The RNC has decided to actively participate with the White House in obstructing the House Judiciary Committee's demand for Karl Rove's "private" emails:
The RNC deferred yesterday to White House requests that all documents from administration officials who used RNC e-mail accounts first be reviewed by Bush's lawyers. Congress has requested several years' worth of e-mails from top White House advisers, including Karl Rove, as part of its investigation of the prosecutor firings. In letters to the House and Senate Judiciary committees, an RNC lawyer said those documents belong to the White House.
"Recognizing the unique and significant nature of the potential privilege issue raised by the committee's requests, the RNC has agreed to the White House's reasonable request," Robert K. Kelner, an RNC lawyer, wrote to Conyers. Conyers responded that the action was "a clear attempt on the administration's part to delay this process."
Wapo LINK
TPMmuckraker LINK
Looks like these mobsters don't think that the Congress has any power to stop them...
HEY DEMS? WHADDYA GONNA DO ABOUT IT?
UPDATE #1: Jbearlaw has done a much more extensive look at this matter in WH Obstruction of Justice Re: Conyers E-mail Requests and has a good detailed analysis of the positions that the White House and the RNC are staking out.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READING ---------> HERE IS THE LINK
Here's the key part:
The full text of the letter is available at the TPM Document Collection. But here's the money quote:
We understand that once your client has reached an agreement on the appropriate search terms with the Judiciary Committee and has gathered information it believes responsive to the Letter's request, you will provide the Office of Counsel to the President with an opportunity to review such material before communicating it to any other person.
The "Letter" referred to is, of course, the letter that Chairman Conyers sent, requesting the e-mails, along with other information.
The stated purpose for the request for the RNC not to comply with the Letter, and the House Committee investigation is:
Such review is necessary to determine, among other things, (1) whether any materials implicating the Presidential Records Act are, in fact, involved, and (2) whether, the Executive Branch may need to take measures necessary to protect its other legal interests in communications responsive to the Letter's requests.
Just to be clear: having not taken any steps prior to disclosing these communications to a third party, to ensure the security of these communications, the White House Counsel's office is now expecting the RNC apparently with the RNC's agreement, (see my previous diary about that issue)to delay turning the requested e-mails and other communications over to the Judiciary Committee until the White House gives the okay.
UPDATE #2: Daniel Fromkin at the Washington Post has more. The White House is now starting the assertion of executive privilege over these emails:
The White House yesterday hinted that it may try to assert executive privilege in denying Congressional investigators access to e-mails sent and received by White House aides on their Republican National Committee e-mail accounts.
It would be an unconventional exercise of a privilege that is controversial even in its traditional application: to protect the White House itself from subpoenas. And it would be another twist in an already peculiarly convoluted story.
...
Margaret Talev writes for McClatchy Newspapers: "Democrats and Republican critics of the administration said the move suggests that the White House is seeking to develop a strategy to block the release of the non-government e-mails to congressional investigators by arguing that they're covered by executive privilege and not subject to review.
"Scott M. Stanzel, deputy White House press secretary, called the action 'reasonable' and said that any review of the e-mails would 'be conducted in a timely fashion, to balance the committee's need for the information with the extreme over breadth of their requests.' Party officials declined comment, but a GOP aide familiar with the negotiations said the RNC would comply with the White House request.
"Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., who'd asked the RNC to turn over any applicable e-mails by week's end, characterized the White House's stance as an 'extreme and unnecessary' effort to block or slow the release of the e-mails. . . .
Wapo LINK
And from the McClatchy article:
Bruce Fein, a former Reagan administration Justice Department official who's been critical of the administration and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, said the existence of the RNC e-mails is worrisome for the White House.
"The situation is very awkward for the administration because they don't know exactly what e-mails are there. What does seem very clear is that the e-mails did concern government business, which would include firing U.S. attorneys. Otherwise there would be no plausible claim," he said.
Fein said the administration might be considering seeking an injunction to prevent the Republican Party from releasing the e-mails to Congress.
Citing the leaking of the Vietnam-era Pentagon Papers as an example, Fein said, "It's always more difficult to claim privilege after it's leaked out of your hands - or if it's never in your hands in the first place."
At the same time, Fein said, the White House is putting the Republican Party in a bind. "If you're the RNC, you're making yourself vulnerable to a claim you're impeding or endeavoring to impede a congressional investigation," he said.
McClatchy LINK
Two observations:
- If the emails concern government business isn't it a clear violation of the Hatch Act?
- What is very clear is that they are very scared about what is in the emails, and the RNC has the emails.
UPDATE #3: Interesting! Is it 22 or over 50 email accounts? In the above article McClatchy reports:
But investigators know from documents already released by the Justice Department in the U.S. attorneys probe that some of the 50 current and former White House officials who had separate Republican Party e-mail accounts did send or receive e-mails related to the U.S. attorneys through their non-government accounts.
But today Dana Perino said:
MS. PERINO: Well, I think one of the things to step back and take a look at is that we are talking about a very small universe of emails. There are 1,700 employees that work for the Executive Office of the President, 1,000 of those are political employees, like myself, and 22 of them have political email accounts. That's about 2 percent of the people.
So is it 22, or a whole lot more? Dana...?
UPDATE #4: It's 50. She clarifies it later in the press briefing:
Q But The L.A. Times today quotes Scott Stanzel as saying that there were about 50 aides.
MS. PERINO: The 22 is current, current White House employees -- 50 over the course of the administration.
That's a lot more.
Is it really only 50 Dana...? Really...?
'Cause they found 50 just based on the DOJ probe...???
So really... just 50...??? no more...??? you're sure...??? Dana...???