JUDGE ISSUES ORDER DEMANDING ANSWERS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE ON BACK-UPS OF 10 MILLION MISSING EMAILS

JUDGE ISSUES ORDER DEMANDING ANSWERS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE ON BACK-UPS OF 10 MILLION MISSING EMAILS
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/30704

8 Jan 2008 // Today in a case consolidated with CREW's lawsuit against the Executive Office of the President, The National Security Archive v. Exec. Office of the President, Magistrate Judge Facciola issued an order requiring the White House within five business days to answer four questions concerning back-up copies of the millions of emails missing from White House servers.

Like CREW, the National Security Archive is seeking expedited discovery to determine what, if any, back-up copies of the missing email still exist. In advance of ruling on the discovery request Magistrate Judge Facciola -- who also issued an order several months ago requiring the White House to preserve all existing back-up capies in response to CREW's motion -- required the White House defendants to answer, through a sworn declaration, questions about whether the back-ups are identifiable by period of time they cover, whether they are identifiable by data they contain, whether they contain emails created between 2003 and 2005 and whether they contain the missing emails.

The full order is available ..........

The Other Scandal Involving Destruction of Evidence
Scott Horton - Jan 9, 2008 - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/01/hbc-90002109


I just finished pouring over yet another set of written answers from a former senior Justice Department official who—extremely unconvincingly—insists over and again that he “has no present recollection” of communications between the White House and figures in the Justice Department about a series of matters which have Karl Rove’s fingerprints all over them.

However, the incessant stonewalling by the Justice Department is if anything actually exceeded in its outrageousness by the White House, which has issued a steadily lengthening series of contradictory explanations. The emails were “accidentally” deleted. Then apparently they weren’t. Then the emails were mostly on servers of the Republican National Committee. And the White House then told us, in one of a great many utterly preposterous legal claims, that information on Republican National Committee servers were subject to claims of Executive Privilege. From another perspective, however, that claim stated things just right: for the last seven years the Executive Branch has been fused with the Republican Party. It perfectly matched the vision of a totalitarian state.

However, the Associated Press’s Pete Yost, reports that a federal judge has decided to stop simply taking the parade of White House whoppers, and is demanding action:

A federal magistrate ordered the White House on Tuesday to reveal whether copies of possibly millions of missing e-mails are stored on computer backup tapes. .....

What can the judge do? What I'd like to see is a de facto impeachment of some sort.

While I'm glad that someone is calling for some accountability from his outlaw administration, it's hard to believe that if the White House continues to stonewall, a magistrate judge is really going to be able to take any substantive action against the President of the United States.

He even said as much a while back. I can't recall ver batim but it was something like "The thing about being President is I don't have to answer to anyone, they have to answer to me"...."Executive Privilege" you know.....

Bush E-Mail Mystery Deepens: White House Won't Name Tech Contractor
August 31, 2007 - http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/08/bush-e-mail-mys.html


The White House will not identify a private company ... responsible for reviewing and archiving White House e-mails, a White House official told congressional staff .... investigators asked then for the name of the company and "have repeatedly requested" the information since then, according to Waxman.

They are still waiting for an answer, the chairman wrote to White House counsel Fred Fielding. Waxman asked the White House to come up with the company's name by Sept. 10.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel declined to tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com the company's name or explain why the White House would not provide it to Congress.

"We are reviewing Rep. Waxman's letter and will respond expeditiously," Stanzel said in an e-mailed statement.

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How many scandals have unfinished business hanging like this?

This whole adm. just totally ignores the law. The only way to get rid of them will be to vote them all out. /and one wonders if that will work.

saying how bad they are for ignoring the judicial order.

A great big F--- You! And they'll get back to the business of screwing the country, and not worry about consequences.

Sternly-worded letter.

I mean, who the fuck does a Federal judge think he is, to be demanding anything of the King?

Sheesh. :eyes:


















:sarcasm:

There must be some state secret that absolutely has to be protected to prevent the end of life as we know it. :rofl:

And, no Your Honor, we cannot tell you what it is!

I wonder what-n-all the judge has at his finger tips to enforce his order.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 8, 2008
CONTACT: National Security Archive
http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0108-09.htm


White House Must Answer Questions About Missing White House E-mails, Magistrate Judge Rules

WASHINGTON, DC - January 8 - In an Order issued today, Magistrate Judge Facciola of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the White House to answer questions about over 5 million missing e-mails generated between 2003-2005. Noting that the need for information the missing e-mails is "time-sensitive" because of the risk that stored copied of the e-mails "are increasingly likely to be deleted or overridden with the passage of time," the Court demanded answers in a sworn declaration by January 13, 2008 about the location of the missing e-mails.

"To date, the White House has evaded answering questions about whether it permanently destroyed over 5 million e-mails about issues such as Hurricane Katrina, the firing of United States Attorneys, and the exposure of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA agent," commented Meredith Fuchs, the Archive's General Counsel. "This Order will force the Executive Office of the President to tell the public whether it really erased key records of the nation's history or whether it has made any effort to preserve the information."

The order issued today come in National Security Archive v. Executive Office of the President (EOP), et al. Previously, Judge Kennedy ordered the preservation of EOP backup tapes and the consolidation of this case (filed September 5, 2007) with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) v. Executive Office of the President, et al. (filed September 25, 2007).

To date, the White House has had the following to say about the missing e-mails:

"I wouldn't rule out that there were a potential 5 million emails lost"
- Press Gaggle by Dana Perino (April 13, 2007)

"We are aware that there could have been some emails that were not automatically archived because of a technical issue."
- Press Briefing by Dana Perino (April 16, 2007)

"CREW has yet to provide any basis for their assertions -- be it their original assertion, or their new claim. We are aware that some e-mails may not have been automatically archived in the past, but they may be available on backup tapes. Unlike what the liberal group CREW has asserted, we've never been without a backup system. The Office of Administration at the White House has been maintaining and preserving backup tapes for the official email system."
- Scott Stanzel, White House Spokesman

Visit the Web site of the National Security Archive for more information about today's posting.

THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and individuals.

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Wow, I'm having a seventies flashback moment here.

None of this means anything.

Like Bush will comply, jeeesh. Why don't the American people look in the mirror ? ..They need to stop treating these criminals as equals.

Any person that supports these crimes against our country should not be treated as a equal, and should not be shown respect. The American people are failing their country in this manner, any family members that support this evil should be isolated. But Americans continue to treat them as equals, they call Bush a monster for supporting these actions, but don't consider their brother/mother a monster for supporting these actions. They are failing their country, these stupid fucks need to be isolated.