Jan 9, 2008 at 4:32 PM by Political Chase
The imperialistic president loses a battle.
White House Told to Answer E-Mail Query
A federal magistrate has ordered the White House to reveal whether copies of missing e-mail messages written from 2003 to 2005 during an investigation into the disclosure of the name of a C.I.A. operative are stored in computer backup files.
The order was issued Tuesday as the White House tried to win dismissal of lawsuits by two private groups that are seeking the missing messages.
Two federal laws require the White House to preserve all records, including e-mail; but, in asking that the two lawsuits be dismissed, the White House asserts that the president’s record-keeping practices under the Presidential Records Act are not subject to review by the courts.
The administration also asserts that the Federal Records Act does not allow such far-reaching action as demanded in the suits by the two private groups, the National Security Archive and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The federal magistrate, John Facciola, gave the White House five business days to say whether computer backup files contained the missing e-mail.
It will be interesting to see what stonewalling tactics the White House comes up with by Tuesday of next week.
Jan 7, 2008 at 12:36 PM by Political Chase
Hillary Clinton has emotional moment — almost coming to tears — during New Hampshire campaigning.
Jan 2, 2008 at 4:59 PM by Political Chase
From AP:
Attorney General Michael Mukasey appointed an outside prosecutor Wednesday to lead a criminal investigation into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes.
The CIA acknowledged last month that it destroyed videos of officers using tough interrogation methods while questioning two al-Qaida suspects. The acknowledgment sparked a congressional inquiry and a preliminary investigation by Justice.
”The Department’s National Security Division has recommended, and I have concluded, that there is a basis for initiating a criminal investigation of this matter, and I have taken steps to begin that investigation,” Mukasey said in a statement released Wednesday.
Mukasey named John Durham, a federal prosecutor in Connecticut, to oversee the case. Durham has a reputation as one of the nation’s most relentless prosecutors. He served as an outside prosecutor overseeing an investigation into the FBI’s use of mob informants in Boston and helped send several Connecticut public officials to prison.
”The CIA will of course cooperate fully with this investigation as it has with the others into this matter,” agency spokesman Mark Mansfield said.
CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson, who worked with the Justice Department on the preliminary inquiry, has recused himself from the investigation. Prosecutors from the Eastern District of Virginia, which includes the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Va., are also recused.
Mukasey named Durham the acting U.S. attorney on the case, a designation the Justice Department frequently makes when top prosecutors are recused. He will not serve as a special prosecutor such as Patrick Fitzgerald, who operated autonomously while investigating the 2003 leak of a CIA operative’s identity.
The CIA has already agreed to open its files to congressional investigators, who have begun reviewing documents at the agency’s Virginia headquarters. The House Intelligence Committee has ordered Jose Rodriguez, the former CIA official who directed the tapes be destroyed, to appear at a hearing Jan. 16.
Rodriguez’s attorney, Robert S. Bennett, had no comment.
Update: The AP incorrectly stated an outside prosecutor was appointed. John Durham will not have the authority of a special or independent prosecutor (e.g., Patrick Fitzgerald). An independent prosecutor would not be required to report to the Attorney General or Deputy Attorney General. Durham will still report to the Deputy Attorney General, like any other U.S. Attorney.
