REPORT - WITHOUT A TRACE: The Missing White House Emails and Violations of the PRA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APRIL 12, 2007

In a startling new revelation, CREW has also learned through two confidential sources that the Executive Office of the President (EOP) has lost over five million emails generated between March 2003 and October 2005. The White House counsel's office was advised of these problems in 2005 and CREW has been told that the White House was given a plan of action to recover these emails, but to date nothing has been done to rectify this significant loss of records.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said today, "It's clear that the White House has been willfully violating the law, the only question now is to what extent? The ever changing excuses offered by the administration Ð that they didn't want to violate the Hatch Act, that staff wasn't clear on the law Ð are patently ridiculous. Very convenient that embarrassing Ð and potentially incriminating Ð emails have gone missing. It's the Nixon White House all over again."

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WITHOUT A TRACE covers the following areas:

Presidential Records Act (PRA): Enacted in 1978, requires the president to preserve all presidential records, which are defined as those records relating to the "activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that reflect the performance of constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties..."

Clinton Administration Policy: In 1993, then-Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary John Podesta sent a memo to all presidential staff explaining that the PRA required all staff members to maintain all records, including emails. Podesta stated that the use of external email networks was prohibited because records would not be saved as required. The 1997 White House Manual and a 2000 memo issued by Mark Lindsay, then Assistant to the President for Management and Administration echoed this policy, requiring staff to use only the White House email system for official communications.

http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/27607

You can:
Download the executive summary 80K PDF
Download the exhibits 4.4MB PDF
Download the full report 2.4MB PDF

optimistically curious

Nixon never went to prison...

I am so glad that Congress is pushing the issue. I have been against starting impeachment for decisions that were made several years ago without a peep from Congress, but this is live. They need to push, push, push, until it all comes out. And I can't believe they actually seem to be doing that.

oh, boy sooo many laws were broken over the years....

(my dogs feel insulted...) :)

One question worthy of congressional consideration is whether it would be constitutional for citizens to be able to sue for violations of the PRA, as they can under the Freedom of Information Act. This is a matter of great public interest and urgency that warrants careful consideration of a full range of views, not just those of
the Bush administration.

Left unchecked, the unlawful record keeping practices of the Bush administration will
deprive the public of an important piece of historical evidence and the ability to evaluate this
presidency in the full context of its actions, not just those self-selected for public review. By
destroying presidential records, this administration is also thwarting the ability of Congress and
the courts to effectively oversee its actions, and the ability of the public to hold the
administration fully accountable.

on edit: They seem to be researching the constitutionality and sue them on behalf of We The People!

Wow, if congress under these circumstances does not start looking into impeachment, they themselves may be in trouble...could that be?

They should all join Scooter at the playground! If the emails cannot be produced, impeachment and conviction is not only an option, it should be MANDATORY! Those emails belong to "we the people", and we should demand impeachment and imprisonment!