CREW calls for investigation into WH use of private email accounts, meeting lobbyists in cafes

Remember that NYT article last week? Looks like it has triggered a call for an investigation by a progressive group.

Excerpt:

28 Jun 2010

Washington, D.C. - Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to investigate and hold hearings on the extent to which White House staff violated the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and Federal Records Act (FRA) by using private email accounts in exchanges with lobbyists and by holding meetings with lobbyists outside of the White House.

CREW has been involved in litigation against the Bush and Obama White Houses concerning both the preservation of electronic records and White House visitor logs.

CREW’s letter follows a June 25 , 2010 New York Times article revealing that White House staff routinely use their personal email accounts rather than their official White House accounts to communicate with lobbyists to avoid any public scrutiny of this correspondence. In addition, top White House staff meet with lobbyists at off-campus locations, including a coffee shop catty-corner to the White House, to avoid having the visits memorialized in White House visitor logs.

CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan stated, “It is outrageous that White House staff are deliberately using personal email accounts – in violation of the law – to hide the fact that they are in touch with lobbyists.” Sloan continued, “This is what all the administration’s anti-lobbyist rhetoric gets you – less transparency. Rather than being open and clear about who is influencing White House policy, the White House is trying to hide who it’s really talking to. Even worse, the public is being suckered with lofty rhetoric about the evils of the same lobbyists White House officials are meeting with.”"

Read it all here: http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/45294

:P

if there's no "there" there, the administration should be able to clear it up. if there's something to all this then they can clean up their act. for us ordinary citizens it's a win no matter what the result.