Does Anyone Know What Happened to Those 22 Million Emails

New Post Public Reply Private Reply Replies (0) Message Board

Oct 31, 2016 at 4:54 PM

Quote:

Does Anyone Know What Happened to Those 22 Million Emails From the Bush White House?

Did you look in the couch?

Getty + Chip Somdevilla

By Charles P. Pierce

Oct 31, 2016

You know, I think I'll just leave this little bit from Newsweek here for a while.

Most troubling, researchers found a suspicious pattern in the White House email system blackouts, including periods when there were no emails available from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. "That the vice president's office, widely characterized as the most powerful vice president in history, should have no archived emails in its accounts for scores of days—especially days when there was discussion of whether to invade Iraq—beggared the imagination," says Thomas Blanton, director of the Washington-based National Security Archive.

The NSA (not to be confused with the National Security Agency, the federal surveillance organization) is a nonprofit devoted to obtaining and declassifying national security documents and is one of the key players in the effort to recover the supposedly lost Bush White House emails.

You recall the furious scrum among the elite political press over these revelations, right? I mean, 22 million e-mails? Lost? And from a private server, too. Jason Chaffetz must have been leaking like the Andrea Doria over this because of his principled devotion to governmental transparency. And I am the Tsar of all the Russias.

When Bill Clinton moved into the White House, his lawyers supported the elder Bush in his effort to uphold a side deal he'd cut with the National Archives and Records Administration to allow him to treat his White House emails as personal.

At the time, George Stephanopoulos—then the White House communications director—defended the resistance, saying his boss, like Bush, didn't want subsequent, and potentially unfriendly, administrations rooting around in old emails.

The Clinton White House eventually settled the suit, and White House aide John Podesta—now Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman—even invited members of the National Security Archive into the White House to demonstrate how the new system worked. If anyone tried to delete an email, a message would pop up on screen indicating that to do so would be in violation of the PRA

Along with influence peddling and humidity in August, ass-covering is one of the most permanent features of our permanent governing class, and it is a bipartisan enterprise involving all our elite political institutions, in and out of government.

The Senate Judiciary Committee was operating on a different track but having no more luck. In a bipartisan vote in 2008, the committee found White House aides Karl Rove and Joshua Bolten in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas in the investigation of the fired U.S. attorneys.

The penalties for contempt are fines and possible jail time, but no punishment was ever handed down because a D.C. federal appeals court stayed the Senate's ruling in October 2008, while the White House appealed. Rove's lawyer claimed Rove did not "intentionally delete" any emails but was only conducting "the type of routine deletions people make to keep their inboxes orderly," according to the Associated Press.

By then, Obama was weeks away from winning the election, so the Bush administration basically ran out the clock. And neither the Obama administration nor the Senate committee pursued the matter.

At the time, some journalists and editorialists complained about a lack of transparency on the White House's part, but The Washington Post, in an editorial, accepted the White House explanation that the emails could have been lost due to flawed IT systems.

Like I said. It'll be here at least until next Tuesday. Enjoy.

Newer

Older

Scroll down for more posts ▼

Top 10 Most Recent News Articles

Cannabis Industry Pushes for Robust Financial Services

Industry Gears Up for Financial Action Clearly, cannabis businesses are shouting louder than a vendor at a ballgame, demanding more than just the basic chips-and-soda banking service. They’re on the hunt for serious credit facilities, payments, and the traditional financial tools that most sectors take for granted. I mean, check this out: Shield Compliance just dropped...

Deadline Looms for EquipmentShare Investors' Legal Action

Pressure Builds for EquipmentShare Investors If you've thrown some cash into EquipmentShare.com Inc. (NASDAQ: EQPT), it's time to sit up and pay attention. There's smoke on the horizon, and Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP is waving the flag. They've got a securities class action spinning fast, and if you've suffered any losses, September 21, 2026, is a date you don't want to forget....

Atli Launches: AI-Powered eSIM Revolutionizes Travel

What's New in Travel Tech: Atli's Debut Wandering the globe might sound romantic until you realize your phone's a paperweight without the right data. Enter Atli, a shiny new AI-powered travel eSIM service, snugged right into your WhatsApp. This marvel comes from the folks at XForge Mobile and aims to obliterate the hassle of getting connected abroad. You know those...

Veteran Marketer Joins The Wisory's Advisory Board

Tyrrell Schmidt Joins The Wisory's Board Out of the blue, The Wisory has snatched Tyrrell Schmidt right off the retirement bench. This doesn't seem like just another board seating; it smells like a calculated power play. Schmidt, fresh from her heavyweight stint as Global CMO at TD Bank, adds a spicy dose of marketing prowess to The Wisory's already loaded Advisory Board....

AbbVie's Bold Leap in Menstrual Migraine Treatment

AbbVie's Game-Changing Atogepant Study When it comes to pushing boundaries in the pharmaceutical world, there's no sitting on the fence. AbbVie's Phase 3 LUNA study results are painting a bright picture for women who suffer from the relentless grip of menstrual migraines. In a world where not a single treatment option has been approved specifically for this condition,...

Unpacking RAGEism: Power Dynamics in U.S. Policies

Seeing Patterns in Crisis: Jackson and Flint When Jackson, Mississippi's latest water crisis hit the news, it wasn't the first time folks were left high and dry. No, this fiasco's got deep roots, and it resonates with another infamous case: Flint, Michigan. In Maya Rockeymoore Cummings' book, RAGEism, these are badge-worthy examples of 'Resource Hoarding' where government...

CrossCountry Mortgage Boosts Loan Limits, Flexibility for 2027

Trailblazing in the Mortgage Game Well, what do we have here? CrossCountry Mortgage, the big cheese of retail mortgage lenders, is cranking up their conforming loan limits to a hefty $845,000. They're jumping the gun on the Federal Housing Finance Agency's official 2027 announcement. It's a classic move—proactive, bold, and a bit of a gamble, if you ask me. They’re...

XKL Delivers MediaLight for High-Speed Optical Transport

Unpacking the MediaLight Launch Kicking off September, XKL is tossing its hat in the ring with the MediaLight Xponder and Muxponder systems. These aren't just any run-of-the-mill gizmos—nope, they're touted as top-of-the-line optical transport solutions. The talk of the town is their ability to dish out high-density 100G and 400G transport, and for geeks in the trade,...

RealNex Navigator Upgrades Unveil Vast CRE Capabilities

The Dawn of a New Navigator for CRE RealNex is unleashing a storm of enhancements to its Navigator platform, shaking up the commercial real estate (CRE) scene. Their latest upgrades are setting a new precedent for how brokers use technology to sharpen their game, handle transactions, and strategize in a market that never sleeps. Diving Deep into the Latest Upgrades First...

Insurance Bad Faith: Navigating California's Rigorous Laws

Understanding What Constitutes Bad Faith Insurance What does it really mean when an insurer acts in "bad faith"? Well, the legal standard doesn't leave much wiggle room in California. These aren't just bad outcomes; we're talking about conduct that defies what's reasonable under state law. Demián I. Oksenendler, a seasoned bad faith attorney, shed some light on this in a...