Illegally doing lots of government business over political party email servers

some fairly mind-boggling additional information from waxman's house oversight committee...

first of all, the practice was widespread...

In March 2007, White House spokesperson Dana Perino said that only a “handful of officials” had RNC e-mail accounts. In later statements, her estimate rose to “50 over the course of the administration.” In fact, the Committee has learned from the RNC that at least 88 White House officials had RNC e-mail accounts. The officials with RNC e-mail accounts include Karl Rove, the President’s senior advisor; Andrew Card, the former White House Chief of Staff; Ken Mehlman, the former White House Director of Political Affairs; and many other officials in the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Communications, and the Office of the Vice President.

secondly, the volume of useage was much heavier than was initially thought...

The RNC has preserved 140,216 e-mails sent or received by Karl Rove. Over half of these e-mails (75,374) were sent to or received from individuals using official “.gov” e-mail accounts. Other heavy users of RNC e-mail accounts include former White House Director of Political Affairs Sara Taylor (66,018 e-mails) and Deputy Director of Political Affairs Scott Jennings (35,198 e-mails). These e-mail accounts were used by White House officials for official purposes, such as communicating with federal agencies about federal appointments and policies.

third, deletion and destruction was undertaken on a wholesale basis...

Of the 88 White House officials who received RNC e-mail accounts, the RNC has preserved no e-mails for 51 officials. In a deposition, Susan Ralston, Mr. 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.

and, in direct contravention of the presidential records act, it appears that gonzo knew of the destruction and did not act to enforce the law...

In her deposition, Ms. Ralston testified that she searched Mr. Rove’s RNC e-mail account in response to an Enron-related investigation in 2001 and the investigation of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald later in the Administration. According to Ms. Ralston, the White House Counsel’s office knew about these e-mails because “all of the documents we collected were then turned over to the White House Counsel’s office.” There is no evidence, however, that White House Counsel Gonzales initiated any action to ensure the preservation of the e-mail records that were destroyed by the RNC.

not only does it appear that the presidential records act was violated, there was complete disregard for internal white house policy set forth in 2001 that was put in place specifically to insure compliance with the act...

To implement this legal requirement, the White House Counsel issued clear written policies in February 2001 instructing White House staff to use only the official White House e-mail system for official communications and to retain any official e-mails they received on a nongovernmental account.

why are these people still in office...? why haven't we stormed the white house with rakes and hoes, buckets of tar and sacks of feathers, and run the entire lot of them out of town on a rail...?

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What an elected representative with INTEGRITY (and a REAL recovering alcoholic) looks like

talk about bringing the issue of voter fraud suppression down to earth... here you have not only THE definitive picture of what karl rove, scott jennings, susan ralston, alberto gonzales, monica goodling, kyle sampson, paul mcnulty, and the rest of the push-for-a-one-party-state crowd have been working so diligently to achieve, but also the clearest picture yet of what kind of a person it takes to stop it...

Against his doctor's advice, a stooped and feeble state Sen. Mario Gallegos Jr. (D) arrives at the Texas Capitol each day, just to make sure his chamber does not take up a bill that would require voters to produce identification at the polls.

[...]

Gallegos is putting his health at risk to block a measure he and others say could prevent many minorities and the elderly from taking part in elections in Texas.

[...]

The Republicans pushing the voter ID bill say illegal immigrants are voting in Texas elections and must be stopped. But Democrats say thousands of legal residents would lose the right to vote because they lack proper identification. Opponents of the measure -- including Gallegos, a Mexican American -- say minorities, the elderly and the poor are less likely than others to have driver's licenses or other documents.

Most of Gallegos's Houston-area constituents are black or Hispanic, and about a quarter of them live in poverty. About one in five speak little or no English.

Doctors say the senator, a recovering alcoholic, should be resting and should be within 100 miles of the hospital where he received the transplant. Austin is about 160 miles from the hospital in Houston.

Under what is known as the Luna Precedent, named for a lawmaker who was hospitalized in the 1990s, legislators can ask for 24 hours' notice that a bill is about to come up. Gallegos was given such notice early this month. But lawmakers can invoke the Luna Precedent only once during a session.

this is not only what a REAL recovering alcoholic looks like (as opposed to you-know-who), THIS is also what an elected representative of REAL integrity looks like, someone who will uphold the constitutional right to vote and never stop doing the job his constituents put him in office to do even if it means putting his own recovery from a liver transplant at risk... gallegos is not only a true hero but an authentic leader... we need lots more like him...

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Susan Ralston takes the 5th on Abramoff and White House RNC email accounts

so, she's got some goodies on jack and his relationship with the white house and his bestest friend, karl rove...

"The subjects this morning that she will be unable to testify to...are the subjects of the relationship between Jack Abramoff and his associates and White House officials, including Ms. Ralston, and the subject of the use by White House officials of political e-mail accounts at the RNC," Ralston's lawyer, Bradford Berenson said, during the May 10 deposition. "She has material, useful information about both of those subjects."

[...]

"She is more than willing to provide it to the committee. However, she will, as we have previously discussed, require a grant of immunity before she is comfortable going forward," Berenson also said in the deposition.

give her immunity and then waterboard her until she tells us everything she knows...

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For the umpteenth time, Karl Rove is evil

cls comments on susan ralston's immunity, a story that novakula broke and i posted on last night...

She may get immunity from prosecution, but I hope she realizes it will not save her from the hatchet job Rove and his rove-bots will do on her.

i responded...

i have a feeling, after working so closely with satan's surrogate, she has a pretty damn good idea of what karl is capable of... witnessing just one outburst like the one ron suskind described from his january 2003 interview with rove would have laid bare the true evil nature of the man...

just for chuckles and grins, here's a reprise of suskind's unforgettable description of the REAL karl rove, from my post of april 2005...

suskind was outside rove's office waiting for the appointment for the interview to begin...

Inside, Rove was talking to an aide about some political stratagem in some state that had gone awry and a political operative who had displeased him. I paid it no mind and reviewed a jotted list of questions I hoped to ask. But after a moment, it was like ignoring a tornado flinging parked cars. "We will fuck him. Do you hear me? We will fuck him. We will ruin him. Like no one has ever fucked him!" As a reporter, you get around—curse words, anger, passionate intensity are not notable events—but the ferocity, the bellicosity, the violent imputations were, well, shocking. This went on without a break for a minute or two. Then the aide slipped out looking a bit ashen, and Rove, his face ruddy from the exertions of the past few moments, looked at me and smiled a gentle, Clarence-the-Angel smile. "Come on in." And I did. And we had the most amiable chat for a half hour.

indulging in completely idle speculation, that aide could well have been susan ralston... if so, i'm sure she would have left feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, don't you think...?

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More immunity...? For a Rove aide...?? For Susan Ralston...???

by all means, give it to her, and let her sing like a canary...

via josh at tpm...

From Evans-Novak Political Report ...

Rove's former assistant, Susan Ralston, is currently seeking immunity to testify before Waxman's committee. Ralston is a former assistant to Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Washington super-lobbyist and Republican fund-raiser. As Rove's gatekeeper, she became special assistant to the President and the highest-ranking Filipino-American in the administration. For Waxman, she is a link between Abramoff and Rove. Ralston was deposed behind closed doors prior to her request for immunity. According to her friends, she has nothing to say that would cause problems for Rove. Her request for immunity was forwarded to the Justice Department, whose recommendation may or may not be followed by Congress.

her friends may say she has nothing to say that would cause problems for karl rove, but i sincerely doubt she's seeking immunity because she only wants to recite bedtime stories...

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I was wondering when Susan Ralston was going to get called

i shall wonder no longer...

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today requested that former Special Assistant to the President, Susan Ralston, appear at a deposition on Apr. 5th, as part of the committee's ongoing investigation into the connection between the White House and lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

they're comin' thick and fast... suits me just fine...

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