4.10.2007
White House Unofficial E-mail Accounts Draw Scrutiny (CNN.com)
POSTED: 11:48 p.m. EDT, April 9, 2007
From Bob Franken
CNN Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House is being accused of improperly trying to hide e-mails about government business by using unofficial e-mail accounts.
Congressional investigators say they found communications on one account from top White House aides about official matters, like the December firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
Those e-mails were discovered on a Republican National Committee e-mail domain called gwb43.com. That domain is not part of the official White House communication system.
The Presidential Records Act, passed during the Nixon administration, requires the preservation of all official records of and about the president.
A White House spokesman defended the use of outside e-mail accounts as an appropriate method of separating official business from political campaign work.
But the use of those accounts by officials discussing the firings -- and one from now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff -- have led a liberal watchdog group to accuse administration of trying to skirt the law governing preservation of presidential records.
"They wanted to make sure that no record could ever be found of what they were really up to in the White House," Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told CNN.
(More ... CNN > Politics) ¶ 22:10
From Bob Franken
CNN Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House is being accused of improperly trying to hide e-mails about government business by using unofficial e-mail accounts.
Congressional investigators say they found communications on one account from top White House aides about official matters, like the December firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
Those e-mails were discovered on a Republican National Committee e-mail domain called gwb43.com. That domain is not part of the official White House communication system.
The Presidential Records Act, passed during the Nixon administration, requires the preservation of all official records of and about the president.
A White House spokesman defended the use of outside e-mail accounts as an appropriate method of separating official business from political campaign work.
But the use of those accounts by officials discussing the firings -- and one from now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff -- have led a liberal watchdog group to accuse administration of trying to skirt the law governing preservation of presidential records.
"They wanted to make sure that no record could ever be found of what they were really up to in the White House," Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told CNN.
(More ... CNN > Politics) ¶ 22:10
