A November 13 Associated Press article on the Republican National Committee's (RNC) “new web site,” www.clintonlibrarycard.com, reported that the RNC is “ask[ing] people to sign a petition to the Clintons asking them to release all the 78 million pages of records and 20 million e-mail messages at the [Clinton Presidential] library.” But the article did not report that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has directed the RNC and the Bush-Cheney 2004 presidential campaign to preserve email messages to or from accounts held by White House officials, and has said that as a result of several of the committee's investigations, it “has reason to believe that many e-mails related to official government business may have been deleted from the RNC's servers.” The committee also said it had obtained evidence that “White House officials used their RNC e-mail accounts in a manner that circumvented” the requirements of the Presidential Records Act.

According to the House Oversight Committee:

After three congressional investigations -- the investigation into Jack Abramoff's contacts with the White House, the examination of politicization of the General Services Administration, and the investigation of the firings of eight U.S. Attorneys -- brought to light the White House's extensive use of nongovernmental e-mail accounts to conduct official business, the Committee directed the RNC and the Bush Cheney '04 campaign to preserve e-mails to or from accounts held by White House officials. [...]

Following staff briefings with the White House and the RNC, the Committee has reason to believe that many e-mails related to official government business may have been deleted from the RNC's servers.

On June 18, the Oversight Committee released an interim staff report that stated, “The number of White House officials given RNC e-mail accounts is higher than previously disclosed”; that “White House officials made extensive use of their RNC e-mail accounts”; and that "[t]here has been extensive destruction of the e-mails of White House officials by the RNC." The report went on to state:

The Presidential Records Act requires the President to “take all such steps as may be necessary to assure that the activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that reflect the performance of his constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties are adequately documented ... and maintained as Presidential records.” To implement this legal requirement, the White House Counsel issued clear written policies in February 2001 instructing White House staff to use only the official White House e-mail system for official communications and to retain any official e-mails they received on a nongovernmental account.

The evidence obtained by the Committee indicates that White House officials used their RNC e-mail accounts in a manner that circumvented these requirements. At this point in the investigation, it is not possible to determine precisely how many presidential records may have been destroyed by the RNC. Given the heavy reliance by White House officials on RNC e-mail accounts, the high rank of the White House officials involved, and the large quantity of missing e-mails, the potential violation of the Presidential Records Act may be extensive.

As part of its investigations into Abramoff's White House communications and into the U.S. attorney scandal, according to chairman Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), the House Oversight Committee requested on at least four occasions “information” from the RNC “about the use of RNC e-mail accounts by White House officials.” On April 25, the committee subpoenaed the RNC for the information. RNC chairman Robert M. Duncan issued the following response on April 25:

The Democrats on Capitol Hill have made it clear: they will stop at nothing short of the entire Republican National Committee playbook for 2008 in their search for documents.

“While we continue to cooperate to the most appropriate level, we fully expect this Democrat fishing expedition to continue for the entire two years of their time in the majority.

”You don't see the New York Yankees giving the Boston Red Sox their signs before a crucial series -- and I won't be giving our equivalent to Howard Dean

The Oversight Committee's interim staff report, released June 18, states, “Although 88 White House officials received RNC e-mail accounts, the RNC says that it retains e-mail records for only 37 of these officials.” It further states: “Whether intentionally or inadvertently, it appears that the RNC has destroyed a large volume of the e-mails of White House officials who used RNC e-mail accounts. The RNC has told the Committee that it had a 'document retention' policy under which e-mails that are more than 30 days old are deleted. In addition the RNC has said that individual account holders had the ability to delete permanently e-mails less than 30 days old. As a result of these policies, potentially hundreds of thousands of White House e-mails may have been destroyed, many of which may be presidential records.” Responding to the report, according to The Washington Post, RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt “said in an e-mail that the committee should not assume more e-mails will not be found. 'This is not necessarily the total number of e-mails preserved,' she said. 'The RNC has repeatedly made clear to the committee that it is continuing to search for the e-mails.' ”

As Media Matters for America has noted, on April 12, the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released a report that alleged “the Bush White House has lost over FIVE MILLION e-mails in a two year period” (emphasis in original) and that in doing so “the White House has been willfully violating the law.” The report's executive summary cites White House officials' use of RNC email accounts: “In the wake of the scandals surrounding Jack Abramoff and the fired U.S. Attorneys, emails were released showing that top White House staffers routinely used Republican National Committee (RNC) email accounts to conduct official business.” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino responded to reporters' questions about the missing emails during an April 13 press gaggle and later during the White House press briefing. At the gaggle, Perino herself asserted that “I wouldn't rule out that there were a potential 5 million emails lost.” An April 13 CNN.com article further reported: “Perino's disclosure about the White House e-mail comes a day after she admitted that the White House 'screwed up' by not requiring e-mails from Republican Party and campaign accounts to be saved and was also trying to recover those e-mails.” Perino later suggested during the April 13 White House press briefing that “maybe misplaced, or not necessarily lost forever” would be a better way to describe the status of the emails. She added: “I think there are backup tapes, there are different ways in order to go back and find emails.”

As part of CREW's lawsuit against the Executive Office of the Presidency, on November 12, a federal judge issued a restraining order requested by CREW, which, according to The Washington Post, “ordered the White House... not to destroy any backup computer tapes of its e-mail, pending civil litigation seeking to learn more about what happened to a trove of messages missing from a 2 1/2 -year period earlier in the Bush presidency.” From the Post:

A federal judge ordered the White House yesterday not to destroy any backup computer tapes of its e-mail, pending civil litigation seeking to learn more about what happened to a trove of messages missing from a 2 1/2 -year period earlier in the Bush presidency.

The Bush administration had opposed such an order, arguing that it is unnecessary because the White House administrative office already is preserving backup tapes in its possession. But U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. was not satisfied by that assurance and issued the formal order, which carries contempt penalties if violated.

[...]

The order stems from the disappearance of possibly millions of e-mails sent and received by aides to President Bush from March 2003 to October 2005. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group that has been critical of the administration, has said it was told by internal sources that the White House determined that at least 5 million and perhaps many more e-mails from that period were not saved as required by law.

The missing e-mail, along with the disclosure that some White House aides regularly used private Republican National Committee e-mail accounts, fueled congressional suspicions about the decision to fire nine U.S. attorneys, a controversy that ultimately led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales.

The White House has said some e-mail may not have been automatically archived but may still be on backup tapes. The administration has not confirmed how many messages might have been lost.

Also on November 12, a federal judge consolidated CREW's lawsuit with a nearly identical suit brought on by George Washington University's National Security Archive.

From the November 13 AP report:

There's nothing quiet about the Clinton Library.

The Republican Party is trying to make all the noise it can about the Hillary Rodham Clinton papers being kept private at her husband's presidential library in Little Rock, Ark.

The Republican National Committee launched a new Web site Tuesday, http://www.clintonlibrarycard.com. It asks people to sign a petition to the Clintons asking them to release all the 78 million pages of records and 20 million e-mail messages at the library.

Anyone who signs the petition will get a “library card” in their name that they can print out.

Hillary Rodham Clinton has come under criticism from her Democratic and Republican rivals because so much of the documentation of her years as first lady has not been released.

But the Clintons say they are not holding up the release. The National Archives is charged with reviewing Freedom of Information Request for records of past presidents.