The United States shall reserve and retain complete ownership, possession, and control of Presidential records
With all the hullabaloo over the "lost" emails, I decided to actually read the law that keeps getting referenced. What I found made me more frustrated, more angry, and absolutely positive that this White House is breaking the law. I am not, by any stretch, a Constitutional scholar and am not claiming to understand the intricacies of congressional law. I am, however, able to read. I'll let lawyers work out the details, but the general facts are quite clear.
Read the law for yourself here. I'll outline a few choice sections below the fold.
2203. (2) The term "Presidential records" means documentary materials, or any reasonably segregable portion thereof, created or received by the President, his immediate staff, or a unit or individual of the Executive Office of the President whose function is to advise and assist the President, in the course of conducting activities which relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President. Such term—
(A) includes any documentary materials relating to the political activities of the President or members of his staff, but only if such activities relate to or have a direct effect upon the carrying out of constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President;
This was the first section to grab my attention. Too many on the right are arguing that it's somehow okay to have "lost" these emails because they were never intended as official communication. Well, the law fills that silly loop hole. Not only is the White House required to save official communication by the President, it covers everyone from "immediate staff" to assistants.
What's more, the documents covered are also extremely wide ranging. The law doesn't care whether documents were sent using an RNC account (or a Hotmail account or a Gmail account, etc.), but neither does it care how "important" the emails were. Anything relating to "constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties" need to be archived.
2205. (2) subject to any rights, defenses, or privileges which the United States or any agency or person may invoke, Presidential records shall be made available—
(A) pursuant to subpena or other judicial process issued by a court of competent jurisdiction for the purposes of any civil or criminal investigation or proceeding;
(B) to an incumbent President if such records contain information that is needed for the conduct of current business of his office and that is not otherwise available; and
(C) to either House of Congress, or, to the extent of matter within its jurisdiction, to any committee or subcommittee thereof if such records contain information that is needed for the conduct of its business and that is not otherwise available;
This, it seems to me, is the kicker. Where section 2203 mandates that all official communication needs to be saved, section 2205 makes sure that the communication will be available "pursuant to subpena" and "to either House of Congress." There's no way around this one. "Losing" emails might be a crime under section 2203, but as soon as those emails were requested by Congress (and will eventually be subpoenaed), it appears to become a specific crime under section 2205.
Claiming to "lose" the emails was clearly their last resort.
EDIT: I find it interesting that the "lost" emails are mentioned exactly zero times on Drudge, RedState, Little Green Footballs, Michelle Malkin, and Powerline. Could it be that after 6+ years of scandals and incompetence, DogAte is the straw that breaks the camels back?