Leahy: Missing RNC E-mails are like Nixon's 18-minute gap

[babylonsister]

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Leahy_Missing_RNC_Emails_are_like_0412.html

Leahy: Missing RNC E-mails are like Nixon's 18-minute gap
Michael Roston
Published: Thursday April 12, 2007


The top Senate Democrat leading investigations into the dismissal of 8 U.S. Attorneys by the Justice Department is comparing e-mails lost by the Republican National Committee to President Richard Nixon's famous "18-minute gap" in White House tape recordings.

"Now we are learning that the 'off book' communications they were having about these actions, by using Republican political email addresses, have not been preserved," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said on the Senate floor.

He added, "Like the famous 18-minute gap in the Nixon White House tapes, it appears likely that key documentation has been erased or misplaced. This sounds like the Administration's version of 'the dog ate my homework.'"

The senator was referring to the Nixon White House tapes subpoenaed during the Watergate investigation. On one tape, there was an 18 1/2 minute gap. The former president's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, claimed responsibility for "accidentally" erasing 5 minutes of the recording, but not the remainder of the gap. Further investigations raised questions about the veracity of her testimony.

The Associated Press also noted that when actually delivered, Senator Leahy raised further doubts about the Republican Party's explanation for the lost e-mails.

"They say they have not been preserved. I don't believe that!" he proclaimed. "You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've gone through too many servers."

Leahy threatened further action in response to the news. "Those e-mails are there, they just don't want to produce them. We'll subpoena them if necessary."

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[MrModerate]

1. I'm channeling Leahy today -- I just posted a poll to this effect.

Scary, yah know?

[aquart]

2. Okay, I've heard so many conflicting statements over this.

Are emails recoverable or not? FIVE MILLION???????

[babylonsister]

5. I think it all depends on the level of expertise the people doing the

deleting have, but I hope someone with more knowledge than I have (NONE) weighs in.

[paparush]

3. Pat! Lets roll them subpoenas baby!!

[Frustratedlady]

4. Subpoena them? They'll force it into the courts....

...and by the time the Bush-leaning Supreme Court hears it, the case will be a long lost memory.

If you have robbers stealing from your bank, you don't stand back and let it happen. It's time to take back our government and send computer experts in to check the computers, servers, etc. to attempt to recover these emails. This is ridiculous. They are thumbing their noses at us all.

Time to oil the wheels of government and get the machine working the way it should.