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Ralston was recommended to Karl Rove by Jack Abramoff, Ralston had previously worked for Jack Abramoff before working for Karl Rove in Republican President Bush's White House.

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

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• 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 

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• Karl Rove - Susan Ralston - Government - E-Mail - "D.C. Notebook: Mr. Rove, you've got mail." ... "In a deposition, Susan Ralston, Mr. [Karl] Rove's former executive assistant, testified that many of the White House officials for whom the RNC has no e-mail records were regular users of their RNC e-mail accounts. Although the RNC has preserved no e-mail records for Ken Mehlman, the former Director of Political Affairs, Ms. Ralston testified that Mr. Mehlman used his account "frequently, daily." In addition, there are major gaps in the e-mail records of the 37 White House officials for whom the RNC did preserve e-mails. The RNC has preserved only 130 e-mails sent to Mr. Rove during President Bush's first term and no e-mails sent by Mr. Rove prior to November 2003. For many other White House officials, the RNC has no e-mails from before the fall of 2006." -By  Charlie Pope -SeattlePI.NWsource 

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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 

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20061007
• Rove - Abramoff - Ralston - Sports - Entertainment - Money - Government - Intelligence - Northern Mariana Islands - E-Mail - Safavian - "Rove Aide Linked To Abramoff Resigns: Scandal Claims Its First West Wing Job." ... "A top aide to White House strategist Karl Rove resigned yesterday after disclosures that she accepted gifts from and passed information to now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, becoming the first official in the West Wing to lose a job in the influence-peddling scandal." ... "Susan B. Ralston submitted her resignation to avoid causing political damage to President Bush a month before the midterm elections, officials said. "She did not want to be a distraction to the White House at this important time," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino." ... "A congressional report showed last week that Ralston accepted sometimes-pricey tickets to nine sports and entertainment events from Abramoff while she provided him with inside White House information. The bipartisan report said there is no evidence that Rove knew of or approved of Ralston's actions, and sources said yesterday that the White House was surprised by the report's revelations." ... "The only other White House official caught up in the probe has been David H. Safavian, the procurement chief for the Office of Management and Budget, who was convicted in June of lying about his ties to Abramoff." ... "As a former Abramoff assistant, Ralston played intermediary between the lobbyist and Rove. The congressional report found 66 Abramoff contacts with the White House, more than half of them with Ralston. In addition, Abramoff's lobbying colleagues contacted Ralston 69 times." ... "On Oct. 21, 2001, Ralston e-mailed Abramoff that Rove had read an Abramoff memo about a political endorsement in the Mariana Islands governor's race, a little-noticed election but one important to Abramoff because he had lucrative clients there. Ralston reported to Abramoff that Rove had agreed, writing the next day: "You win :)."" (1, 2) -By Peter Baker and James V. Grimaldi -WashingtonPost 

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20050803
• US - Iraq - Rove - Government - Intelligence - Politics - Ralston - "2 Aides to Rove Testify in C.I.A. Leak Inquiry." ... "Two aides to Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, testified last Friday before a federal grand jury investigating whether government officials illegally disclosed the identity of an undercover C.I.A. operative, according to a person who has been officially briefed on the case." ... "The aides, Susan B. Ralston and Israel Hernandez, were asked about grand jury testimony given on July 13 by Matthew Cooper, a reporter for Time magazine, the person who was briefed said. Mr. Cooper has said that he testified about a July 11, 2003, conversation with Mr. Rove in which the C.I.A. officer was discussed." ... "At one point, the aides were asked why Mr. Cooper's call to Mr. Rove was not entered in Mr. Rove's office telephone logs. There was no record of the call, the person who has been briefed said, because Mr. Cooper did not call Mr. Rove directly, but was transferred to his office from a White House switchboard." ... "The aides have worked closely with Mr. Rove, screening his calls and coordinating his activities with other White House officials. Mr. Hernandez had been an aide to President Bush since his successful campaign for governor of Texas in 1994, and Ms. Ralston is known as one of Mr. Rove's most trusted associates." ... "Mr. Fitzgerald has focused on whether in the identification of the officer, Valerie Wilson, there was a deliberate effort to retaliate against her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, for his criticism of the Bush administration's policy on Iraq." -By David Johnston -NYTimes

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20050501
• - Tom DeLay - "A Lobbyist in Full." ... "Early on, Abramoff made friends who would be vital to his future success. His College Republican campaign had been managed by Grover Norquist, who is now one of Washington's most influential conservative activists. Joining the team as a $200-per-month intern was a baby-faced college student, Ralph Reed. Together, the three of them shaped the organization into a right-wing battle machine. ''It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left,'' Abramoff was quoted as saying in the group's 1983 annual report. ''Our job is to remove them from power permanently.''" ... "As his business and reputation grew, Abramoff was becoming a vital cog in the G.O.P.'s money machine. He played a major role in ''The K Street Project,'' a Norquist-designed initiative that pressured lobbying firms to slant Republican in their hiring and donations. Public-interest watchdogs were appalled at the new level of coordination between Congress and business lobbyists, but Abramoff makes no apologies for it. ''It was my role to push the Republicans on K Street to be more helpful to the conservative movement,'' Abramoff told me. Partly to that end, Abramoff hired several former senior G.O.P. Congressional aides onto his lobbying team, including [Tom] DeLay aides like Michael Scanlon and Tony Rudy, now a prominent lobbyist. He also sent his associates in the other direction; in 2001, for example, his personal assistant, Susan Ralston, took the same job under Karl Rove, effectively making her Rove's gatekeeper."" (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) -By Michael Crowley -NYTimes

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20040327
• Rove - Abramoff - Ralston - DeLay - Norquist - Reed - Scanlon - Money - Religion - Government- Law - Politics - Texas - 2004 Election - History - "K Street Stumble." ... "As [Republican] presidential adviser Karl Rove set up shop in the West Wing in 2001, he was looking for an assistant to serve as the trusted gatekeeper of his new fiefdom. Superlobbyist and Republican fundraiser Jack Abramoff was happy to lend a hand. Abramoff knew just the right person for the job: his own assistant, Susan Ralston. She interviewed with Rove and got the position." ... "For a staunch conservative and smooth GOP operative like Abramoff, losing a valuable aide was well worth the opportunity to ingratiate himself with the president's senior political adviser." ... "An active fundraiser for George W. Bush's 2000 election race, Abramoff has done even better in the 2004 campaign, raising more than $100,000 and becoming an elite "Pioneer" in the president's re-election drive. For years, Abramoff has been a generous donor and key fundraiser for powerful GOP members of Congress, notably House Majority Leader [Republican] Tom DeLay, R-Texas. In the 2004 election cycle, Abramoff and his wife, Pam, have contributed $83,000 to Republicans, landing themselves at No. 93 on the nationwide list of individuals who have donated to either political party, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Nine other Washington lobbyists are higher on that list." ... "For almost a quarter-century, Abramoff has counted among his friends and allies anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and grassroots strategist and former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed. An Orthodox Jew, Abramoff has moved easily in conservative circles since the early 1980s, when he was chairman of the College Republican National Committee." ... "On March 2, Abramoff abruptly resigned from [lobbying law firm] Greenberg Traurig, and now he's embroiled in what's shaping up as a legal and political fight to salvage his reputation." ... "When asked about Abramoff's troubles, DeLay distanced himself, telling reporters, "If anybody is trading on my name to get clients or to make money, that is wrong and they should stop it immediately."" ... "One reason for the touchiness is that the controversy has also ensnared Michael Scanlon, a former aide to DeLay who worked with Abramoff at Greenberg Traurig before setting up his own grassroots firm, Capital Campaign Strategies." -By Peter H. Stone -NationalJournal

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