1115.org

We’ve been reading for weeks now about how White House officials — especially those who have apparently been engaged in assorted forms of skullduggery, Karl Rove, for instance — have (from the very beginning of the first George W. Bush administration) used unofficial communications channels instead of the White House email system. These unofficial channels include RNC-supplied Blackberrys, many email domains once again generously made available by the RNC, as well as things like personal AOL accounts. They have apparently been used in the hope of evading various forms of scrutiny, including subpoena scrutiny.

Susan Ralston, who resigned in such an unseemly hurry on October 6, 2006, in the midst of the Abramoff scandal, “once emailed two associates of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, ‘I now have an RNC blackberry which you can use to e-mail me at any time. No security issues like my WH email.’”

There’s also this: “after an e-mail was apparently sent by accident to the White House account of an assistant to Karl Rove, Abramoff fired another one saying, ‘Damn it, it was not supposed to go in the White House system.’”

All of this, of course, makes it hard for most people to buy into the White House’s bald-faced claims that the use of these unofficial communications channels was all kosher and above board. The L.A. Times reported on Monday, April 9:

White House officials said the system had been used appropriately and was modeled after one used by the Clinton White House political office in the late 1990s.

“The regular staffers who interface with political organizations have a separate e-mail account, and that’s entirely appropriate,” said White House spokesman Scott M. Stanzel. “The practice is followed to avoid inadvertent violations of the law.”

Stanzel said he did not know how many officials used the separate system. Another White House official called it “a handful.”

Funny that just a few short days ago White House officials did not know how many officials used the system, but were pretty sure that it was only a handful. Because yesterday afternoon — and do stop me if you’ve heard this one before — they were suddenly singing a very different tune:

The White House said Wednesday it had mishandled Republican Party-sponsored e-mail accounts used by nearly two dozen presidential aides, resulting in the loss of an undetermined number of e-mails concerning official White House business.
[...]
The Republican National Committee set up the accounts for about 20 Bush aides, such as Karl Rove and his deputies, who get involved in politics, spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

That was the AP reporting on April 11. I don’t know about you, but I have always had real trouble fitting 20 presidential aides into one hand. But wait, here’s the L.A. Times reporting, also on April 11:

The White House said Wednesday that it may have lost what could amount to thousands of messages sent through a private e-mail system used by political guru Karl Rove and at least 50 other top officials, an admission that stirred anger and dismay among congressional investigators.

That was surely the fastest handful to 20 to 50 on record. And how about the smooth segue from “an undetermined number of e-mails” to “thousands of messages” (in the same afternoon, too!).

But turning now to the “Ha, ha, ha! Oops!” side of the story:

“The White House has not done a good enough job overseeing staff using political e-mail accounts to assure compliance with the Presidential Records Act,” White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said in an unusual late-afternoon teleconference with reporters.

As a result, Stanzel said, “we may not have preserved all e-mails that deal with White House business.”

He refused to estimate how many e-mails may have been lost, but the system was used by dozens of officials for more than six years.

Back to the earlier AP story briefly:

Stanzel said some e-mails have been lost because the White House lacked clear policies on complying with Presidential Records Act requirements.

Before 2004, for instance, e-mails to and from the accounts were typically automatically deleted every 30 days along with all other RNC e-mails. Even though that was changed in 2004, so that the White House staffers with those accounts were excluded from the RNC’s automatic deletion policy, some of their e-mails were lost anyway when individual aides deleted their own files, Stanzel said.

And now back to the L.A. Times:

“This is a remarkable admission that raises serious legal and security issues,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is investigating the role of electoral politics in administration policymaking. “The White House has an obligation to disclose all the information it has.”

The missing e-mails not only add to the growing legal and public relations woes for the White House and Rove’s political operation, but also to the problems of Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales. Gonzales, who is under fire for the handling of the U.S. attorney dismissals, was serving as White House counsel at the time the Republican National Committee’s parallel communications system was set up.

His office had at least partial responsibility for establishing ground rules for using the private system.

Do remember that rumors that dear old Buttercheeks read this L.A. Times report and went “Great! Just effing great!” are only rumors.

**Update #1, 10:45am PDT by Matt**

Depends on the definition of preserving:

In her New York Times story, Sheryl Gay Stolberg inaccurately reports that the RNC in 2004 “adopted a policy of preserving e-mail sent by White House officials using its accounts.” What Stanzel actually said was that the RNC just stopped the automatic deletion of those e-mails. Individual staffers could still delete at will, and may very well have regularly cleared out their mailboxes on their own. “Preservation,” in this context, means everything is automatically archived.

Well done, Stolberg.

**Update #2, 11:15am PDT by Sarabeth**

Dan Froomkin reports that the “Ha, ha, ha! Oops!” has resulted from “brazen violation” of a crystal-clear White House policy that they are now refusing to make public:

Countless e-mails to and from many key White House staffers have been deleted — lost to history and placed out of reach of congressional subpoenas — due to a brazen violation of internal White House policy that was allowed to continue for more than six years, the White House acknowledged yesterday.
[...]
Until 2004, all e-mail on RNC accounts was routinely deleted after 30 days. Since 2004, White House staffers using those accounts have been able to save their e-mail indefinitely — but have also been able to delete whatever they felt like deleting. By comparison, the White House e-mail system preserves absolutely everything forever, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.
[...]
In an afternoon conference call with reporters, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel spread the blame all around. “White House policy did not give clear enough guidance,” he said. “The oversight of that wasn’t aggressive enough.” And individual White House staffers “did not do a good enough job of following existing preservation policy — or seeking guidance.”

Said Stanzel: “I guess the bottom line is that our policy at the White House was not clear enough for employees.”

But when I asked Stanzel to read out loud the White House e-mail policy, it seemed clear enough to me: “Federal law requires the preservation of electronic communications sent or received by White House staff,” says the handbook that all staffers are given and expected to read and comply with.

“As a result, personnel working on behalf of the EOP [Executive Office of the President] are expected to only use government-provided e-mail services for all official communication.”

The handbook further explains: “The official EOP e-mail system is designed to automatically comply with records management requirements.”

And if that wasn’t clear enough, the handbook notes — as was the case in the Clinton administration — that “commercial or free e-mail sites and chat rooms are blocked from the EOP network to help staff members ensure compliance and to prevent the circumvention of the records management requirements.”

Stanzel refused to publicly release the relevant portions of the White House staff manual and denied my request to make public the transcript of the call, which lasted more than an hour but which — due to Stanzel’s refusal or inability to provide straight answers on many issues — raised more questions than it answered.