HavenWorks.com/law/presidential-records-act

!Search

A-Z

News by Date

NewsStand

_Globe_

_US_

A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z

Presidential Records Act Law News

HavenWorks

Archives

E-Mail

Dick Cheney
Karl Rove

Presidential Records Act

PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT News:

20080321

Government - E-Mail - Computer - Data - Archives - History - Presidential Records Act - Law - Politics - Secrets - "White House: Computer hard drives tossed." ... "Older [Republican President Bush] White House computer hard drives have been destroyed, the White House disclosed to a federal court Friday in a controversy over millions of possibly missing e-mails from 2003 to 2005." ... "The White House revealed new information about how it handles its computers in an effort to persuade a federal magistrate it would be fruitless to undertake an e-mail recovery plan that the court proposed." ... ""When workstations are at the end of their lifecycle and retired ... the hard drives are generally sent offsite to another government entity for physical destruction," the White House said in a sworn declaration filed with U.S. [United States] Magistrate Judge John Facciola." ... "At a House committee hearing last month, a computer expert who previously worked at the White House called the e-mail system "primitive" and said it was set up in a way that created a high risk that data would be lost from White House servers where it was being archived." -By Pete Yost -AP via -Yahoo

20080318

Presidential Records Act - Government - E-Mail - Archives - Computer - Technology - Politics - US - Iraq - Military - History - "White House E-Mail Battle Heats Up: Judge: [Republican President Bush's] White House Has Three Days to Explain Why It Shouldn't Have to Copy Its Computer Hard Drives." ... "The White House has three days to explain why it shouldn't be required to copy its computer hard drives to ensure no further e-mails are lost, a federal judge ordered Tuesday." ... "Already, e-mails between March and October 2003 appear to have been lost, Judge John M. Facciola noted, because they were improperly archived and no backup copies exist. That period includes the U.S. [United States] invasion of Iraq." ... "E-mails by White House staff are considered part of the nation's historical record, and federal law [the Presidential Records Act] requires they be preserved. The White House has admitted that potentially millions of e-mails from the past eight years have been erased, although it has provided conflicting accounts on how many may still exist on backup tapes." -By Justin Rood -ABCNEWS.com

20080227

Karl Rove - Political - Government - Computer - E-Mails - Communications - Archives - Laws - Presidential Records Act Law - Hatch Act Law - History - Data - Censorship - Investigation - "GOP Halts Effort to Retrieve White House E-Mails." ... "After promising last year to search its computers for tens of thousands of e-mails sent by [Republican President Bush] White House officials, the Republican National Committee has informed a House committee that it no longer plans to retrieve the communications by restoring computer backup tapes, the panel's chairman said yesterday." ... "The move increases the likelihood that an untold number of RNC [RNC=Republican National Committee=Republican Party] e-mails dealing with official White House business during the first term of the Bush administration -- including many sent or received by former [Republican President Bush] presidential adviser Karl Rove -- will never be recovered, said House Democrats and public records advocates." ... "Administration officials have acknowledged that Rove and many other White House officials routinely used RNC accounts for government business, despite rules [Laws: the Presidential Records Act Law and the Hatch Act Law] requiring that they conduct such business through official communications channels. The RNC deleted all e-mails until 2004, when it exempted White House officials from its e-mail purging policy." ... "About 80 White House aides used RNC accounts for official government business, committee staff members said. Rove, for example, sent or received 140,000 e-mails on RNC servers from 2002 to 2007, and more than half involved official ".gov" accounts, the panel has said." ... "The RNC dispute is part of a broader debate over whether the Bush administration has complied with long-standing statutory requirements to preserve official White House records -- including those reflecting potentially sensitive policy discussions -- for history and in case of future legal demands." ... "The committee is investigating allegations that vast stores of official Bush administration e-mails have also gone missing from the White House, which scrapped a [former Democratic President] Clinton-era archiving system and has struggled with data retention problems." -By Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost

20080118

Dick Cheney - Government - Electronic - E-Mail - History - Censorship - Politics - Presidential Records Act - Archives - Law - Calif - "White House Study Found 473 Days of E-Mail Gone." ... "The [Republican President Bush] White House possesses no archived e-mail messages for many of its component offices, including the Executive Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President [Dick Cheney], for hundreds of days between 2003 and 2005, according to the summary of an internal White House study that was disclosed yesterday by a congressional Democrat." ... "The 2005 study -- whose credibility the White House attacked this week -- identified 473 separate days in which no electronic messages were stored for one or more White House offices, said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman [California Democratic Representative] Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.)." ... "Waxman said he decided to release the summary after White House spokesman Tony Fratto said yesterday that there is "no evidence" that any White House e-mails from those years are missing. Fratto's assertion "seems to be an unsubstantiated statement that has no relation to the facts they have shared with us," Waxman said." ... "The competing claims were the latest salvos in an escalating dispute over whether the [Republican President] Bush administration has complied with long-standing statutory requirements to preserve official White House records -- including those reflecting potentially sensitive policy discussions -- for history and in case of any future legal demands." ... "The White House is required by law to preserve e-mails considered presidential or federal records, and it is the target of several lawsuits seeking information about missing data and efforts to preserve electronic communications." (1, 2) -By Dan Eggen and Elizabeth Williamson -WashingtonPost

20080116

Government - Computer - E-Mail - Archives - Law - Politics - US - Iraq - Military - Intelligence - Videotapes - Presidential Records Act - "White House Tape Recycling May Have Erased Controversial E-Mails." ... "The [Republican President Bush] White House has acknowledged in a new court filing that it routinely recycled computer backup tapes containing its e-mail records until October 2003, a practice that could mean that many electronic messages from the first two years of the [Republican President] Bush administration are lost forever." ... "The disclosure raises the possibility that the White House effectively erased e-mail related to some of the biggest controversies of the Bush administration, including the leak of a CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] officer's name, the start of the Iraq war and the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes." ... "The backups are meant to preserve records in case of a disaster. They also serve a role in ensuring that federal record-keeping laws are met, according to administration officials and records management experts. Two separate statutes require the White House to preserve federal or presidential records." ... "In their lawsuit, the two advocacy groups, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive, allege that millions of e-mail messages are missing from White House servers between 2003 and 2005." -By Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost

20070905

US - Iraq - Military - Hurricane Katrina - Historical - Secrets - Archive - Electronic - Messages - Presidential Records Act - Government - E-Mail - Politics - "White House sued again over e-mail." ... "The [law]suit by the National Security Archive, a private group, is the latest effort to find out whether the [Republican President] Bush administration lost millions of electronic messages." ... ""The period covers the period beginning with the Iraq war until the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; it doesn't get more historically valuable than that," said Tom Blanton, director of the private organization, which advocates public disclosure of government secrets." ... "The Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act require that e-mail be preserved." -By Pete Yost -AP via -SeattlePI

20070831

E-Mail - Computer - Tech - Company - Government - Communications - Archive - Presidential Records Act - Law - Politics - California - "Bush E-Mail Mystery Deepens: White House Won't Name Tech Contractor." ... "The [Republican President Bush] White House will not identify a private company which appears to be involved in the disappearance of millions of White House e-mails." ... "According to the White House, at least five million e-mails were not properly archived and may be lost forever, in apparent violation of the Presidential Records Act. The post-Watergate law states that communications relating to official activity in the offices of the president and vice president are owned by the American public and cannot be destroyed." ... "The firm worked for the Information Assurance Directorate, under the White House chief information officer, [California Democratic Representative Henry] Waxman said he was told." -By Justin Rood -ABCNEWS.com

20070802

Karl Rove - Scott Jennings - US Attorneys - Political - Government - E-Mail - Internet - Presidential Records Act - Vermont - "Rove a no-show at hearing, aide skirts questions." ... "The top aide to White House political adviser Karl Rove refused to answer at least a dozen questions from a Senate committee Thursday about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year, asserting -- as expected -- a claim of executive privilege by [Republican] President Bush." ... "Scott Jennings, who also is a special assistant to Bush, arrived at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with his attorney, Mark Paoletta, to avoid a contempt citation." ... "The panel had subpoenaed both Jennings and Rove, but Rove refused to show up, angering [Vermont Democratic Senator] Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont." ... ""I consider that blanket claim (of executive privilege) to be unsubstantiated," Leahy said he told Jennings before the meeting." ... "The senators sought answers about e-mail sent by dozens of White House staff using e-mail accounts provided through a Republican National Committee Internet address." ... "In March, congressional investigators found evidence that White House staffers had used those e-mail accounts to discuss government business -- including the firings of the U.S. attorneys -- in violation of the Presidential Records Act. The law is aimed at keeping government business separate from partisan political activities." ... ""Mr. Rove has given reasons for the firings that have now been shown to be inaccurate, after-the-fact fabrications," Leahy said in a statement issued Wednesday evening. "Yet he now refuses to tell this committee the truth about his role in targeting well-respected U.S. attorneys for firing and in seeking to cover up his role and that of his staff in the scandal."" -CNN

20070725

Harriet Miers - Joshua B Bolten - Alberto Gonzales - Karl Rove - Government - Employees - US Attorneys - Presidential Records - 2004 - Election - Law - Politics - "Report Suggests Laws Broken in Attorney Firings." ... "House Democrats, preparing for a vote today on contempt citations against [Republican] President Bush's chief of staff [Joshua B Bolten] and former counsel [Harriet E Miers], produced a report [memorandum PDF] yesterday that for the first time alleges specific ways that several administration officials may have broken the law during the multiple firings of U.S. attorneys." ... "The report says that Congress's seven-month investigation into the firings raises "serious concerns" that senior White House and Justice Department aides involved in the removal of nine U.S. attorneys last year may have obstructed justice and violated federal statutes that protect civil service employees, prohibit political retaliation against government officials and cover presidential records." ... "The memorandum says the probe has turned up evidence that some of the U.S. attorneys were improperly selected for firing because of their handling of vote fraud allegations, public corruption cases or other cases that could affect close elections. It also says that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senior Justice aides "appear to have made false or misleading statements to Congress, many of which sought to minimize the role of White House personnel."" ... "In addition, the memorandum asserts repeatedly that the president's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was the first administration official to broach the idea of firing U.S. attorneys shortly after the 2004 election -- an assertion the White House has said is not true." -By Amy Goldstein -WashingtonPost

Presidential Records Act News Sources:

Search Presidential Records Act News:
News Search
<Presidential Records Act> in:

<AllTheWeb-[News]>

<AltaVista-[News]>

<Google-[News]>

<MSN-[News]>

<RocketNews>

Specialty search:

<Google's U.S. "Uncle Sam," .gov and .mil>

Search:
<Presidential Records Act News> in:

<Google>

<MSN>

<Yahoo>

Presidential Records Act
Brought to you by the alphabet letter P
P
;-)

20070618

Karl Rove - Susan Ralston - Government - E-Mail - Presidential Records Law - Computer - Politics - Business - "Missing White House e-mails may have violated law, panel says." ... "[Republican President George Bush] Presidential adviser Karl Rove sent more than 140,000 e-mails through the Republican National Committee's computer system, circumventing a federal law intended to guarantee the preservation of presidential records, House of Representatives investigators have concluded." ... "While 88 White House aides used the back-channel system, Rove was its biggest user at the White House, and more than half of his communications dealt with official business, according to an interim report by the House Oversight Committee." ... "Susan Ralston, a former aide to Rove, told congressional investigators that Rove sent almost all of his e-mails through the RNC system and used a Blackberry that he received from the Republican Party from his first day at the White House." -By Ron Hutcheson -McClatchyDC.com
Jack Abramoff - Ralston - Alberto Gonzales - Karl Rove - Political - Government - E-Mail - Communications - Presidential Records Act - Law - US Attorneys - California - "Report: White House aides used GOP e-mail to skirt law." ... "E-mail records are missing for 51 of the 88 White House aides with Republican Party accounts, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee reported Monday." ... "The White House says the accounts were set up to keep political work separate from official business, but investigators concluded White House officials used the accounts to conduct official business in a way that circumvented the Watergate-era Presidential Records Act." ... "The committee, led by California Democrat [Represenative] Henry Waxman, began looking into the GOP e-mail accounts after messages from the accounts turned up in two cases -- the case of imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the 2006 firings of eight U.S. attorneys by the Justice Department." ... "[Susan] Ralston told investigators that [Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales, now attorney general, knew [Karl] Rove was using his party e-mail account for official business, "but took no action to preserve Mr. Rove's official communications," the report states." -CNN
Alberto Gonzales - Government - Electronic - E-Mail - Politics - Presidential Records Act - "White House aides' e-mail records gone." ... "E-mail records are missing for 51 of the 88 [Republican President George Bush] White House officials who had electronic message accounts with the Republican National Committee, the House Oversight Committee said Monday." ... "The Bush administration may have committed "extensive" violations of a law [the Presidential Records Act] requiring that certain records be preserved, said the committee's Democratic chairman, adding that the panel will deepen its probe into the use of political e-mail accounts." ... "The administration has said that about 50 White House officials had RNC e-mail accounts during Bush's presidency. But the House committee found at least 88." ... "The report especially criticized Alberto Gonzales, now the attorney general, for actions when he headed the White House Counsel's office. There is evidence that under Gonzales the office "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," the report said." -By Charles Babington -AP via -BostonGlobe
Karl Rove - Government - Historical - E-Mail - Archives - Presidential Records Act - Law - Politics - California - "Bush aides may have illegally lost e-mail, Dems say." ... "Karl Rove and dozens of other White House staffers appear to have illegally routed official e-mails through a Republican group that subsequently deleted them, a congressional report said on Monday." ... "By using Republican National Committee e-mail accounts for official business, senior White House aides may have broken a law [the Presidential Records Act] requiring them to preserve presidential records, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said in an interim report." ... ""This should be a matter of grave concern for anyone who values open government and the preservation of an accurate historical record," said committee Chairman [Representative] Henry Waxman, a California Democrat." (1, 2) -By Andy Sullivan -Reuters
Government - E-Mail - Archives - Presidential Records Act - Law - History - Politics - "Report: Bush aides may have circumvented records act." ... "The destruction of e-mails from top White House officials “could be the most serious breach of the Presidential Records Act in the 30-year history of the law,” according to an interim report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee." ... "The committee is investigating the use of non-White House e-mail accounts issued to senior staffers and whether these violate the Presidential Records Act. According to the interim report, which was released Monday, there is “evidence of potentially extensive violations” of the law." -By Klaus Marre -TheHill.com
Government - E-Mail - Politics - Presidential Records Act - "'Extensive Destruction' Of White House E-Mails Found." ... "Using campaign accounts for official White House business and destroying administration records are violations of the Hatch Act and Presidential Records Act, respectively. The committee's report can be found here [PDF]." -TheGate -NationalJournal
Alberto Gonzales - Government - E-Mail - Communications - Politics - Presidential Records Act - "Lawmaker claims 'extensive destruction' of e-mail records." ... "White House use of Republican National Committee e-mail accounts is more extensive than previously known, while the "extensive destruction" of e-mails points to widespread violations of the Presidential Records Act, according to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee." ... "The evidence has prompted the committee to open yet another front in the investigation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who as White House counsel may have known about the use of RNC accounts for official communications but did nothing to ensure the e-mails were preserved, according to the report." -By Keith Koffler -GovExec.com
Karl Rove - Sara M Taylor - Scott Jennings - Government - E-Mail - 2004 Election - Presidential Records Act - Law - Calif - "Bush Officials Used RNC Server for Private E-mails." ... "Almost 90 White House officials have maintained private e-mail accounts on the server of the Republican National Committee, including top advisers such as Karl Rove and former White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card, according to a House committee report released today." ... "The RNC has preserved more than 140,000 e-mails sent or received by Rove, but only 130 were written before President Bush won re-election in 2004, according to the report. The committee has preserved another 100,000 e-mails from two of Rove's top lieutenants, former White House political director Sara M. Taylor and deputy political director W. Scott Jennings, according to the House Oversight Committee." ... "The committee, chaired by [California Democratic Representative] Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), has been investigating whether the e-mail accounts run by the RNC and the Bush-Cheney '04 [2004 election] campaign committee violated the Presidential Records Act, which requires that every White House official "assure that the activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that reflect the performance of his constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties are adequately documented."" -By Paul Kane -WashingtonPost

20070529

Cheney - Abramoff - Secret - Archives - Lawsuit - Religious - Politics - "Lawyer: Cheney visitor logs not recorded." ... "A lawyer for Vice President Dick Cheney told the Secret Service in September to eliminate data on who visited Cheney at his official residence, a newly disclosed letter states. The Sept. 13, 2006, letter from Cheney's lawyer says logs for Cheney's residence on the grounds of the Naval Observatory are subject to the Presidential Records Act." ... "Such a designation prevents the public from learning who visited the vice president." ... "The Justice Department filed the letter Friday in a lawsuit by a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, seeking the identities of conservative religious leaders who visited Cheney at his official residence." ... ""The latest filings make clear that the administration has been destroying documents and entering into secret agreements in violation of the law," said Anne Weismann, CREW's chief counsel." ... "The letter regarding the vice president's residence was in addition to an agreement quietly signed between the White House and the Secret Service a year ago when questions were raised about visits to the executive compound by convicted influence peddler Jack Abramoff." -By Pete Yost -AP via -USATODAY

20070412

Rove - Ralston - Abramoff - Government - E-Mail- Electronic - Communication - History - Archive - Law - US Attorneys - Politics - "Countless White House E-Mails Deleted." ... "Countless e-mails to and from many key White House staffers have been deleted -- lost to history and placed out of reach of congressional subpoenas -- due to a brazen violation of internal White House policy that was allowed to continue for more than six years, the White House acknowledged yesterday." ... "The leading culprit appears to be President Bush's enormously influential political adviser Karl Rove, who reportedly used his Republican National Committee-provided Blackberry and e-mail accounts for most of his electronic communication." ... "Until 2004, all e-mail on RNC accounts was routinely deleted after 30 days. Since 2004, White House staffers using those accounts have been able to save their e-mail indefinitely -- but have also been able to delete whatever they felt like deleting. By comparison, the White House e-mail system preserves absolutely everything forever, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act." ... "In an afternoon conference call with reporters, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel spread the blame all around. "White House policy did not give clear enough guidance," he said." ... "But when I asked Stanzel to read out loud the White House e-mail policy, it seemed clear enough to me: "Federal law requires the preservation of electronic communications sent or received by White House staff," says the handbook that all staffers are given and expected to read and comply with." ... ""As a result, personnel working on behalf of the EOP [Executive Office of the President] are expected to only use government-provided e-mail services for all official communication."" ... "The handbook further explains: "The official EOP e-mail system is designed to automatically comply with records management requirements."" ... "And if that wasn't clear enough, the handbook notes --as was the case in the Clinton administration -- that "commercial or free e-mail sites and chat rooms are blocked from the EOP network to help staff members ensure compliance and to prevent the circumvention of the records management requirements."" ... "Stanzel refused to publicly release the relevant portions of the White House staff manual and denied my request to make public the transcript of the call, which lasted more than an hour but which -- due to Stanzel's refusal or inability to provide straight answers on many issues -- raised more questions than it answered." ... "The use of non-government e-mails first became an issue about four weeks ago, when some of the e-mails turned over in a congressional investigation of the firing of eight U.S. attorneys showed that Rove deputy Scott Jennings repeatedly used an RNC e-mail address (sjennings@gwb43.com) in his official communications. One e-mail to Rove was sent to a kr@georgewbush.com address." ... "Since then, it's been pointed out that some of the e-mails released in the congressional investigation of now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff indicated that former Rove aide Susan Ralston made a point of keeping her communication with Abramoff off the White House e-mail servers, and on either her RNC or AOL e-mail accounts." (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) -By Dan Froomkin -WashingtonPost
Karl Rove - Government - E-Mail- Archive - Politics - History -Internet - Computer - Science - Investigation - "White House E-mails: Gone, But Not Forgotten?" ... "The White House set off a miniature firestorm Wednesday when it revealed that years of e-mails belonging to White House political aides were deleted, apparently in violation of federal law requiring presidential documents to be preserved." ... "In an 80-minute conference call with a select group of print reporters yesterday, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said that e-mails from 2004 and earlier sent and received by 22 White House employees, including chief political aide Karl Rove, had been deleted." ... "Without knowing the technical details of how the e-mails were deleted, computer forensics expert Rob Lee said he couldn't say with certainty if any of the communications are recoverable. But from his experience working with the FBI and other criminal investigators, he knows one thing: Unless the hard drives containing the e-mails were physically destroyed or lost, "the only way someone could claim something has been destroyed is if the e-mails themselves have been wiped" from a hard drive or tape backup, he said, "overwriting every piece of data." That requires special software designed explicitly to cover any trace of deleted information." ... "The Presidential Records Act of 1978 requires all White House documents be preserved if they "relate to or have and effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President."" -By Justin Rood -ABCNEWS.com

20050811

John G. Roberts Jr. - - - - Archives - "Bush Order Lets Him Control Roberts' Memos: A 2001 decree gives him the power to block the release of papers from presidential libraries, among them those of the high court nominee." ... "A little-noticed order issued by President Bush almost four years ago gives White House lawyers the right to block the release of memos written by Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. when he worked for President Reagan." ... "The order, signed by Bush in November 2001, said the "incumbent president" had the right to approve the release of papers from the presidential libraries of his father, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan." ... "It set off a furor at the time among historians, archivists and librarians. They said it all but repealed the Presidential Records Act, a 1978 law that decreed a president's records were public property, not the private property of the former president. Under this law, a former president's papers were to be opened to the public 12 years after he left office. Exceptions could be made for national security reasons." (1, 2) -By David G. Savage and Maura Reynolds with contributions by Catherine Sailliant -LAtimes

Presidential Records Act News, Presidential Records Act, News, Presidential Records Act Law, US, American, President, Records, Act, Law, Presidential, Archives, Presidential Records, Politics, Politician, Presidential Archives
PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT NEWS US AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT LAW NEWS US PRESIDENT RECORDS LAW NEWS | HavenWorks.com/law/presidential-records-act News
News Reference Facts Information Sources Intelligence Haven Works !-)
Support your local library.
Website Web Design: Web Design by Hermit ;-)

HavenWorks.com content Copyright 1998-2008 Works
HavenWorks.com © Works - All rights reserved.
Presidential Records Act News
HavenWorks.com/law/presidential-records-act

Top