Committee Says Bush Administration May Have Violated Presidential Records Act

The House Oversight Committee announced Monday that email records for 51 of 88 White House Officials were missing. The Republican National Committee hosted the accounts but appears to have kept no records of sent and received emails for 51 of the accounts, according to the Associated Press.

Committee members were surprised to discover that there were 88 email accounts with the Republican National Committee; the Bush Administration had claimed that there were only 50 accounts.

The number of emails exchanged also came as a shock to committee members. Bush's top political adviser Karl Rove, whose email records were retained by the Republican National Committee, exchanged 140,216 messages. Sarah Taylor the former director of White House political Affairs, whose email records were also retained, reportedly sent or received 66,018 messages through her Republican National committee email account.

The committee went so far as to allege that the Bush Administration may have violated the Presidential Records Act. According to the Associated Press the following statements were included in the House Oversight Committee's Interim Report: "Given the heavy reliance by White House officials on RNC e-mail accounts, the high rank of the White House officials involved, and the large quantity of missing e-mails, the potential violation of the Presidential Records Act may be extensive."

According to the report the records act requires that: "the activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that reflect the performance" of their duties are "adequately documented ... and maintained."

The Oversight Committee was chaired by Henry Waxman (D-Calif). According to the Associated Press, Waxman stated: "should be a matter of grave concern for anyone who values open government." Waxman also claimed that the committee would probe to discover: "who knew about the violations of the Presidential Records Act, why they did not act earlier, and what e-mails can be salvaged from RNC, White House, and agency computer systems."

The Committee discovered the missing emails in the course of an investigation to determine if the Bush Administration had used the Republican National Committee email accounts for overly political ends such as planning the controversial, and some claim politically motivated firing of U.S. Attorneys.

The report took aim at Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, for alleged misconduct on his part before he became Attorney General. Gonzales was then the head of the White House Counsel Office. The interim report claims that Gonzales: "may have known that White House officials were using RNC e-mail accounts for official business, but took no action to preserve these presidential records.", according to the Associated Press.

According to the Associated Press, Tony Snow spokesman for the Bush Administration stated that the accounts: "were designed precisely to avoid Hatch Act violations that prohibit the use of government assets for certain political activities. The RNC has had an e-mail preservation policy for White House staffers."

The report appears to have set off a battle between Democrats, who are the committee members investigating the missing emails, and Republicans. Tracey Schmitt a spokesman for the Republican National Committee stated: "Not only have we been clear that we are continuing our efforts to search for e-mails, but there is no basis for an assumption that any e-mail not already found would be of an official nature." Schmitt also claimed that the allegations in the report were Democrat spin presented as fact, according to the Associated Press.

The report also stated that the committee might have to issue subpoenas to: "to obtain the cooperation of the Bush Cheney '04 campaign."

Sources:
White House aides' e-mail records gone By Charles Babington
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070619/ap_on_go_pr_wh/white_house_e_mails