A couple of recent scandals have highlighted the possibility that unofficial e-mail addresses have been used by some White House staff in an effort to circumvent the archival process of official records.
There were the e-mails sent to convicted lobbyist and haberdashery fanatic Jack Abramoff by Karl Rove’s assistant Susan Ralston, who used a non-White House e-mail address to share internal White House info with Abramoff. White House e-mails, after all, are copied and saved as part of the Presidential Records Act, which requires that presidential records be released to the public 12 years after each president leaves office.
The second is the ongoing investigation into the firings of eight U. S. attorneys, which, it seems, were discussed using unofficial e-mail servers, including ones registered to the Republican National Committee, using domain names such as gwb 43. com. The PRA requires that all official business be carried out on an official White House e-mailing system.
President Bush claims not to use e-mail. At all.
Public-records chicanery has been standard political practice — Presidents Nixon, Clinton and Bush Sr. have all been accused of it. And from the get-go, this administration in particular has sought broad authority over how much info the media and general public can access. On Nov. 1, 2001, Bush issued Executive Order 13233, which revoked a prior order issued by President Reagan. In doing so, Bush gave himself and former presidents the right to withhold records or delay their release indefinitely.
A license to re-write history via incomplete records ? You bet. But there’s hope yet.
The Senate is currently looking at The Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007 (H. R. 1255 ), which seeks to rescind Executive Order 13233. The bill passed in the House, and is now referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. We can only hope that Bush won’t veto this bill, as he has threatened to do. Although at least that would be a matter of public record.
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