[Sosfbay-discuss] Rove sent 140,00 backchannel e-mails

[JamBoi]

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21936708-401,00.html
Bush adviser sent 140,000 sneaky emails

>From correspondents in Washington

June 20, 2007 12:00am
Article from: The Australian

PRESIDENTIAL adviser Karl Rove sent more than 140,000
emails through the Republican National Committee's
computer system, circumventing a law intended to
guarantee the preservation of presidential records.

House of Representatives investigators have found Mr
Rove was the biggest user of the back-channel system
at the White House, and more than half his
communications dealt with official business.

The White House has previously acknowledged that aides
to US President George W. Bush improperly used the
political email accounts. But the material released
yesterday details for the first time how frequently
they used the accounts and what for.

The house oversight committee found White House aides
used the RNC account for official matters such as
appointments and grant announcements.

Bush spokesmen initially said about 50 presidential
aides used the Republican Party email system to avoid
sending political messages through the White House
system, which is supposed to be reserved for
government business.

But the line between official communications and
partisan political messages seems to have been
blurred. Susan Ralston, a former aide to Mr Rove, told
congressional investigators he sent almost all his
emails through the RNC system and used a Blackberry he
received from the Republican Party from his first day
at the White House.

Although 140,216 of Mr Rove's emails have been
preserved, committee investigators found emails from
51 of the 88 White House aides who used the
back-channel message system appear to have been
destroyed.

Investigators said they could find no record of emails
from Ken Mehlman, a former Rove aide who later became
Republican Party chairman. Ms Ralston told
investigators Mr Mehlman regularly used the RNC system
when he was at the White House.

"At this point in the investigation, it is not
possible to determine how many presidential records
have been destroyed," the committee said.

Investigators had evidence of "potentially extensive
violations of the Presidential Records Act by senior
White House officials".

The 1978 law requires the White House to preserve
official documents. US Attorney-General Alberto
Gonzales, who was White House counsel at the time, may
have known about the White House aides' use of the RNC
email system, but he took no action to stop
destruction of the records, the investigators found.

A Republican Party spokeswoman dismissed the committee
report as "political spin".

But Democrats suggested White House aides used the
back-channel email system to hide potentially
embarrassing or even incriminating messages, an
allegation the White House denied.

___________________

JamBoi: Jammy, The Sacred Cow Slayer
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http://dailyJam.blogspot.com

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