BushCo: You Can't Have Scooter's and Turdblossom's Emails…
…and the Court can’t make us give them to you, either (h/t mc).
The Bush administration is aggressively pushing back against a federal court order instructing the most important offices in the White House to preserve all of their e-mail.
In court papers late Friday, the administration argued that a federal court has no authority to impose such a requirement on the offices of President Bush, Vice President Cheney and the National Security Council. The administration argued that none of the court’s orders can apply to parts of the White House subject to the Presidential Records Act.
The issue arose Wednesday after U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. directed the White House to issue a notice to all employees to surrender any e-mails from March 2003 to October 2005. Justice Department lawyers argued that the order applied only to White House offices subject to the Federal Records Act, prompting a quick response from U.S. Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola. Facciola said that all White House offices must be searched for e-mail. [my emphasis]
We’re seriously in run-out-the-clock time here. BushCo is effectively sticking its fingers in its ears and singing "lalalala-you-can’t-make-me" and assuming Justice Kennedy will either back them up–or not get around to making them–before Tuesday.
Update: Here’s the appeal. There’s a lot worth reading in it. But for now, you will be amused to know that they’re relying on what might politely be called the "Poppy precedent."
The bounds of the Court’s jurisdiction are restricted, too, by the limitations on review of the recordkeeping practices of components governed by the PRA. The PRA accords the components governed by the PRA “virtually complete control” over their records, and “neither the Archivist, nor the Congress has the authority to veto” the EOP PRA component’s disposal decisions, nor may the courts. Armstrong v. Bush, 924 F.2d 282, 290 (D.C. Cir. 1991).
I’m sure they weren’t planning on making this Poppy precedent their last defense when they deleted all of Scooter’s and Turdblossom’s emails in 2005. Honest.
Two more documents. This statement, which explains where they’re complying. And this declaration from Stephen Everett, the CIO of EOP, explaining that statement.
Update: What BushCo appears to be doing is to retreating to an approch they tried earlier in this case: to argue exclusively with the CREW arguments, which are more limited, and not the NSA arguments. This, even though Judge (not Justice) Kennedy has already admitted NSA’s more expansive arguments pertaining to the Presidential Records Act.
Which is why an observation bmaz made is so interesting. As of right now, this White House appeal is docketed under the CREW docket (click to enlarge):
And not the NSA docket:
Could the new administration make them available?
OMG, these assholes really are “good to the last drop”.
C’mon, Judge, nail the bastards before the magnets and shredders take over.
Can nobody make these outlaws comply?
I’ve added a link to the appeal, which they’ve got everything but the kitchen sink in, from a quick review.
But they seem particularly intent on making sure that the new administration doesn’t get to touch them.
Do you have a link to bmaz’s “interesting observation?”
I would be interested in reading that, too…
Sorry. He’s the one who noticed that the appeal was docketed in the CREW, but not the NSA, docket.
I had to pass on the observation, you see, and not have bmaz do it himself, because he’s getting coifed for his Cardinals’ big game.
Me, as a Lions fan? I can keep posting right up until game time.
Every girl’s crazy bout a sharp dressed man!*
* My wife and daughter insure me I do not qualify.
It’s too late, they are gone. But we are supposed to move forward.It was a crime syndicate takeover in 2000, they robbed and raped us blind and now are walking away with billions. Raw-raw; now Harry Reid got balls and Schumer admits making a mistake for deregulating the rating companies. I am guessing FISA wiretapping was only done on their political enemies and then they were blackmailed. Somebody has to be offered witness protection to tell all.
Thanks ew.
digg
Another legal manuveur proving Bush’s crime syndicate.
What more does Obama need to go back and clean their clocks.
Obama should fuck these bastards.
Remember, Obama, like Bill Clinton, luvs him some politicians, including Bush. He wants to sit around a camp fire, holding GOP hands and singing kumbaya. We’ve seen their response on biteme.gov re appointing a special prosecutor. Look forward and hope the past doesn’t kick us in the ass is their new creed.
I’ve added two more documents–which will be sure to interest MD and WO and any other tech folks. They’re the declarations describing what BushCo has done thus far.
Thank you dear!
From Footnote 2 in that filed statement:
(My Bold)
Such pure, total BS!
Users can save files in almost every nook and cranny of their hard drives, and they can save files to any removable storage device such as a USB thumbdrive, CD, DVD, Zip drive, etc.
The idea that “System Policies” prevent this is techno-drool supplied by Microsoft for lame-brain ass-clowns like the White House’s Office of Administration management team.
Precisely!
You are correct but you must also recognize that most folks aren’t going to know this or understand what they have to do to make it happen.
Most folks are just not that technically literate.
I’m guessing that someone like Addington
wasis knowledgeable, and it wouldn’t be too much a stretch to imagine him holding a brief tutorial for selected co-conspirators (Scoots, Turdblossom, et al?) on how best to make things disappear.And secondly, remember that the Rube Goldberg “archive” facility that OA put in place allowed anyone to have access and to erase any .pst file on those “archive” servers.
I guess I just don’t see Addington as having the tech skills and knowledge to do these actions. He might have enough knowledge to ask around for someone who could do it but that’s about it as far as I can see.It would be needing to get way too far into the details of machine and OS operations for most folks.
Remember that Addington was the one who provided the detailed search parameters to be used by OVP staff in searching for records in response to Fitzgerald’s subpoena on the Plame betrayal.
I, too, would not put it past Addington to have made some techie friends in OA to “assist” with his endeavors.
You mean someone like Mike Connell?
And more of my commentary:
(My Bold)
Couple comments:
1. Hmmmm…the OA now is saying that all hard drives are preserved? What happened to all the hard drives of those systems that the OA said in previous binding legal statement were shipped to a 3rd party and destroyed?
Because in the very next paragraph, the OA says:
So it wasn’t all hard drives, but just those since November 12, 2007. Hard drives that were shipped to a 3rd party prior to that date have “disappeared”?
2. The OA’s total focus is on nothing but hard drives leaves wide open the issue of users storing files, including .pst files, on all other removable storage media. That is why my commentary in # 13 above is so important.
The OA’s mismanagement staff (yes, I’m looking at you OA CIO (Chief Idiot Officer) Theresa Payton) would have the world believe that .pst files can only reside on hard drives, so there is no reason to go after all the tons of removable media that White House users were waltzing in and out of the White House.
Nor is it important for OA’s mismanagement staff to adhere to previous legal mandates that such removable media must be tracked down and sequestered for the Court’s perusal.
Doesn’t that say, “we’ve preserved everything by people currently employed,” and then “we’ve preserved drives that were retired because of reasons other than the termination of the user of that hard drive” leaving:
“We still haven’t done diddly to restore the hard drives of those whose drivers were retired because the users themselves had resigned.”
Or, to put it more simply, “we’ve gotten everything but the hard drives of the following people: Scooter Karl, Jenny Mayfield, Andy Card” and so on.
I take the following statement:
in a more literal sense. It seems to read to me that November 12, 2007 is the operative date as to when the OA began preserving drives, and seems to leave a mile of wiggle room about drives that were retired prior to that date.
Given that the OA has previously stated that many such drives were “retired” from 2001 through 2007 to a 3rd party organization and destroyed, the quantity of those drives is quite large.
You’ve nailed it!
And some of those other “so ons” included Fredo and Ari Fleischer.
Oh yeah, I forgot Gonzo.
And Condi (as NSA) and Stephen Hadley.
And DAvid Shedd, who, I believe, is the guy who showed Cheney the memos Valerie had written related to Joe’s trip, which is how I believe he found out about Plame’s covert status.
But beyond those hard drives, I’m sure we’re not missing anything.
Hmmm…I must be slow today. Who is Stephen M. Everett, CIO of OA and what happened to Theresa Payton, CIO of OA?
Just to back up what MadDog is saying, this is just such egregious b.s. We know for a fact that this isn’t true. At the very least, users had access to network drives.
As a former chief of staff to another weak president, Cheney has been aware of and planned this end game for some time. Presumably, he, Addington and Libby planned at least its outlines early in their regime.
I like that the president’s CIO (the White House one or the real one at the RNC, I wonder?) has to supplement “his” statement with an “explanation”. Did he write or understand either? Cheney must hope to litigate this until his heir resumes the throne.
I am pleased that Judge Kennedy is standing up to these idiots — and I sincerely hope that he can prevail. I would love to know more about what has gone on.
The trouble is, it is very easy to make a PST file disappear. All you have to do is rename it, with a different extension.
There is also a question about so many emails that supposedly were lost when the White House converted from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange and Outlook for email. Unfortunately, none of this appears to cover Lotus Notes archives that probably exist but are forgotten about.
Seems like a lot of people could be doing jail time for contempt of court if they fail to provide.
45 hrs & 22 min
Q…What do GW Bush and B Madoff have in common?
A…They both understand capitalism.
And this is not OT.
It’s even better. Their plan for getting at emails from March 2003 to October 2005, is to ask their users find them and then follow a set of incomprehensible instructions to copy them to the network.
Soooooo ….
If any of our clever users were able to violate company policy and save stuff somewhere other than their profile, we’ll trust them to follow these directions. Oh, and none this will start until February 9.
I like this preceding sentence from the Stephen Everett, the CIO of EOP, declaration:
Intends? On 16 January, 2009? Four fookin’ days before the end of this Administration?
As EW said:
Nobody ever answered this question I posed a long time ago about this White House employee:
I actually looked in to that at some depth and came to the conclusion that it is highly unlikely that they are related.
From declaration from Stephen Everett, the CIO of EOP:
Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!!!
Has this clueless Chief Idiot Officer ever heard of magnetic tape, CDs, DVDs?
(My bold)
Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!!!
Any rookie techie could write a tiny script to make this happen in a flash. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t hire a techie who couldn’t do this in his/her sleep.
As to taking months, only if one had a network that ran at the speed of molasses. This is pure nonsense!
I’d guess you could copy all these over a long weekend, and certainly over the course of a week.
And just how long has the OA been pissing and moaning that this would take to much time?
Over a fookin’ year!
And last, but not even close to being least, from Footnote 4 in the declaration from Stephen Everett, the CIO of EOP:
(My Bold)
Translation: We got rid of all the systems, so it’s too fookin’ late!
To again quote EW’s spot-on observation:
Because that’s what everyone was busy doing on Friday, of course, just as Everett was putting the finishing touches on the filing, but before he wrote that last bit about swearing yadda yadda yadda.
I’ve googled like crazy and searched even WhiteHouse.gov for signs on just when Everett replaced Payton as OA’s Chief Idiot Officer, but to no avail.
I sure hope Team Obama is reading here, and that they make sure to do a complete purge of OA. Particularly if Obama keeps that Blackberry as has been suggested.
Lastly, from a pure, unbiased and objective analysis, BushCo successfully ran the entire table on CREW and National Security Archives wrt missing White House emails.
CREW and National Security Archives never got past 1st base. No Appeals Court rulings, and not even close to SCOTUS rulings.
BushCo achieved their objective of that fundamental military adage: “trading space for time”.
With the end of the BushCo Administration only a few measly hours away, there will be less and less Conventional Wisdom interest, and incentive to crack the BushCo nut.
Historians may someday piece the puzzle together, but as is most of the case with historians, twill be old news.
Speaking of which, anybody remember CREW or NSA ever taking the deposition of David Addington per their supposed big victory on that front?
Cause I don’t remember any news of that…..
Not a sight or sound of it.
And I’d guess Addington’s choice of cheer is not “W00t, w00t!”, but “Moot, moot!”
On Halloween, the Court of Appeals allowed the government to substitute Claire O’Donnell, the Vice President’s Deputy Chief of Staff, for Addington.
Thanks on Mitnick. I looked and couldn’t find anything one way or another. As to Addington, that is idiotic. Why did they allow that? Let me tell you why, because the crack legal beagles at crew and nsa didn’t pay attention to how I told them to plead the damn thing; i.e. that he was the custodian of records, and being the custodian responding to an earlier critical request at one point was an essential fact witness.