2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumFmr. Top DOJ Official: Clinton Likely Committed ‘Biggest Violation of Federal Records Act in History
The Federal Records Act (or FRA) is a decades-old federal law that governs the creation, maintenance, preservation, and disposition of federal records, regardless of form or format, including electronic records such as e-mail. Simply put, it tells those who work for the federal government that they must document their work and keep such records safe during their tenures. Then, when someone leaves a federal position, the FRA requires that all such records be reviewed in conjunction with an agency records officer so that the agency (i.e., not the employee alone) can make decisions about which records will be preserved. Then the employee is required to sign a document certifying that this has been done comprehensively and accurately, lest that not be the case.
Any failure to meet these legal obligations, from the beginning of an employees tenure to the end, is punishable with administrative sanctions up to and including dismissal. And the entire process is overseen by agency records officers, by an agencys chief records officer, and by the FRA experts at the National Archives and Records Administration (or NARA), who hold ultimate responsibility for making sure that agencies properly implement the FRA.
The importance of the FRAs proper implementation becomes quite evident when, for example, questions are raised about the propriety of some agency activity (sometimes in full controversy or even scandal mode) and the records pertaining to that activity need to be reviewed by an agency inspector general, by federal law enforcement personnel, or even by congressional investigators on behalf of a legislative committee. If relevant records have not been properly preserved, then such inquiries are greatly impaired and sometimes the word cover-up is used.
Furthermore, even inquiries of a lesser magnitude depend upon a foundation of proper FRA compliance. When a Freedom of Information Act (or FOIA) request is made to a federal agency, for example, that agency has a legal obligation to search for all agency records responsive to that requests subject matter. But if a responsive record is not maintained, in a readily searchable form or location, the FOIA can readily be circumvented as a result.
Recently, these two key civil laws have figured prominently in the wide-ranging controversies surrounding Hillary Clintons exclusive use of a personal e-mail account, compounded by a private e-mail server, during nearly the entirety of her four-year tenure.
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Yet there are absolutely no penalties provided by law for this misconduct. The FRA, if violated, does provide a basis for some action being taken against an employee but only a personnel-type administrative action that simply does not work if the employee is long gone.
zappaman
(20,606 posts)CorporatistNation
(2,546 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)If one or both of them does not know this law by now, something is very wrong.
CorporatistNation
(2,546 posts)Is absolutely MINDBOGGLING! Go FBI! Help US take OUR country back!
trudyco
(1,258 posts)Obama looked the other way or wasn't watching. Same with everybody else who should have seen the "from" header on any emails from her.
But she tampered with the emails when she was caught. Deleted others. The private server should be gross negligence. Sid Blumenthal/possible CIA leaks. Corruption with pay for play with State Dept and private donors to the Clinton Foundation. Seems to me there are still plenty of criminal activities to look into.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)Someone may eventually ask why he did not appoint an Inspector General for the State Department during her term of service, or ask if he sent email to her at her clintonemail.com and didn't realize something was not right about that.
Response to merrily (Reply #2)
cyberpj This message was self-deleted by its author.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)and likely because they "got away with" the other acts. She's not beyond the law, regardless of the bluster.
The Democrats have a big problem. She's not above taking down anyone or anything in her quest for power. It's what they do for entertainment.
delrem
(9,688 posts)If US citizens vote to continue on the same path, after an election that doesn't allow for serious thought about alternatives but runs zombie-braindead in a scatterbrained nanosecond-length-memory-function fashion as led by the Clinton vs Trump team doing reality-TV on the MSM, then you are fucked. And you deserve to be fucked. You will deserve it.
If you don't want this, if you are above this, then for the love of all that's holy, for the love of the planet, please get your act together and put forward the alternative plan. NOW.
There has to be complete unity across the left, NOW.
This isn't any time for pretending.