RNC accepts White House privilege claim.
By on Apr 18th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
RNC accepts White House privilege claim.
In a letter yesterday to the RNC, Emmet Flood, a special counsel to President Bush, “raised the possibility of an executive-privilege claim on e-mails and other documents from private e-mail accounts used by senior White House officials” but controlled by the RNC. The RNC has now agreed to turn the documents over to the White House rather than to congressional investigators:
“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.”
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What a surprise….
April 18th, 2007 at 1:36 pmBut, if you have nothing to hide…………..oh forget it.
April 18th, 2007 at 1:41 pmBut it’s reasonable - they said it so it must be so!
April 18th, 2007 at 1:41 pmThese people are crazy. Why bother with the formality? The prez can commit murder right now in broad day light and republicans will claim that he cannot be charged because of executive privilege and unitary power as commander-in-chief bah blah blah
April 18th, 2007 at 1:44 pmI can’t believe they can simply ignore Congress and do something like this.
April 18th, 2007 at 1:44 pmAll these lawyers and none of them state the obvious
1-Use of non-WH e-mail servers voids any privilege because the communication is now shared with potential third parties at large.
2-Executive Privilege only applies if there is a showing that revealing the communication will in some way violate the need to secrecy required for national security.
3-Appointment of US attorneys is not a national security issue.
When will someone with a pair between his legs show up and criminally indict those Mother-F#$%ers?
April 18th, 2007 at 1:46 pm“democracy is coming to the u.s.a.”
April 18th, 2007 at 1:50 pmActually, Ken, if the President murdered someone in broad day light he would have to be impeached and removed before he could be charged. That’s not because of executive privilege or the unitary power as commander-in-chief bah blah blah.
April 18th, 2007 at 1:52 pmThis will haunt the RNC for years to come. Very shortsided and probably strong armed into it but the verdict is already coming down on Bush and his pitiful legacy. The RNC should be looking into how they can distance themselves instead of assisting in obstruction.
But they won’t.
April 18th, 2007 at 1:53 pmComment #9 is dead-on about this – The Bush administration and the RNC are setting very dangerous precedents that unless checked directly by congress, will allow future administrations to weasel-out of difficult situations they create for themselves.
Imagine the outrage would we see now if a Democrat were president and did these very same things.
They are completely shameless in their hypocrisy and self-righteousness.
April 18th, 2007 at 2:05 pm“I’m shocked! Shocked to find there’s gambling going on in here!”
It’s just par for the course at this point.
April 18th, 2007 at 2:07 pmI’m still upset that the dem’s didn’t have marshal’s deliver the paper work and seize all the computer’s in one fell swoop….When it is apparent all the cover up’s and lies this administration has done so far the dem’s need to think and act faster..No more nice guy attitude dammit, we are trying to stop more war’s and genocide for profit by murderers..When will they lear and act quickly…Geees, I could do a better job….Blessings
April 18th, 2007 at 2:11 pmYeah, big surprise the RNC went along with the white house. Let’s see if there is a new congress in town.
April 18th, 2007 at 2:11 pmSo the White House gets to filter/censor all the RNC emails before turning them over to investigators? F**k that! By definition any emails on the RNC mail server cannot be official White House communications so executive privilege cannot apply.
Investigators should have confiscated those email server at the first sign of trouble to keep Karl’s fat fingers from “accidentally” deleting emails.
April 18th, 2007 at 2:15 pmTHIS IS PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE OF VIOLATION OF ONE OF TWO LAWS:
If Bush has executive privilege over the RNC emails isn’t that a direct violation of the Executive Records Retention Law?
If the emails were only used for political purposes, there could be nothing that “impedes the free flow of opinions to the president”, except as to the actions of his political campaign, but then you bump into the Hatch Act.
If anyone can interpret this otherwise I would love to hear it.
April 18th, 2007 at 2:17 pmTHE WORST PRESIDENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY BY A LONG SHOT !
What does it take to impeach these animals !
A presidential election decided by the supreme court in a state run by the candidates brother while losing the popular vote,A second election with voting irregularities by a margin of .6 % of the popular vote decided on electronic voting machines suppied by a major Bush supporter,the death of the ONE outspoken critc of the war in the senate ,Torture ,the stacking of the courts with far right ideologues, extraordinary rendition, war based on falsified evidence and lies,no bid contracts ,obscene oil company profits,the greatest deficit in American history,domestic spying ,the end of Habeas corpus , posse comitatas,Lying to the American public repeatedly, numerous violations of the constitution,the creation of a private army with a budget of billions based in virginia ,4 million refugee’s, 3/4 of a million dead,in an illegal war….. (just to name a few )
The rule of law ? Where is the outrage from our representatives in government ?What more do you need to launch impeachment proceedings !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
UNBELIEVABLE !
April 18th, 2007 at 2:21 pmI M P E A C H !
April 18th, 2007 at 2:22 pm“But the true threats to stability and peace are these nations that are not very transparent, that hide behind the - that don’t let people in to take a look and see what they’re up to. They’re very kind of authoritarian regimes.”
George W. Bush, in a media roundtable discussion, March 13, 2001
I found this book to be a very compelling read:
April 18th, 2007 at 2:23 pmThe Authoritarians”
Good!
If the RNC was thinking about the future of their party, they would have complied with Conyers request and started distancing themselves from this wretched administration.
Instead, they’ve chosen to stay hitched to that wagon. Now they’re going to go down with the ship.
April 18th, 2007 at 2:23 pm.
Great - turn them over to the White House and NOW we have the evidence that these people are guilty of violating the Hatch Act. Do they get any dumber than that?
April 18th, 2007 at 2:29 pmWhen the republicans destroy themselves as a party they will fall back to the good cop , the democrats,who are also owned by major corporate interests and even to a large extent to the same corporations ,whose money flows freely on both sides of the aisle.
This is just a bad shell game run by cons to fool the simpleminded.Corporate control of government and the media is beyond obvious ,and which democrats are free of corporate control !
Ralph Nader was right , a government by ,of and for the corporations supported by both parties !Go on ,Prove me wrong ,democrats , because at this point you seem like the next stage ( a shoo in election in 2008 )in corporate domination which after all is only another name for FASCISM !
April 18th, 2007 at 2:34 pmFirst they”lost” the RNC-based emails. Then the Blackberry network went bye-bye (to put in new servers???). Then also yesterday:
April 17, 2007 — Our sources inform us that a possible fire today has knocked out classified communications services at the US State Department’s Communications Annex facility (State Communications Annex - SA26 - in Beltsville, Maryland), just outside of Washington, DC. Also affected by the outage is the joint National Security Agency-Central Intelligence Agency Special Collection Service (SCS) (F6) (â€CSSGâ€) located in a building off Springfield Road and located adjacent to SA-26, which is located at 8101 Odell Road. The SCS relies on the State Department backbone secure satellite communications for its links to covert listening posts and devices around the world. Agencies affected by the communications outage are the State Department, NSA, CIA, and Department of Defense. The State Department has been forced to use its backup facility. a CIA facility located at Brandy Station in northern Virginia.
I’m not much of a tin hat man, but ….?
April 18th, 2007 at 2:36 pmDEMOCRACY NOW !
April 18th, 2007 at 2:37 pmthe privilege was destroyed the minute the communications left the government, i.e. via RNC e-mail accounts.
April 18th, 2007 at 3:26 pmI am a Democrat, and I am SICK of the weeny way we have dealt with these obvious criminals. For F%ck sake, they are stealing us blind! Waxman, get in there and get the info! And when the emails mysteriously go missing, CHARGE THEM WITH THE CRIMES THEY HAVE COMMITTED (obstruction of justice for one, I’m sure there are others. If you think all they are hiding is attorney firing discussions I have several bridges to sell you).
As I have said to every one of my representatives and the DNC, every time we kow-tow to these bullies and let them run rampant over the constitution and the people, we play into the “weak-willed Democrat” myth they so love to promote.
April 18th, 2007 at 3:31 pmMEMO TO CONYERS:
–> Grow a pair.
April 18th, 2007 at 3:33 pmGranted, I’m not real old, but I am close to 50.
April 18th, 2007 at 3:33 pmIn my lifetime, I have NEVER seen a situation where impeachment is more justified.
Should have been done the minute we all learned that WMDs in Iraq were a flat out lie.
I mean, what more can it take ?
Listen - if you accept the White House’s general position on Executive Privilege as being accurate (which admittedly is a huge stretch), then their assertion of privilege over the RNC emails is completely in line with that position. (BTW, I am not advocating this position, merely pointing out that GWB is being consistent.)
It is my understanding that the WH is not asserting privilege over the “political” business emails sent by WH staffers/officials using the RNC accounts, but rather the “official” business emails that should have been kept within the WH system. While this use of the RNC accounts to conduct “official” business clearly violates the Presidential Records Act, I don’t believe it per se waives any “executive privilege” that would otherwise attach had the email originated on the WH server (again, accepting for sake of argument the WH definition of “executive privilege).
It is no surprise that the RNC turned these docs over to the WH - but I don’t come to that conclusion from a cynical point of view (for once). The WH has clearly indicated that it has a radically expansive view of what materials fall under the umbrella of “executive privilege”, and the RNC (which existed long before GWB and will continue long after he’s in the dustheap) has no business taking sides in the fight. One interesting option (who knows if its applicable in this instance, but wtf) would have been for the RNC to file its own lawsuit as a “stakeholder”, asking the courts to determine which side is correct vis-a-vis the assertion of executive privilege. Anyone want to weigh in on whether that’s a “political question” that the Article III courts don’t have jurisdiction to take?
April 18th, 2007 at 3:33 pmIs anyone really surprised by the fact republicans feel it is OK to cover up using ‘Executive Privilege’… the party of corruption.
April 18th, 2007 at 3:58 pmNow we’ll find out if “contempt of Congress”…
…means anything…
April 18th, 2007 at 4:03 pmEven if the RNC accounts were used for “official business” they STILL can’t be protected by claims of executive privilege.
The claim to executive privilege was forfeited the minute they decided not to use the official and accountable white house system.
A forfeit of the white house email system = a forfeit of executive privilege protections.
April 18th, 2007 at 4:13 pmIt is my understanding that the WH is not asserting privilege over the “political†business emails sent by WH staffers/officials using the RNC accounts, but rather the “official†business emails that should have been kept within the WH system. While this use of the RNC accounts to conduct “official†business clearly violates the Presidential Records Act, I don’t believe it per se waives any “executive privilege†that would otherwise attach had the email originated on the WH server (again, accepting for sake of argument the WH definition of “executive privilege).
Comment by fnordboy — April 18, 2007 @ 3:33 pm
I agree with #15’s analysis. This action provides evidence of the violation of not just one law (Presidential Records Act), but also violation of the Hatch Act. Executive Privilege cannot be used to cover up criminal acts.
However, what I suspect is happening is an attempt to control those records, using this provision of the PRA:
§ 2203. Management and custody of Presidential records
(a) Through the implementation of records management controls and other necessary actions, the President shall take all such steps as may be necessary to assure that the activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that reflect the performance of his constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties are adequately documented and that such records are maintained as Presidential records pursuant to the requirements of this section and other provisions of law.
April 18th, 2007 at 4:19 pm(b) Documentary materials produced or received by the President, his staff, or units or individuals in the Executive Office of the President the function of which is to advise and assist the President, shall, to the extent practicable, be categorized as Presidential records or personal records upon their creation or receipt and be filed separately.
not a democracy at all
April 18th, 2007 at 4:23 pmAnd now…more on the crumbling building of democracy…
April 18th, 2007 at 4:52 pmIMPEACHMENT NOW!!! somebody please give Shrubby a BJ!
Enough is Enough!
Arrest the entire RNC headquarters crew!
Sieze their computers, et al
Get the NSA to print out all their emails… they’ve got them all. Verizon, ATT… surely you passed all of their internet traffic to the NSA too!
a 56yo UPstate NY ‘i’NDEPENDENT
April 18th, 2007 at 5:35 pmthe Nazi party accepted Hitler’s claims too.
April 18th, 2007 at 7:17 pmIs it just me or is this extreemly stupid. They must turn over the emails that the white house had and deleted… to the white house. They already had them, they already saw them. There is nothing that should be able to be claimed.
April 19th, 2007 at 12:37 amI don’t know who I blame more–the fascists in the white house or the appeasers running Congress.
April 19th, 2007 at 9:23 am