Oh boy, oh boy, Alberto! ... or ... a Roving I will go

posted by The Sailor @ 6:22 PM Permalink

Statements from Alberto Gonzales:

"I value their independence, their professionalism, what they do in the community, and these decisions were not based on political reasons"

and speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee January 18th:

"I would never, ever make a change in a United States attorney position for political reasons or if it would in any way jeopardize an ongoing serious investigation. I just would not do it."

and

"To think we made these changes to retaliate or because they didn't carry out certain prosecutions?" he said. "That did not occur here. I stand by the decision to make the changes."

Yet the changes were explicitly made because of complaints from Repub congress critters and state RNC heads that immigration and 'election violations by Dems' were at the heart of the firings.

It gets worse:

"This story is really now a two-part issue," CREW's Melanie Sloan told CNN. "First there's the use of the RNC e-mail server that's inappropriate by White House officials and secondly we've also learned that there were between March of 2003 and October of 2005 apparently over 5 million e-mail that were not preserved and these are e-mail on the regular White House server."

Perino stressed there's no indication the e-mails were intentionally lost, but she was careful not to dispute the [...] allegations.

And even worser:

Rove E-Mail Sought by Congress May Be Missing
RNC Took Away His Access to Delete Files in 2005

A lawyer for the Republican National Committee told congressional staff members yesterday that the RNC is missing at least four years' worth of e-mail from White House senior adviser Karl Rove that is being sought as part of investigations into the Bush administration, according to the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
[...]
they took action to prevent Rove -- and Rove alone among the two dozen or so White House officials with RNC accounts -- from deleting his e-mails from the RNC server. Waxman (D-Calif.) said he was told the RNC made that move in 2005.

Hmmm, and what did Gonzales previously have to say about the deletions of WH emails? I'm so glad you asked:

Rove warned in 'manuals, memos, and briefings' to save emails

Further complicating the picture in White House adviser Karl Rove's deleting of numerous e-mails, the Los Angeles Times reports today that the White House had established a policy of saving emails related to official business and warned staff not to delete them.
[...]
Among a set of employee manuals from 2001, a memorandum from former White House counsel and current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales explains that "any e-mail relating to official business...qualifies as a presidential record."

Another manual reads, "If you happen to receive an e-mail on a personal account which otherwise qualifies as a presidential record, it is your duty to insure that it is saved as such by printing it out and saving it or by forwarding it to your White House e-mail account."

Once again, they are hoist on their own retard petard.

Labels: Bush, corruption, GOP, United States Attorneys