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White House E-mails: Gone, But Not Forgotten?

April 12, 2007 2:17 PM

White_house_dusk_nr The White House set off a miniature firestorm Wednesday when it revealed that years of e-mails belonging to White House political aides were deleted, apparently in violation of federal law requiring presidential documents to be preserved.

But "deleted" doesn't mean what it used to, according to computer forensic experts. Indeed, deleted e-mails and files, even years-old ones, are recovered all the time.

"We do it every day of the week," said Beryl Howell of Stroz Freidburg LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based firm that specializes in recovering lost data for businesses complying with court orders, criminal investigators and others.

Companies turn to Howell's firm when they "have a duty to preserve certain e-mails," not unlike the White House in this scenario. "Companies are sanctioned when they do not preserve electronic data," even if it means putting technicians to work extracting bits and bytes of "deleted" data that has not yet disappeared from hard drives.

"They look at their backup systems and backup tapes," Howell said, adding that "with any electronic storage media, you can do forensic recovery and find deleted data."

In an 80-minute conference call with a select group of print reporters yesterday, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said that e-mails from 2004 and earlier sent and received by 22 White House employees, including chief political aide Karl Rove, had been deleted.

The e-mails -- sent through private servers belonging to the Republican National Committee, not the White House -- had been erased as part of an "automatic deletion policy" by the political organization, Stanzel said, and that the White House was "aggressively working to fix" the mistake. 

In a press briefing this afternoon, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the White House was considering hiring a forensics expert.  "I will admit it," she said. "We screwed up and we're trying to fix it."

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., two weeks ago sent a letter to the RNC directing the group to preserve e-mails from White House staff but not the hardware on which they were once stored. 

Steven Aftergood, an information and government expert with the Federation of American Scientists, said he wasn't sure who had the authority to order the drives preserved and analyzed, if the White House didn't voluntarily ensure it was done. "I think it's uncharted territory."

Without knowing the technical details of how the e-mails were deleted, computer forensics expert Rob Lee said he couldn't say with certainty if any of the communications are recoverable.  But from his experience working with the FBI and other criminal investigators, he knows one thing: Unless the hard drives containing the e-mails were physically destroyed or lost, "the only way someone could claim something has been destroyed is if the e-mails themselves have been wiped" from a hard drive or tape backup, he said, "overwriting every piece of data." That requires special software designed explicitly to cover any trace of deleted information.

The RNC did not immediately respond to a request for more information on their e-mail deletion policy and practices.  The Presidential Records Act of 1978 requires all White House documents be preserved if they "relate to or have and effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President."

This post has been updated.

April 12, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (9)

User Comments

Future timeline of events:

-next week: Judiciary Committee subpoenas the email records, including those that were "accidentally" deleted .
-week after that: RNC reports that tape backups have been "misplaced", promises to investigate and put in place guidelines that are "less confusing about whether or not backup tapes should be placed in the garbage."
-week after that: Judiciary Committee demands that all data be retrieved from the RNC's email server hard drives.
-week after that: RNC reports that the hard drives have been "mistakenly" reformatted, promises to investigate and put in place guidelines that are "less confusing about when hard drives are to be erased."

Posted by: Midwest Product | Apr 12, 2007 3:03:23 PM

I love it. Destroying evidence, covering their tracks. Getting rid of the emails where they discussed the propaganda campaign in order to start the war in Iraq, the exchanges about what to do about Mark Foley before his story became public, how they were going to out Valerie Plame, getting rid of federal prosecuters to protect republican fat cats' interests and on and on. No suprise the White House aids email went through the Republican National Committee's servers, after all this administration exist only to serve the interests of the political elite of the RNC and their big time corporate supporters.

Posted by: JelloBiafra | Apr 12, 2007 4:16:43 PM

Emails never disappear! They can be recovered on one of the many servers or persons or people that recieved them.

Posted by: Aaron C | Apr 13, 2007 4:01:00 AM

It seems like they did it on purpose! Why else would they have done all of that?

Posted by: Chris B | Apr 13, 2007 12:21:26 PM

How can we make Rove accountable for any wrong doings he does? He is near criminal in his mind set and his influence on this administration is scary. I'm not surprised, but sickened even further.

Posted by: Toni | Apr 13, 2007 12:36:21 PM

Deja Vu? Does this remind anyone of the 18 minutes of empty Nixon White House tapes? This administration is out of control. Going to war against all evidence, (which has wrecked havoc on our economy,gas prices, auto industry in tatters). The admistration has ignored the voice of the Generals, the Congress and the public about withdrawing troops and now on top of everthing else we are expected to believe these e-mails are lost.

Posted by: Jerry Grogan | Apr 13, 2007 2:00:42 PM

Who cares? All most people see is Mr. Waxman on a witch hunt. He has said at the onset he is going to spend all his time going after Republicans rubbing his hands with glee. It seems to me we have much bigger problems then paybacks are a bitch mentality.

Posted by: patrice | Apr 14, 2007 10:12:15 AM

Regardless of your spending billions of dollars on war against terrorism, the results are zero rather you enhanced the terrorism. American people only knows what you want them to know. But surely you know and almost the rest of the world know that the root cause of terrorism is the greed of America to suck every bit of wealth out of Middle East. You have been doing it successfully up till now. Its like an old story. Once there was a man who by chance got a hen that use to lay one ‘Golden’ egg daily. His fortune started to change on daily bases. But that man turned out to be like your president Mr. George Bush, greedy and stupid. He came up with a great idea. What if I cut open this “hen’s” stomach and take all the eggs out at once I will be richer much sooner. And he went out with this idea and slaughtered the hen. And as we all know results are “Iraq and Afghanistan.” Another greatest thing that I hear these days is the definition of terrorist includes (but not limited to ) the people who wage a war against armed forces occupying “THEIR” country. But you should understand one point very clearly. “Yours” is not the first empire this earth has seen. Their has been Alexander and Romans and Otmans and Genges Khan in the history or rather British from the recent history. No body stays on top forever. That clearly is the law of nature. There is always a day after a night. There is always a trough after a crest. There is always a fall after a glory. You are having your glory right now. Don’t try to be The God of the world and you will do just fine when the ‘fall’ will come. “Behold the fall will come, sooner or later, but it surely will com” so is the law of the nature. You must preserve some respect for the future rainy days of America. If I am wrong ask yourself a question why Japan, Korea, Russia, for that matter Germany Italy or France Australia never experienced any terrorist attacks Why only America. These are equally powerful and rich country. Their values are even much grater then “the great American values” rather whatever greatness you claim for your so called values is because of them. I personally feel Sorry for you as you Americans live in a Jail called United States Of America where you are not entitled to “See” or to “hear” or to “Speak” or to “Judge”. You are only “shown” or “told” or “spoken for” and last but not least “judgments”, well you might just don’t know what this word even ‘mean’. Your original bosses, not your president nor your senators or congressmen. “The Power Players” your original bosses they show you what ‘they’ want you to see. They tell you what ‘they’ want you to listen only, not a word extra. And ‘they’ speak for you the words you never said. Well these “Power Players” are the people who do the judgments for you. You never heard of “The Power Players”!!!! well for your ignorant mind it is enough for you to understand that these are the Bosses of your President And you still live in a perception that yours is a democratic country.
Remember at least regard this letter not out of Hate but out of observation. You agree or not but you surely know all above is true.

Regards
Syed Muneer ul Hasan

Posted by: muneer | Apr 14, 2007 5:22:09 PM

try playing dumb in your local county courthouse and see if the judge buys it.
its kinda like the attorney general and his faulty memory.
if you were asked questions on the stand in court and had his type of recolection,,you can bet the judge would hold you in contempt untill you remembered. unlike other 'crimes" contempt has as long a sentance as the judge deem nessasary.
the laws for them and the laws for us are very different,and they are sure that no mixing is going on .
later folks,
roystr

Posted by: roystr | Apr 28, 2007 3:03:58 AM

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