E-Mail Saga Gets Fishier

It was in October 2004 that Rove suddenly turned over to Fitzgerald a July 2003 e-mail sent to then-deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley, that clearly showed that Rove had spoken to then-Time magazine reporter Cooper. In subsequent testimony, Rove says he had forgotten the conversation, in which he revealed Plames identity, but remembered it after his lawyers found that e-mail.

Michael Isikoff wrote in Newsweek in October 2005: "Why didn't the Rove e-mail surface earlier? [Rove's] lawyer says it's because an electronic search conducted by the White House missed it because the right 'search words' weren't used. (The White House and Fitzgerald both declined to comment.)"

You've got to wonder which e-mail account Rove used for that e-mail -- and how it was discovered.

And Glenn Greenwald blogs for Salon about the multitude of examples of the Bush administration's "terrible luck with finding documents."

Early Warning?

One of the great mysteries here is how such a blatant violation of the White House's document-preservation rules (and, quite possibly, the Presidential Records Act) was allowed to continue for so long. Surely the White House counsel's office was aware of this before last month?

Alexis Simendinger writes in the National Journal (subscription required) that embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, back when he was White House counsel in Bush's first term, met "regularly with a group of historians and political scientists who aired their concerns about preserving and releasing records."

After Gonzales was succeeded by Harriet Miers, Simendinger reports, "The historians and political scientists continued to meet with Miers, and in March 2006 raised with her a concern that official White House business transacted via the RNC e-mail system was not being archived. She assured them that official records were being preserved on the White House system.

"Bush attorneys, including Deputy Counsel Emmet Flood, this week told Congress that the White House only recently -- in the context of the fired attorneys -- discovered that official business had been conducted through the RNC e-mail system, and that there were problems with the preservation of such communications as presidential records."

The Anonymous Liberal blogs: "[T]he White House's dual email system was almost surely the subject of intense discussion in early 2004, when emails were subpoenaed in connection with the CIA leak investigation. . . .

"In other words, the White House has been on notice since early 2004 at the latest that official emails, which are required by law to be retained, were not being retained. It is ludicrous that the White House is just now endeavoring to re-examine its policy and just now setting new rules and guidelines for the use of these RNC accounts."

CREW's Charge

And it may not be just the RNC e-mails that are missing.

Michael Kranish writes in the Boston Globe that "an independent group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. . .said unnamed sources told the group the White House had conducted an internal review that estimated that more than 5 millions e-mails may be missing.