White House -- our White House Counsel's Office is talking to the RNC just to make sure that that's the case. In some cases -- I don't know how far back that goes. I think that -- even though that there was email use in the '90s, I do think that our administration is the first, in a lot of cases, to be dealing with the volume of email that all of us deal with on a daily basis and that now you guys get to have fun with looking through.

"Q So how's the White House going to respond to the request for them?

"MS. PERINO: As I said, our White House Counsel's Office is talking to the RNC, and then we'll try to get back to you.....

"Q How many people have those accounts?

"MS. PERINO: I think it's a handful, I don't think it's a lot. Obviously, the Office of Political Affairs, because they straddle these -- both worlds. I know I don't have one."

But Perino was either accidentally or intentionally muddling the issue.

First of all, there is no question that e-mails to and from White House accounts get archived, regardless of who they come from or are sent to. The issue is what has happened to e-mails to and from White House officials that were kept entirely out of the White House system.

Secondly, while the Hatch Act would appear to prohibit the use of government resources such as e-mail accounts for political purposes, the issue here is the precise opposite: The use of political e-mail accounts for official business. And that raises all sorts of questions about preservation, security, appropriateness, and subterfuge that Perino did not address.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Commmittee on Monday directed the RNC to preserve the emails of White House officials.

And as I wrote in Friday's column, Alexis Simendinger wrote in the National Journal: "According to one former White House official familiar with Rove's work habits, the president's top political adviser does 'about 95 percent' of his e-mailing using his RNC-based account. Many White House officials, including aides in the Political Affairs Office, use the RNC account as an alternative to their official government e-mail addresses to help keep their official and political duties separate. Although some White House officials use dual sets of electronic devices for that purpose,

"Rove prefers to use his RNC-provided BlackBerry for convenience, the former official said."

I asked the White House a series of questions about the outside e-mails two weeks ago, but have yet to hear back.

In a letter to the White House today, the activist watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government points out that a Clinton-era White House staff manual explicitly required aides to use White House e-mail accounts for "all official communications." And a September 2000 memo to White House staff specifically banned the use of other e-mail services.