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Blog Entry from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

Susan Ralston answers questions about Karl Rove's e-mails. He used private accounts "from day one."

Earlier today, we referenced the deposition of Susan Ralston by the House Oversight Committee.   Excerpts of the transcripts -- not just links to the pdf documents -- have now been posted at The Gavel.   Definitely worth a read.  We're including two sections about Rove's e-mail usage:

BY MS. AMERLING: When did Karl Rove first start usìng his RNC e-mail account to send and receive e-mails from the White House?

A From day one.

[…]

Q For how long did Mr. Rove continue to use his political e-mail account to send e-mails from the White House?

A The entire time that I worked for hìm.

[…]

Q For how long did Mr. Rove continue to use his polit’ical e-mail account to send e-mails from the White House?

A The entire time that I worked for hìm.

Q Do you know how frequently he used this account?

A It would be hard for me to quantify how much. He used it a lot.

Q Did Mr. Rove have a BlackBerry provided by the RNC?

A I don’t know if the RNC actually provided the equìpment. It was a political BlackBerry, I don’t know if the BlackBerry came on — if he had it during the campaign — it was a political BlackBerry.

Q Did you ever see him use it?

A Yes.

Q When did he first start using this BlackBerry?

A I don’t know when he started using it in the White House. My best recollection is that he had it at the very beginning, but I can’t say exactly when it started.

Q Do you know how often he used it?

A He used it daily.

Q Many times over the course of a day?

A Yes.

Q Did he have a White House BlackBerry, an official White House BlackBerry?

A No, he did not.

[…]

Q Beyond Mr. Fitzgerald’s requests, were there other requests from other investigators for Mr. Rove’s e-mails?

A The only — there may have been, but the only other major investigation that I recall specifically was related to Enron.

Q Do you know when that would have been?

A I believe that was in 2001 sometime.

Q And you think in 2001 that Mr. Rove searched his e-mails to respond to a request for investigators relating to Enron?

A He or I searched.

Q And that search included a search of political e-mails sent over the political account?

A Correct.

Q Were other White House officials aware that Mr. Rove in 2001- was providing e-mails from his polìtical accounts to investigators who were looking at Enron?

A I believe so, because all of the documents that we collected were then turned over to the White House Counsel’s Office.

And then there's Rove other private, but not RNC, e-mails:

Q Do you know what hi s personal e-maìl account address was?

A It was an AOL account. I don’t remember right now,

Q Do you know whether Ken Mehlman used a political e-mail account?

A You know. Karl also had a “Rove.com” e-mail address .

Q You are referrìng to a personal e-mail address?

A Well, it was — it wasn’t — I don’t know how you would classify it, but it was a “Rove.com” e-mail address. There were — I can’t remember when, but at some point his Rove. com e-mai ls all went to the same political account. So if you sent an account — if you sent an e-maìl to George W. Bush.com or if you sent an e-mail to him at Rove.com, it went to the same place.

Q Do you know why his e-mail was set up that way?

A I don’t.

Q Do you know whether he made any official communications over his Rove.com e-mail account?

A He may have, but I can’t think of — I mean, he may have, because he used it all the time.

Q Do you know whether e-mails sent or received on his Rove.com account were provided to investigators who sought e-mail records from Mr. Rove?

A I believe so. They took his political laptop; and, as I mentioned, that laptop was taken durìng the leak investìgation. All of the e-mails just kind of got funneled into the same potitical server.

 

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