Davis Wants E-Mail Requests Refocused

Letter

Davis Wants E-Mail Requests Refocused

Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., ranking member of the Oversight and Government Committee, along with 13 other Committee Republicans, sent a letter to Chairman Henry Waxman today to request he refocus his investigation to determine whether Bush administration officials violated the Hatch Act and the Presidential Records Act (PRA).
Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., ranking member of the Oversight and Government Committee, along with 13 other Committee Republicans, sent a letter to Chairman Henry Waxman today to request he refocus his investigation to determine whether Bush administration officials violated the Hatch Act and the Presidential Records Act (PRA).

Waxman's staff is investigating whether political briefings delivered at federal agencies violated the Hatch Act and whether White House staff sought to avoid requirements of the PRA to preserve all business-related e-mail correspondence by using Republican National Committee (RNC) or 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign (BC '04) e-mail systems for official communications.

But rather than request e-mails that appear to relate to these topics, then read them to determine if the briefings violated the Hatch Act, Davis said, Waxman's investigation has focused on the numbers of e-mails that have traveled among RNC, BC '04 and White House ".gov" addresses. Recently, Waxman's staff asked the RNC for a daily tally of e-mail use by each White House official.

The Republicans have asked Waxman to agree to appropriate search terms because "it is not even clear what BC ‘04's emails, much less the information from the searches you have requested," can contribute to an investigation of political briefings that took place in 2006 and 2007.

"Even when you get that, you will have no more information about the political briefings than when you began," Davis wrote. "We believe requiring these broad searches and our inability to agree to relevant search terms has resulted in an overreach of the Committee's investigative authority that is unnecessary to achieve our objectives."

The letter asked that Waxman:

Develop a proper search for actual e-mails sent or received by White House officials on their RNC and BC '04 accounts that relate to the political briefings under investigation.

Allow the RNC and BC '04 to review e-mails captured by the search to determine if they indeed are relevant to responding to the focus of the investigation.

Allow the White House to review emails captured in the search and determined to be responsive by the RNC and BC '04 to determine if they are subject to executive privilege claims.

Require production of all e-mails except those for which the White House claims an interest.

Negotiate appropriate accommodations with the White House regarding the remaining e-mails.

"This process will result in the production of actual e-mails that relate to the political briefings and may also provide insight into any attempts to deliberately evade the PRA in connection with the political briefings," the letter states. "If more information is required after we see what is produced, we will be in a position to broaden our searches, if necessary. The current approach promises only more needless searches and expense for the RNC and BC '04."

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