Court issues email order
By Libby
You don't hear much about the Bush administration's criminal circumvention of the Federal Records Act anymore, but the issue is still percolating through the courts. This latest development is heartening.
The White House is its usual "trust us" defense, preferring not to be bound by a legal order, nevermind that they already 'lost' 5 million emails that were illegally routed outside of the legally proscribed channels. Fortunately the judge didn't buy it and issued a formal order. Who knows how much good it will do.
One can't help but remember Rove's little April Fool's 'joke' so 'cleverly' designed to deflect inquiry into just what he was doing when he visited the site where the servers were housed. I think we can be pretty sure not only are the tapes erased, but they and the physical servers themselves are resting at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean or have otherwise been rendered irreversibly irretrievable.
Still, at least with this order, any further destruction or obstruction will carry legal culpability.
You don't hear much about the Bush administration's criminal circumvention of the Federal Records Act anymore, but the issue is still percolating through the courts. This latest development is heartening.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge Monday ordered the White House to preserve copies of all its e-mails, a move that Bush administration lawyers had argued strongly against.
U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy directed the Executive Office of the President to safeguard the material in response to two lawsuits that seek to determine whether the White House has destroyed e-mails in violation of federal law.
In response, the White House said it has been taking steps to preserve copies of all e-mails and will continue to do so. The administration is seeking dismissal of the lawsuits brought by two private groups, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive.
The White House is its usual "trust us" defense, preferring not to be bound by a legal order, nevermind that they already 'lost' 5 million emails that were illegally routed outside of the legally proscribed channels. Fortunately the judge didn't buy it and issued a formal order. Who knows how much good it will do.
The judge's order "should stop any future destruction of e-mails, but the White House stopped archiving its e-mail in 2003 and we don't know if some backup tapes for those e-mails were already taped over before we went to court. It's a mystery," said Meredith Fuchs, a lawyer for the National Security Archive.
One can't help but remember Rove's little April Fool's 'joke' so 'cleverly' designed to deflect inquiry into just what he was doing when he visited the site where the servers were housed. I think we can be pretty sure not only are the tapes erased, but they and the physical servers themselves are resting at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean or have otherwise been rendered irreversibly irretrievable.
Still, at least with this order, any further destruction or obstruction will carry legal culpability.
Labels: Bush Administration, corruption, rule of law
posted by Libby Spencer at 1:55 PM
5 Comments:
It may take a long time to heal the wounds of this administration, but I have full confidence that, sooner or later, this is also true, "time wounds all heals." Bush and his minions will get theirs soon enough. Have faith.
I just don't understand how Congress cannot be thinking of summary impeachment for this. They are doing the people's business. How can they not leave an audit trail. I have to admit if freaks me out a bit. Part of me feels that justice will ultimately be served, but part of me wonders if the Administration will make it so hard that once they leave office everyone will lose interest and just move on. I, for one, really want them to be brought to justice no matter how long in takes. Our country can only learn from mistakes if the mistakes are shown in the harsh light of day.
P.S.
Great blog
I really like yours too Andrew but you have to dump that radio thing. I couldn't listen to the video clips.
SC I'm trying to remain optimistic.
Andrew, you did a fine job on that AMT story. All you need now is a larger audience (Libby is right about audio being a distraction from the important points in you make).
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