White House mounts illegal coverup - 'loses' millions of emails in violation of Presidential Records Act

The Presidential Records Act directs the president to take all necessary steps to maintain presidential records to provide a full accounting of all activities during his tenure. This is the law.

Previously, the White House refused to submit emails that were likely pertinent to Plame leak, the politically motivated US Attorney firings, and the White House association with convicted felon Jack Abramoff.

This time, minutes before midnight Tuesday under a court-ordered deadline that forced the White House to reveal information it has previously refused to provide, the White House says the emails were lost, taped over by a back up tape system.

In the period of July until October of 2003, the White House was dealing with the Valerie Plame leak - precisely the time these tapes were erased or "recycled". They couldn't explain why, after October, they suddenly stopped "recycling" their tapes. Nixon lost 18 minutes of tape, Bush has lost millions of emails, months of communications.

What? They spend more than $10 million an hour 24/7 in Iraq and they can't buy a fresh tape to preserve presidential records as required by law?

Do they expect us to believe this?

AP:

White House says they reused email tape

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has acknowledged recycling its backup computer tapes of e-mail before October 2003, raising the possibility that many electronic messages — including those pertaining to the CIA leak case — have been taped over and are gone forever.

The disclosure came minutes before midnight Tuesday under a court-ordered deadline that forced the White House to reveal information it has previously refused to provide.

Among the e-mails that could be lost are messages swapped by any White House officials involved in discussions about leaking a CIA officer's identity to reporters.

Before October 2003, the White House recycled its backup tapes "consistent with industry best practices," according to a sworn statement by a White House aide.

Backup tapes are the last line of defense for saving electronic records.

Separately, the statement reveals the extent to which the White House is apparently unable to answer how many e-mails are missing from White House servers.

The White House "does not know if any e-mails were not properly preserved in the archiving process," said the statement by Theresa Payton, chief information officer for the White House Office of Administration. "We are continuing our efforts," said Payton, whose staff is responsible for the White House e-mail system.

If the e-mails were not saved, the White House might have violated two laws requiring preservation of documents that fall into the categories of federal records or presidential records.

Lying scoundrels covering their corrupt asses. There has never been a time in US history where impeachment was more deserved or appropriate.