WA POST Dan Froomkin: White House Blocks E-Mail Delivery

White House Blocks E-Mail Delivery
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Wednesday, April 18, 2007; 1:28 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/04/18/BL2007041801356.html


The White House yesterday hinted that it may try to assert executive privilege in denying Congressional investigators access to e-mails sent and received by White House aides on their Republican National Committee e-mail accounts.

It would be an unconventional exercise of a privilege that is controversial even in its traditional application: to protect the White House itself from subpoenas. And it would be another twist in an already peculiarly convoluted story.

..........

The White House sent the RNC a letter yesterday making it clear the RNC was not to comply: "We understand that once has reached an agreement on the appropriate search terms with the Judiciary Committee and has gathered information it believes responsive to the Letter's requests, you will provide the Office of the Counsel to the President with an opportunity to review such material before communicating it to any other person. Such review is necessary to determine, among other things, (1) whether any materials implicating the Presidential Records Act are, in fact, involved, and (2) whether, the Executive Branch may need to take measures necessary to protect its other legal interests in communications responsive to the Letter's requests."

.............

Follow this evolving issue at:

Email-Gate FACTS: Felons, georgewbush.com, gwb43.com , et. al.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=523978&mesg_id=523978

Congress who can't! Or did the WH tell the RNC to close their eyes when gathering up the emails...

Congress, a co-equal branch of government under the Constitution, has requested documents of an entity.

How can the executive branch supercede the authority of a co-equal branch of government? How?

Conyers ought to send U.S. Marshals to seize the information, now.

This is your chance to restore integrity to the conservative cause and purge the neo-cons from your ranks once and for all. Their policies have made you the minority for years if not decades to come. You are losing the support of moderates everywhere as they choose the Democratic Party to be closer to their beliefs.

You reputation has been tarnished by the arrogance of the Bush Administration. Your integrity has been impugned by the Bush Administration's constant disregard for the law and the lies they have been caught in countless times before. Your conservatism has been questioned by the largest spending administration of all time and it's massive increase in government.

The scandals just keep getting worse and over the next 2 years it could be enough to bury not only your Presidential candidates' chances but also put you in a far deeper minority where you spend generations having to wait your turn again.

There is one way out of all of this for you. Disassociate with the President and his attempt to abuse Executive Privilege and hand over the emails that you are assured to be subpoena'd for.

Let's face it, this will not hold up in the court of law and then you will come off looking even worse for trying to cover up and hide things for an Administration that most view as corrupt and that only 30% of the nation supports. How do you win in this situation?

Handing over the emails will certainly increase the ability to oust Bush and Cheney but it also gives the GOP some credibility in not being a part of the cover up. It provides you with cover in that you were only doing as you were told by the Executive Branch. It allows the party to back away from the unpopularity of this President.

Sure there will be a few sacrificial lambs but Brutus didn't kill Julius Caesar because he wanted power or hated the man, he did it because he believed he was serving the good of the Roman Republic and preventing a tyrant to subvert Roman law for his own power grab.

Here too, the friends of the tyrant must wield their swords... for the good of the Republic.

For the future of the country and the Republican Party, ignore marching orders from the President and do what is right. The courts will uphold your decision if you do.

-Rp

Why else would they claim executive privilege?

not to mention consecutive terms in prison.

The RNC just changed the government structure of America and spit in our faces.

Republicans - bringing honor and dignity to the White House. Never forget.

L. Coyote Thu Apr-19-07 04:04 PM
Response to Reply #213
214. dnc.org: DNC Lawsuit to Obtain RNC-Justice Department Communications
FROM: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=523978&mesg_id=523978

DNC Lawsuit to Obtain RNC-Justice Department Communications
Posted by Michael Link on April 19, 2007 at 03:02 PM
http://dnc.org/a/2007/04/dnc_lawsuit_to.php

One month ago, I hand-delivered a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request (http://a9.g.akamai.net/7/9/8082/v001/democratic1.downlo... ) to the Department of Justice on behalf of Governor Dean and the tens of thousands of you who added your names to it. The FOIA attempted to get beyond the stonewalling, contradictions and misleading statements given surrounding the firing of the U.S. Attorneys by requesting:

all documents in the possession, custody or control of the Office of Attorney General, Office of the Deputy Attorney General and Office of the Associate Attorney General, prepared on or after November 1, 2004, constituting, reflecting or referring to communications to or from or to any officer or employee of the Republican National Committee or any state or local Republican Party committee, referring, relating to or discussing (1) any prospective or ongoing investigation or prosecution; (2) initiating any investigation or prosecution; or (3) the appointment or termination of any United States Attorney; or (4) the performance, work or activity of any United States Attorney or Office of United States Attorney;

Since then, the Republican National Committee claims they have lost emails from Karl Rove's email RNC account during an 18-week gap. In addition, some of the White House staffers using RNC email addresses may have been used to communicate with the Justice Department about the firings.

Now it's 30 days since the FOIA request and we've filed a lawsuit in an effort to obtain the RNC-Justice Department communications. The stonewalling continues, but this time it's affecting a request by tens of thousands of you.

You can read our complaint against the Justice Department here (http://www.democrats.org/DNCvUSDOJ ).
Also, you can read the original FOIA letter here (http://a9.g.akamai.net/7/9/8082/v001/democratic1.downlo... ), which was signed by Governor Dean.