Washington Post
White House E-Mail Furor Rages
By John Solomon
Associated Press Writer
Monday, May 1, 2000; 7:41 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON –– The White House is raising the possibility it may
invoke executive privilege to keep Congress from seeing some documents
in the controversy over missing e-mails that are under subpoena,
documents disclosed Monday.
Meanwhile, investigators are poring over memos suggesting presidential
aides could have begun retrieving the missing messages more than a year
ago to see if they should have been turned over to investigations ranging
from Whitewater to impeachment.
The White House sent the House Government Reform Committee, which
is investigating the controversy, a one-page list of documents it is not
turning over under subpoena because they are considered covered by
executive privilege and attorney-client confidentiality.
Among the documents on the list, which was obtained by The Associated
Press, are handwritten notes by White House lawyers involving
discussions they had with computer experts about the e-mails.
The list says the notes "reflect mental impressions" of the lawyers for the
White House Office of Administration, which oversaw the e-mail system
at the center of the controversy.
The list is the first step in the executive privilege process. In past
investigations, the White House has sometimes relented and turned over
documents and in other cases they invoked the privileges to shield memos.
The decision prompted an angry reply Monday by the chairman of the
Government Reform Commmitee.
"The White House is obstructing the investigation," Rep. Dan Burton,
R-Ind., said in a letter to the White House counsel's office. "This
meaningless legal mumbo-jumbo is obviously a transparent ploy to
provoke wasteful and time-consuming squabbles over documents."
A White House spokesman, Jim Kennedy, responded: "We have already
turned over a lot of material to Mr. Burton. What he is seeking is not
historical information about the origins of this problem but current
information generated only as a result of his inquiry."
Kennedy added that the White House "would like to reach an
accommodation with the committee to provide them with what they
legitimately need in a way that doesn't interfere with our ability to do our
job."
Meanwhile, the AP obtained an internal memo showing that presidential
aides prepared to notify Congress as early as February 1999 about a
glitch in their e-mail system and to begin retrieving thousands of
unarchived messages that might be relevant to investigators. But they
never followed through.
The February 1999 memo, which included talking points for possible
testimony before congressional appropriators, laid out the history of the
e-mail problem that has now become the focus of criminal investigators.
The memo disclosed that presidential aides had solicited a proposal on
Oct. 20, 1998, from contractor Northrup Grumman to "recover the
missing records" that weren't properly archived because of the glitch.
"The approximate cost for the system design is $602,000," Karl H.
Heissner of the White House Office of Administration wrote.
Officials, however, didn't divulge the existence of the glitch to Congress or
prosecutors.
Instead, they waited until this year to begin retrieving the missing e-mails
and reviewing them to determine if they should have been handed over to
lawmakers and federal prosecutors who had subpoenaed documents in
the Monica Lewinsky, political fund raising and Whitewater investigations.
Heissner's memo also suggests he was reluctant to tell Congress about the
status of official document requests to the White House – both from
lawmakers and "litigants against the government" – because statistics
showed such requests were declining.
"We may not want to call attention to the issue by bringing the issue to the
attention of Congress because ... the level of requests appears to be
declining," Heissner wrote.
He added for emphasis, "Let sleeping dogs lie."
The memo is expected to play a key role in hearings later this week before
the House committee.
White House officials blame a "disconnect" between their technicians, who
diagnosed the e-mail problem, and their lawyers, who apparently did not
understand that the glitch might affect pending subpoena requests.
Kennedy, the White House spokesman, said Heissner's memo showed
that aides to President Clinton never intended to hide the problem and
were prepared to answer questions about it.
"We have seen no documents that in any way suggest that the e-mail
problem was hidden from Congress," Kennedy said.
Still, lawmakers, Independent Counsel Robert Ray and Justice
Department officials are trying to determine whether the delays in
retrieving e-mails and informing investigators about thousands of possibly
relevant documents was part of an effort to obstruct various investigations
of the president. The White House denies wrongdoing.
Ray's prosecutors this week plan to interview one of the White House
contractors involved in the discovery of the problem, Betty Lambuth,
according to the Judicial Watch, the conservative legal group that is
representing her. Lambuth has alleged she was threatened by White
House officials not to divulge the problem.
© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
They hid it, tried to destroy it....and these hypocritical bastards think they are better than Nixon
------------------
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
White House E-Mail Furor Rages
By John Solomon
Associated Press Writer
Monday, May 1, 2000; 7:41 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON –– The White House is raising the possibility it may
invoke executive privilege to keep Congress from seeing some documents
in the controversy over missing e-mails that are under subpoena,
documents disclosed Monday.
Meanwhile, investigators are poring over memos suggesting presidential
aides could have begun retrieving the missing messages more than a year
ago to see if they should have been turned over to investigations ranging
from Whitewater to impeachment.
The White House sent the House Government Reform Committee, which
is investigating the controversy, a one-page list of documents it is not
turning over under subpoena because they are considered covered by
executive privilege and attorney-client confidentiality.
Among the documents on the list, which was obtained by The Associated
Press, are handwritten notes by White House lawyers involving
discussions they had with computer experts about the e-mails.
The list says the notes "reflect mental impressions" of the lawyers for the
White House Office of Administration, which oversaw the e-mail system
at the center of the controversy.
The list is the first step in the executive privilege process. In past
investigations, the White House has sometimes relented and turned over
documents and in other cases they invoked the privileges to shield memos.
The decision prompted an angry reply Monday by the chairman of the
Government Reform Commmitee.
"The White House is obstructing the investigation," Rep. Dan Burton,
R-Ind., said in a letter to the White House counsel's office. "This
meaningless legal mumbo-jumbo is obviously a transparent ploy to
provoke wasteful and time-consuming squabbles over documents."
A White House spokesman, Jim Kennedy, responded: "We have already
turned over a lot of material to Mr. Burton. What he is seeking is not
historical information about the origins of this problem but current
information generated only as a result of his inquiry."
Kennedy added that the White House "would like to reach an
accommodation with the committee to provide them with what they
legitimately need in a way that doesn't interfere with our ability to do our
job."
Meanwhile, the AP obtained an internal memo showing that presidential
aides prepared to notify Congress as early as February 1999 about a
glitch in their e-mail system and to begin retrieving thousands of
unarchived messages that might be relevant to investigators. But they
never followed through.
The February 1999 memo, which included talking points for possible
testimony before congressional appropriators, laid out the history of the
e-mail problem that has now become the focus of criminal investigators.
The memo disclosed that presidential aides had solicited a proposal on
Oct. 20, 1998, from contractor Northrup Grumman to "recover the
missing records" that weren't properly archived because of the glitch.
"The approximate cost for the system design is $602,000," Karl H.
Heissner of the White House Office of Administration wrote.
Officials, however, didn't divulge the existence of the glitch to Congress or
prosecutors.
Instead, they waited until this year to begin retrieving the missing e-mails
and reviewing them to determine if they should have been handed over to
lawmakers and federal prosecutors who had subpoenaed documents in
the Monica Lewinsky, political fund raising and Whitewater investigations.
Heissner's memo also suggests he was reluctant to tell Congress about the
status of official document requests to the White House – both from
lawmakers and "litigants against the government" – because statistics
showed such requests were declining.
"We may not want to call attention to the issue by bringing the issue to the
attention of Congress because ... the level of requests appears to be
declining," Heissner wrote.
He added for emphasis, "Let sleeping dogs lie."
The memo is expected to play a key role in hearings later this week before
the House committee.
White House officials blame a "disconnect" between their technicians, who
diagnosed the e-mail problem, and their lawyers, who apparently did not
understand that the glitch might affect pending subpoena requests.
Kennedy, the White House spokesman, said Heissner's memo showed
that aides to President Clinton never intended to hide the problem and
were prepared to answer questions about it.
"We have seen no documents that in any way suggest that the e-mail
problem was hidden from Congress," Kennedy said.
Still, lawmakers, Independent Counsel Robert Ray and Justice
Department officials are trying to determine whether the delays in
retrieving e-mails and informing investigators about thousands of possibly
relevant documents was part of an effort to obstruct various investigations
of the president. The White House denies wrongdoing.
Ray's prosecutors this week plan to interview one of the White House
contractors involved in the discovery of the problem, Betty Lambuth,
according to the Judicial Watch, the conservative legal group that is
representing her. Lambuth has alleged she was threatened by White
House officials not to divulge the problem.
© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
They hid it, tried to destroy it....and these hypocritical bastards think they are better than Nixon
------------------
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
So true! Excellent analogy!