Magistrate Judge Orders Search Of All White House Computers
By Susie Madrak Friday Jan 16, 2009 6:45amYou mean someone still cares about silly things like the rule of law, and actual consequences?
Washington, D.C., January 15, 2009 - The federal magistrate judge overseeing the White House e-mail litigation today said the issue had reached "true emergency conditions" with only "two business days before the new President takes office" and that "the importance of preserving the e-mails cannot be exaggerated," according to the court's Memorandum Opinion issued this morning along with an Order and posted on the National Security Archive website, www.nsarchive.org .
Magistrate Judge John Facciola formally ordered the White House to search all Executive Office of the President components' workstations and portable media for possibly missing e-mail -- enforcing yesterday's order from U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy -- after government lawyers at a hearing yesterday represented that they would only search those EOP components that create federal agency records and leave out offices that create presidential records.
Today's order also granted plaintiffs' requests that a full inventory of all backup tapes and portable media containing White House e-mail be delivered to the Archivist of the United States and filed with the court, and that the full administrative record and all other evidence related to the White House e-mail be preserved under the custody of the Archivist.
"From the outset, the White House has fought tooth and nail against having to preserve sources of missing e-mail as well as other evidence relating to this case," said Sheila Shadmand of Jones Day, counsel for the Archive. "For the umpteenth time, this Court has commanded that they do so. We expect they will yet again object to the terms of these Orders, when instead they should be busy complying with it. The clock is running out."
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I thought they'd all been "lost" months, if not years ago.
The story has changed about six times.
So many lies...I hope they get all get what they deserve.
he designed Shrubs network and the RNC....
Too bad he's dead.
While I doubt the ability of the Bush administration to plan anything in real time and pull it off, if you give them enough time to stall and delay they've proven they can thwart justice with the best of them.
should be one of the charges.
The current administration is only adept at destruction and obstruction.
Jonathan Turley, I think, and John Dean have suggested that if Obama's administration doesn't prosecute Bu$hco for war crimes, other nations may which would be a major embarrassment.
a tremendous amount of international embarrassment, Obama should realize that he just does not have a choice in this matter. Unless, of course, he's reserving the Republiscums a very nasty surprise down the road...let's say after his major bills passed in Congress and the Senate.
That would be masterful, but I doubt very much that this is the plan.
Does anyone expect this bunch to obey the law? What can the judge do if they ignore his request? I'm just curious.
...and going into the White House and seizing all computers and personal electronic devices, including cell phones, laptops, desktops, pda's, etc.
It might make the Republicans angry!
Justice in Amerikkka is "off the table."
a search warrant? Isn't it Public property - the People's House?
The gov't needs a search warrant to search gov't property?
for contempt, I think, but he's running out of time.
I wonder how many computer links they'll find for underage sex vacations?
I think they are more into "mature" searches. Just as perverse, but not quite as illegal. Filthy lucre!!!!!
http://www.nrcruise.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZyxYL753w4
Just imagine the love letters from Bush to Jeff Gannon!
...don;t think Georgie even knows how to use a computer let alone send emails or surf the Inter-tubes!!
I foresee that pardons are forthcoming en masse or the emails would never have been found. Being produced is another matter. Would this occupied White House start following the law now?
...that MLK Day 2009 may be remembered for something besides the celebration of a civil rights revolutionary.
That highly skilled IT people can resurrect damn near any file that's been deleted.
It's about freaking time!
Too bad the computers have already been scrubbed clean and the IT guy connected to Rove died in that 'unfortunate' plane crash a few weeks ago. How convenient.
Stop moaning about it, and DO something judge. Otherwise you're just as culpable as they are.
i wonder if we will see the return of gannon/guckert, and the email exchanges btwn him and his execu-johns?
Be interesting to see who was signing Gannon's, FOX Noise's and Rush's checks.
I'd bet a dollar it was Cheney.
And imagine all the orders still in queue for Domina's Pizzas.
http://www.jolie.de/imgs/1462154_3a4b3d44c5.jpg
LOL As if Cheney and Bush care about court orders.
Update: Justice Department lawyer says missing emails may have been found?
Snip - Hours after a District Court judge ordered employees of the president's executive office to search for missing White House emails from 2003-05, a Justice Department lawyer disclosed that a successful search for the emails has already been concluded.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Court_grants_mo...
This guy claims possession of Rove emails, see around 5:00 min. mark.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/327.html
My day just got a lot brighter! Maybe there will be justice after all.
But will She still have a bare boob?
Not if John Ashcroft has anything to do with it!
have preceded Bush inb retreating from our Capitol. But memories (if not mammaries) remain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqbGfWngzCk
Here come the preemptive pardons ...
These thugs ignore congressional subpoenas with impunity.
Laws do not apply to our ruling elite, especially those who are wealthy Republicans.
When I see Rove being frog-marched to testify before congress, I'll believe it.
And THAT ain't gonna happen.
I mean, fer shite sake - that snowbilly Sarah Palin has been providing for her family of grifters off of the taxpayers of Alaska and what happens?
Aside from Silly Sally blaming everybody else for everything -
nothing is done.
Join the Republican Party = Get Out of Jail Free!
nothing new. this administration has been above the law and two to three steps ahead of anyone who tries to challenge them. they thought out every counter move for all their actions. i'll believe it when i see it.
"Hey Dick... I just got this really funny joke from Donny at the pentagon.
A rabbi, a lawyer and a duck walk into a bar ....."
"LOLOLOL!!! That one's a hoot! I'm sending it to Lynn!"
Nothing to see here folks....
Beware the Archivist spoke of in The Book of Revelation. This is the sixth seal to be followed by last sign of The Apocalypse, the Cubs winning the World Series.
I thought the last sign of the apockyclips was if the Cardinals win the Superbowl....
I live a couple blocks away from their new stadium paid for by We the People.
If SPORTZ fell off of the face of the planet, I wouldn't notice.
It's the "circuses" part of that "bread and circuses" bit.
(grumbles etc)
No weinie?
Only because they whupped my Panthers...
And...gawd help me...I love watching the NFL...
I know it's a distraction, but damn if it don't get my blood pumpin...
What now? There's 4 days left. Bushco is about to skip. Are they going to add theft of government property to the list of pardons Bush needs to hand out.
It's Friday!. Let's PARDON!!!
oops, I mean PARTY!!!
wonder how many he going to pardon. We will find out at about 11:59 pm.
For any crimes...how can they be pardoned?
Sleeper Bill of the Month: Our Own Truth & Reconciliation Commission
By Elana Schor - January 9, 2009, 3:00PM
Snip - It happens more often than you might think on Capitol Hill: a new bill is announced by a congressional office, with little fanfare and fewer co-sponsors than it deserves but a purpose so abundantly sensible that the plan cries out for more attention
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.c...
Plan in hiring a good hard drive recovery company.
That's the point, innit?
...is there a statute of limitations on high crimes and misdemeanors?
Especially those committed in the White House and Halls of Congress?
But there damn well better NOT be!
http://www.rbdolls.com/pics/salelist1/hisppre...
http://z.about.com/d/gonewengland/1/0/T/s/blo...
Conyers On Prosecuting Bush Team: "Stay Tuned"
Snip - "I don't want to get too speculative on that, because it's still under review," said Conyers on the radio show. "Now, remember, violation of the federal criminal code doesn't end because you leave office. If a crime has been committed and there seems to be reasonable evidence that it did get committed, there's nothing for a person to be prosecuted... Leaving office doesn't free you up from what you may have done wrong ... Anyone that leaves office, including [the] President ... there's the World Court ... They have tribunals ... This thing is not over with. As they say: Stay tuned."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/09/cony...
I wonder what's the penalty for not maintaining emails? Probably little if anything. In any case it's easy enough to blame it on an IT guy or whatever. Might as well not even bother.
The PRA (Presidential Records Act) is organizational, not an issue of criminal law.
When you can blame it on a dead IT guy.
I am sure that since the magistrate told them to comply they will comply...not. This crime family has not followed the law on anything for eight years. We would have had a more law abiding administration with the mafia.
It's too bad they can't ask Mike Connell. I bet they won't find squat.
Like they will do this. NOT. I can here the delete buttion clicking. One thing I see now is how many of these repugs are demanding the NEW Admin obey the law in the comfermations heerings in the Obama Admin. Where were they for the Last 8 years. spector is such a jerk. They will let there dick-tator walk with all the laws they shit on in there 8 years of crime. But this new group of people must walk on water?
one of the peculiar things about electronic media like email. it's just so darned hard to really *really* completely, totally, annihillate a copy when you delete them. copies remain in backups, cashe, temporary files, recycle bins, and even on the disk after deletion for undeletion at the hands of the skilled.
at this point the act of attempting to delete them is a criminal offense though, and the more people of the type who *i* would suspect would be motivated to delete, i also suspect i would enjoy seeing behind bars already.
said on the Daily Show, that every administration scrubs everything clean before they leave. For once I think she was telling the truth.
could scrub off all the shit George is leaving on the Whitehouse.
In terms of reach, scope, and amounts of capital stolen, the Bush administration takes the cake.
Shouldn't all those emails be stored in those CIA, NSA servers that are gathering all the citizenry information.
Read this yesterday. Did this turn out to be an error?
http://tinyurl.com/75nx4y
that i love the courts and this is one of them.
by ordering those materials and executive branch records preserved, recovered, and delivered unto the national archives, this court order renders them inviolate from destruction under penalty of criminal prosecution.
one more brick in the wall.
They've had well over a year (1.5 years?) now. If there's one thing smart people who're guilty do, it's dump/shred all records when they know they've been caught. When the story broke, you know people were wiping hard drives.
Anyone who's used disk-cleaning software knows about multiple-overwriting -- there's an explanation in the software, itself. Software usually recommends doing so 2 or 3 times. The DOD has/had a policy of 8 over-writes (all ones, all zeroes) across wiped sectors on a disk/drive before something was considered "clean". Most of those programs allow you to choose how many over-writes -- sometimes up to 20 -- you want to do to your personal drive. Knowing the DOD does 8, a common choice is 10, for people who are paranoid. Doesn't take much longer, and is just-that-much-more sanitized.
Disk-wiping was probably done right away. Yes, there are ways to recover information from drives even after multiple over-writes. It does get more and more expensive for each write, and as the drive continues being used. If it got that far in an investigation, opponents would be screaming about the waste of taxpayer dollars.
However, following the story's revelations, there were calls for seizing computers and hard-drives. There's no doubt some drives were replaced, and physically destroyed. If you remove the platters and shatter them (especially, say, put 'em in a bag and smash them into tiny shards/powder), it'd be nigh-impossible to retreive any data. This was most certainly done to email servers more than a year ago.
Just as the story of Cheney having trucks pulling up to his offices to take away boxes for shredding surfaced a couple years ago finished off any hopes of finding in his posession incriminating documents, this must have been done long ago. If they think a two-day under-the-wire court order is going to catch evidence, they're just as stupid as the administration wanted us to think Bush was in 2000.
When we all find out what happened what back then Some Autumn Morning that started this whole thing, and the tons of ideologues that corrupted in making this nightmare come to pass, I hope you take our warnings about their plausible goals seriously.
Peace
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