Fratto: ‘We Have Absolutely No Reason To Believe Any E-mails Are Missing’
Fratto: ‘We Have Absolutely No Reason To Believe Any E-mails Are Missing’
The White House is currently under fire for allegations that it violated the Presidential Records Act by failing to archive official e-mails. Facing a court order, the White House yesterday acknowledged that it recycled its “backup computer tapes of e-mail before October 2003,” raising the possibility that many messages “have been taped over and are gone forever.”
Yet when asked about the missing e-mails in today’s White House press briefing, spokesman Tony Fratto inexplicably tried to claim that the White House has “absolutely no reason to believe that any e-mails are missing.” He argued that these scurrilous charges of missing e-mails “came from outside the White House.” Watch it:
Perino’s substitute-for-the-day is in over his head. The White House itself has acknowledged the missing e-mails. As CREW executive director Melanie Sloan told ThinkProgress:
Tony Fratto is lying. There is considerable evidence demonstrating that millions of White House emails are missing from between 2003 and 2005; in fact, White House spokesperson Dana Perino confirmed this in a previous statement, televised on April 13, 2007.
As Sloan notes, on April 13, 2007, Perino explicitly told reporters, “I wouldn’t rule out that there were a potential 5 million e-mails lost. … We screwed up, and we’re trying to fix it.” Additionally, the White House officials admitted to the House Oversight Committee on May 29, 2007, that “an unknown number of e-mails may not have been preserved in the White House archive.”
When a reporter pointed out Perino’s April comment, Fratto simply replied that he was “not sure what was said on that.” After today’s stand-out performance before the cameras, Fratto may be back to desk duty tomorrow.
CREW has more about the five million missing e-mails here and emptywheel has put together a timeline here.
Transcript:
QUESTION: Could you address the missing White House e-mails in the lawsuit that was a subject of reports this morning?
Are, in fact, the e-mails missing? What’s the likelihood of their recovery?
FRATTO: I think our review of this — and you saw the court filing on this and our declaration and response to the judge’s questions. I think, to the best of what all the analysis we’ve been able to do, we have absolutely no reason to believe that any e-mails are missing.
There’s no evidence of that. There’s no — we tried to reconstruct some of the work that went into a chart that was entered into court records, and could not replicate that, or could not authenticate the correctness of the data in that chart.
And from everything that we can tell, our analysis of our back-up systems, we just — we have no reason to believe that any e-mail, at all, are missing.
QUESTION: So where are they, or what…
FRATTO: Where or what?
QUESTION: Where are they?
(LAUGHTER)
FRATTO: Which e-mail?
(CROSSTALK)
FRATTO: No one will tell you, categorically, about any system — any system, whether it’s, you know, your system at Bloomberg or our system here at the White House, past and present, categorically, that data cannot be missing.
But all of our review of it and all of our understanding of the way that the backup system works, it’s a backup system that captures existing data; it captures things that are stored and archived.
We have no reason to believe that there is any data missing at all. And we’ve certainly found no evidence of any data missing. [...]
QUESTION: You’re saying they’re there; you just haven’t located them yet?
FRATTO: No.
(CROSSTALK)
FRATTO: I’m saying we have no evidence that shows that anything, at all, is missing. And you’re saying, well, have you found the missing e-mails?
And we say, we have no evidence that anything is missing.
QUESTION: So you’re saying that would include e-mails that were erased from the Republican National Committee system that was used by some White House officials?
FRATTO: I can’t speak to the RNC’s — the RNC’s system of archiving and storing e-mail. All I can tell you is that e-mail on the White House computers, we have no reason to believe that any e- mail or other data are missing.
QUESTION: I want to follow up on that. I’ve taken a real sky view of this particular story, but — so it was wrong to say a few months ago that there were possibly millions of e-mails missing?
FRATTO: I think those charges came from outside the White House. I think that’s the charge of one of the…
QUESTION: One of your colleagues addressed those from the podium and suggested that that was accurate? Again, I’m taking…
FRATTO: I’m not sure what was said on that. I could tell you today, though, that we have no evidence and we have no way of showing that any e-mail at all are missing.
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Fratto: I don’t see any missing emails…do you see any? Well I guess if you don’t see them then they aren’t missing, are they?
Repukian double speak for: It’s alright is a Republican does it.
Buck Fush
January 17th, 2008 at 5:07 pmWhen do we paint the White House brown?
January 17th, 2008 at 5:08 pmI never thought that the White House could come up with somebody who would make Dana Peroxide look like a rocket scientist, but they have.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:08 pmWe Have Absolutely No Reason To Believe Any E-mails Are Missing
Translation: We don’t need to “believe” that they are missing–we know with absolute certainty that they are right where we want them to be–GONE!
January 17th, 2008 at 5:10 pmJohn Dean wrote the book, “Worse Than Watergate, The Secret Presidency of George Bush.” And he should know! He was Nixon’s man. He said this administration is the most secretive one ever! And he wrote that back in 2004! And so much more has been done since!
January 17th, 2008 at 5:11 pmSorry, this is totally off topic but TP doesn’t have the story up yet:
Something weird has just happened with Chris Matthews on his show right now. He opened straight up with a four minute apology to Hillary Clinton, and women in general, for his remarks after the NH primary. You know, the bit about women voting for her because they felt sorry for her because of Bill’s affairs?
Anyway. Just thought it was strange and I wonder what precipitated it.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:11 pmTony Gringo does it again.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:11 pmFratto is technically correct in saying that the White House has no reason to believe that there are missing emails. In fact, that have one very important, overwhelming reason to hold the delusion that there are not: the legal consequences.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:12 pmI rarely personally address the topic of conversation in a post, considering the odds that that person would ever resd thinkprogress are beyond slim-to-none.
Having prefaced that…STFU Fratto, you lying bastard. If you’re going to lie, and least make it a good lie. Nobody believes that crap, not your coworkers, not your employers, not the media, not the comatose. I really hope you have cancer of the conscience, realize what you’ve sold your soul for, and how little it’s worth, and kill yourself as a means of redemption. It’s the best you can do for anyone. Hell it’s the best you can do for everyone.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:13 pmEmails = Evidence
January 17th, 2008 at 5:14 pm“Perino’s substitute-for-the-day is in over his head.”
- – Let’s watch as Josh Lyman tells us about President Bartlet’s secret plan to fight inflation…
January 17th, 2008 at 5:14 pm#6.Frosty…maybe Mrs. Matthews was “withholding favors” until Chris did right by women.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:15 pmSeems to me that the inability of the White House to produce any emails is reason enough to believe that either the emails are missing, or the White House is stonewalling.
Which is it, Tony?
January 17th, 2008 at 5:16 pm“Anyway. Just thought it was strange and I wonder what precipitated it.”
Comment by Frosty Cupcake — January 17, 2008 @ 5:11 pm
I saw that too. Maybe K.O. printed out the thread from here the other day and taped it to Tweety’s dressing room mirror! ;)
January 17th, 2008 at 5:17 pmAnyhow, something that was intentionally deleted isn’t technically “missing”.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:20 pm;-) @ Menehune.
RRW: Ahh, if only! :-)
January 17th, 2008 at 5:20 pmDoes Bush make his press secretaries sniff glue or something? How is it possible these people can attain this level of stupidity?
January 17th, 2008 at 5:20 pmThey arent missing, they are just kinda overwritten, like a hard drive thats been formatted..
January 17th, 2008 at 5:22 pmLet’s watch as Josh Lyman tells us about President Bartlet’s secret plan to fight inflation…
Comment by Badmoodman —
I was soooo thinking of West Wing
January 17th, 2008 at 5:22 pmAnyway. Just thought it was strange and I wonder what precipitated it.
Comment by Frosty Cupcake — January 17, 2008 @ 5:11 pm
I believe this has something to do with it:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200801110010?f=h_top
January 17th, 2008 at 5:26 pmEar plugs, and blindfold…..nope,nothing here.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:26 pmTweety has one foot out the door at MSNBC, can you say DESPERATE!.
One qualm with Firedoglake’s timeline.
The whole e-mail scandal scandal was actually discovered by interpid researcher Citizen 92 in a TPMMuckraker thread March 13, 2007, following the first “dump” of DOJ documents. Comment is at 1:33 p.m. Waxman picked up the ball from there.
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002742.php#comments
January 17th, 2008 at 5:30 pmFratto: ‘We Have Absolutely No Reason To Believe
Any E-mails Are Missing’
oh… well… they haven’t tried THAT one before…
January 17th, 2008 at 5:30 pmDr. Frodo’s press gaggle + lost wiithout a trace emails = stall tactic.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:31 pmIs he claiming the emails exist then? Is this one of those trick questions that calls into doubt the meaning of “it” or “exist” or “xxxxxxxxxx”, :”is” or if “is” “is” definable without obfuscation?
January 17th, 2008 at 5:31 pmWhen do we paint the White House brown?
Comment by Tomas — January 17, 2008 @ 5:08 pm
It should have been painted brown long ago, because we all know it’s full of …. Ahem. :)
If that expression ‘full of $…’ were to become reality, the last seven years would cause a geyser of crap so high, you could see it from space.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:31 pmComment by dim wit — January 17, 2008 @ 5:20 pm
How is it possible these people can attain this level of stupidity?
Sock puppets are not stupid. They gave up any claim to intelligence (on any level), along with their soul long ago. They simply do what they are told and say what they are programmed to say.
Blaming these soulless sock puppets is like blaming Charlie McCarthy for what Edgar Bergin says.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:32 pmThat filthy little putz had better have a good lawyer and some money socked away for his defense fund.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:33 pmHe argued that these scurrilous charges of missing e-mails “came from outside the White House.â€
… as to be expected???
January 17th, 2008 at 5:34 pm…
Thanks, missmolly!
January 17th, 2008 at 5:37 pmMerlin; In addition to reading ‘Worse Than watergate’, by John Dean, read a follow-up work he wrote, ‘Conservatives Without A Conscience. Today’s GOP makes Nixon & crew look downright saintly.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:39 pm#32 Comment by Uncle Ho — January 17, 2008 @ 5:39 pm
Merlin; In addition to reading ‘Worse Than watergate’, by John Dean, read a follow-up work he wrote, ‘Conservatives Without A Conscience. Today’s GOP makes Nixon & crew look downright saintly.
Another excellent read! Good suggestion!
January 17th, 2008 at 5:42 pmEmails, video tapes, contracts, memos… what’s worth keeping when you can throw it all away? The last 7 years (8 years when Bush 2.0 leaves office) will be a big black hole in the history books.
Your former Repub strategist turned PURPLE,
January 17th, 2008 at 5:43 pmMr. Purple
http://www.mrpurple2008.com
I wonder if White House emails have a disclaimer like this:
NOTE: If you are reading this, without proper clearance, please don’t disseminate this report to the press. Or your subordinates. Or your superiors. Or Congress. Or your wife. Whatever you do, don’t respond to this e-mail with another e-mail and make sure you delete this e-mail from your inbox but save it somewhere just in case it may serve as exonerating evidence in any future, purely hypothetical, criminal investigation, however, if it ever appears that this e-mail may be condemning evidence in a future, purely hypothetical, criminal investigation it should be deleted from all files, in fact, it may be best to deep format your drive as soon as you finish reading this.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:48 pmAnd these emails are the ones which were not intentionally “scrubbed” I presume??
January 17th, 2008 at 5:56 pmAs Sloan notes, on April 13, 2007, Perino explicitly told reporters, “I wouldn’t rule out that there were a potential 5 million e-mails lost. … We screwed up, and we’re trying to fix it.†Additionally, the White House officials admitted to the House Oversight Committee on May 29, 2007, that “an unknown number of e-mails may not have been preserved in the White House archive.â€
Unlike this garbage administration , I can admit my failings/weak points quite readily.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:56 pmI am 1/2 step away from being totally inept when it comes to computers ; I’m lucky to know where the “On” button is located.
But can anyone explain why this administration is always given a pass ? Has anyone considered a follow-up question to Perino asking “How exactly are you tring to fix it” ? “Did you call Geek Squad”? I mean ….ANYTHING….And I’m sure there are many of you that post here that are more than capable of easily rebutting any response she may give…I mean , what the hell ….
X: The “reformatted emails” is what they now claim to have! Do they really think people are stupid??
January 17th, 2008 at 5:57 pmPerino caught in another bold-faced lie? She’s nothing more than an empty-headed succubus.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:58 pmThe “reformatted emails†is what they now claim to have! Do they really think people are stupid??
Comment by Veritas — January 17, 2008 @ 5:57 pm
They *know* people are stupid. At least a large enough portion are. That’s how they came to power and then managed to hold onto it.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:59 pmLet’s watch as Josh Lyman tells us about President Bartlet’s secret plan…
Comment by Badmoodman —
I was soooo thinking of West Wing
Comment by raynman — January 17, 2008 @ 5:22 pm
it’s no wonder that show had to be cancelled… many of us were getting
January 17th, 2008 at 6:06 pmeducated and informed…
just occurred to me…
How much bullsh*t does it take before the WH cabal of criminals are charged with felonies?
January 17th, 2008 at 6:13 pmDon’t we have so many instances of criminal actions that we need a ledger to keep track of them and their status of denial?
How much more will it take to finally get these guys in court?
A lying White House spokesman?
Do tell.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:28 pmThey can data mine US citizens, but can’t do the same for the White House???? how convenient.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:28 pmIs “Fratto” his real name?
January 17th, 2008 at 6:33 pmfrosty –
Tweety Apologizes (Sort Of) For Outlandish Remarks About Hillary–UPDATED with Video
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/01/17/tweety-apologizes-sort-of-for-outlandish-remarks-about-hillary/
January 17th, 2008 at 6:34 pmI think I just answered my own question – he definitely LOOKS like I’d expect a Fratto to look.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:37 pmScrewed up? It’s the law, and they broke it. No forgiveness here
January 17th, 2008 at 6:38 pmSHORTER TONY FRATTO: what emails?
January 17th, 2008 at 6:46 pmAs Alphonso Bedoya once said in the treasure of the Sierra MadreI don’t have to show you no stinking badges or Emails either!
RePUGs remind me more of south of the border bandits, all the time.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:52 pmPardon me if you have read this before, but this subject of millions of “lost white house Emails” keeps resurfacing…
The Gettybush Address
Four score and seven million lost Emails ago, our forebushers brought forth on this continent a new regime, conceived in lunacy and dedicated to the proposition that all Bush crime family members are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil discourse, testing whether that regime or any regime, so constipated and so daffy, can long endure…
January 17th, 2008 at 6:58 pmI think there’s a bit of a disconnect with folks here about what the White House spokespeople are there to do. They’re there to deflect questions, not answer them. They’re living “Happy Faces” who with a pull on the cord in back spout out whatever the Head Bushies tell them to, and when asked questions, select options from their 24K modem brains like “we haven’t finished parsing…” or “there’s no reason to believe…”
I wonder why news reporters even show up at those propaganda events any more. Self-flagellation seems a less painful alternative.
January 17th, 2008 at 7:13 pmI remember when you could always expect at least a couple of reasonable conservatives to jump into these conversations and attempt a defense. This administration has gotten so absurd that reasonable conservatives don’t seem to want to even try anymore. What would be the point? Fratto is simply a ridiculous man. Would you even buy a used car from this guy?
January 17th, 2008 at 7:40 pmRepublicans have to lie…think about it…who would ever buy the truth from these guys? They are thugs and they can’t tell the truth for fear of incrimination.
January 17th, 2008 at 7:42 pm#52 Comment by muckmac — January 17, 2008 @ 7:13 pm
I think there’s a bit of a disconnect with folks here about what the White House spokespeople are there to do. They’re there to deflect questions, not answer them. They’re living “Happy Faces†who with a pull on the cord in back spout out whatever the Head Bushies tell them to, and when asked questions, select options from their 24K modem brains like “we haven’t finished parsing…†or “there’s no reason to believe…â€
Exactly right. Especially the “disconnect” part. I said essentially the same thing in #28.
January 17th, 2008 at 8:01 pm“We have absolutely every treason to hide those emails.”
January 17th, 2008 at 8:03 pmFratto is 100% telling the truth. There is no evidence that any emails are missing because the evidence was written over (destroyed) by new emails.
DUH!
January 17th, 2008 at 8:04 pmKaty, thanks for the link. :-)
January 17th, 2008 at 8:20 pmholy crap what a lying sack of sh*t.
he’s not even a good liar!!
January 17th, 2008 at 8:42 pmThis guy reminds of the low level mob goon. The Godfather tells him to go whack some guy, and he just moseys off and does the whacking.
When asked by the cops about it, it’s “Hey, we got no reason to believe we were whackin da guy!”
January 17th, 2008 at 8:45 pmThese people never give up. They don’t believe there are recording devices (even though they use them to record our every phone call while erasing 5 million white house emails). They also firmly believe that if you repeat a lie often enough, most people will buy it. With our current media, it’s working.
I am reading Naomi Wolf’s “The End of America,” and woke up the day after the NBC Nevada debate fiasco to discover I was on Chapter 9, “Restrict the Press.” This is a carefully devised plan and no joke, in spite of Fratto’s idiocy. They be dumb and evil all at the same time.
January 17th, 2008 at 9:06 pmThe White House violated the Presidential Records Act . PERIOD! It is common place now to have a spokesman for the White House lying to the World community and to the people of America. That is what happens when you have a country rule by WAR CRIMINALS. Lies!
January 17th, 2008 at 9:08 pm‘WAR ON DEMOCRACY’ JOHN PILGER, YOUTUBE!
January 17th, 2008 at 9:10 pmA little oft-topic but referencing this administration…
My wife just enrolled in an American History class taught via the Internet.
One of the first assignments was for each student to upload a brief message about who they thought the best president was, in part to practice uploading messages to the discussion area of the class’s web site.
Lincoln and Clinton split a majority of the votes, with one for Reagan, one listing Teddy Roosevelt, and one listing FDR.
Not one…ONE…listed George W. Bush (or George H.W. Bush) as their favorite. This from about 25 students who live in a very Republican area of TN.
Score one for today’s youth!
January 17th, 2008 at 11:05 pmOft topic. Sheesh.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:05 pmWhat is amazing is that the media gave up any shred of integrity they had to have access to these pressers. Loss of integrity for the sole purpose of allowing yourself to be lied to. Sure doesn’t sound like a good trade to me.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:58 pmDid they look under the rugs? The missing e-mails might be there. Maybe under that rug with the presidential seal in George’s office, the one he vigorously wipes his feet on.
January 18th, 2008 at 1:29 amJust to clarify, I think that’s the same rug Barney urinated on…(or was it George?)
January 18th, 2008 at 1:30 amFRATTO: I’m not sure what was said on that. I could tell you today, though, that we have no evidence and we have no way of showing that any e-mail at all are missing.
I’ll bet you don’t, Mr. Fratto. Of course there is no evidence of, or way to show that any e-mails are missing. Because the White House (illegally) destroyed, or is in the process of destroying that evidence.
Love how he repeatedly mentioned, “we have no evidence”, and asked, “what missing e-mails?”. This is an attempt to change the framing. From now on, it’s, “We never lost any e-mails.”.
After all, we’ve always been at war with Eastasia.
January 18th, 2008 at 3:20 amPlease, just stop the lying. If you have to, don’t say anything, just stop lying.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:47 pmhttp://www.spikesoft.net/blog
Earth to Fratto. Earth to Fratto. …..
January 19th, 2008 at 6:48 am