White House Staffers Using Webmail for Secret Business?

House Government Reform Committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-California) sent letters today to the Republican National Committee and the Bush-Cheney '04 re-election committee warning them to save emails that may have been sent from accounts used by Republican White House staffers as part of their work for the White House. White House email rules largely prohibit the use of external email systems for government work, since all emails need to be kept and archived. But investigations into the actions of rogue lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the politically-charged firings of U.S. attorneys have shown that staffers have been using these outside accounts, and Waxman has some very interesting questions.

(l) Who has access to the e-mail accounts maintained by the Bush Cheney '04 campaign;

(2) What policies, guidance, and procedures govern the use and preservation of the email accounts maintained by the Bush Cheney '04 campaign that have been used by White House officials;

(3) What agreements, if any, did the Bush Cheney '04 campaign enter into with the White House, the National Archives, or other government agencies regarding the e-mail accounts maintained by the campaign that have been used by White House officials;

(4) What steps have been taken to preserve the e-mail accounts maintained by the Bush Cheney'04 campaign that have been used by White House officials;

(5) What assurance can the Bush Cheney'04 campaign provide the Committee that no e-mails involving official White House business have been destroyed or altered.

Rogue emails are not new to the government -- Admiral John Poindexter and Oliver North, among others, used and then tried to cover-up an early email system known as PROFS to violate a Congressional ban on funding the Contras through sales of arms to Iran.

Waxman's letters. Photo: Laineys Repertoire