Emanuel Used Private Email Account To Contact Holder
“Using private addresses in the White House can be a big no-no. When Karl Rove and other Bushies were caught routinely using accounts supplied by the Republican National Committee to conduct the people's business, it sparked a congressional inquiry.”
By Dell Hill via Gawker
“Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel used his private Gmail account to communicate with Attorney General Eric Holder during his time in the White House, according to the results of Freedom of Information Act request we filed. Though the Department of Justice has acknowledged just one email exchange with Holder using Emanuel's unofficial address, the disclosure raises questions about whether Emanuel may have sought to skirt the Presidential Records Act by conducting government business using Gmail rather than his White House address.
Emanuel, you may recall, was one of the many victims of the massive iPad data leak that disclosed the private email addresses of tens of thousands of movers and shakers in June 2010. Having been privy to his Gmail address, last year we filed requests under the Freedom of Information Act with a variety of federal agencies looking to see if he ever used it to talk to Administration officials—a tactic that the Bush White House perfected as a way to keep email communications off the historical record and out of the hands of prying congressional investigators.
White House Refuses To Release Email
From Rahm’s GMail Account
And according to the Justice Department, Emanuel did just that—but only once, and allegedly for personal reasons. "We located one document, totaling one page, consisting of a personal record of Attorney General Holder," the DOJ wrote in response to our request for emails from Emanuel's Gmail address.
"Specifically, the document consists of an e-mail exchange concerning a purely personal matter." The DOJ contends that, since the exchange is a "personal record" of Holder's, it isn't subject to the FOIA and refused to release it.
Using private addresses in the White House can be a big no-no. When Karl Rove and other Bushies were caught routinely using accounts supplied by the Republican National Committee to conduct the people's business, it sparked a congressional inquiry. In May 2010, the White House reprimanded deputy chief technology officer Andrew McLaughlin for using his Gmail account for official communications. The Presidential Records Act requires all White House records to be systematically preserved and archived, so using private addresses can introduce huge gaps into the system and violate the law—unless the users conscientiously forward all such emails to their official accounts.”
By simply declaring any and all such communiques as “private”, the administration can stonewall any investigation by refusing to comply with subpoenaed documents. That’s exactly what’s happening here and changes need to be made to close that loophole.
Obama Asked Solyndra to Keep Layoffs Quiet Until After 2010 Elections - And They Did!
“As instructed, Solyndra announced the layoffs and a factory shutdown just after the elections were over. In spite of that, the DoE continued to give Solyndra installments of their taxpayer backed loan.”
By Dell Hill via Doug Powers
You scrub my back; I’ll scrub yours.
That seems to be exactly what happened in 2010 when a faltering Solyndra energy company was scheduled to announce layoffs, but was arm-twisted into changing the date for those layoffs by the Obama administration. All, of course, to take place AFTER the November elections and so as to not throw a negative monkey wrench into the Democrat’s election plans.
We certainly know that ploy had little or no effect on the outcome as Republicans broke records for flipping seats in Congress, but the outward appearance is one of hiding the truth from the public all for political gain.
Doug Powers has a synopsis for us.
It’s a special Tuesday edition of a Friday night email dump, and it comes near mid-week because Democrats don’t control the House committee in question.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu is scheduled to appear before a Solyndra inquiry on Thursday, so I’m sure he’ll be asked about this:
The Obama administration urged officers of the struggling solar company Solyndra to postpone announcing planned layoffs until after the November 2010 midterm elections, newly released e-mails show.
Solyndra, the now-shuttered California company, had been a poster child of President Obama’s initiative to invest in clean energies and received the administration’s first energy loan of $535 million. But a year ago, in October 2010, the solar panel manufacturer was quickly running out of money and had warned the Energy Department it would need emergency cash to avoid having to shut down.
The new e-mails about the layoff announcement were released Tuesday morning as part of a House Energy and Commerce committee memo…
As you read content of one of the emails, keep in mind that the 2010 election was on November 2nd:
“DOE continues to be cooperative and have indicated that they will fund the November draw on our loan (app. $40 million) but have not committed to December yet,” a Solyndra investor adviser wrote Oct. 30. “They did push very hard for us to hold our announcement of the consolidation to employees and vendors to Nov. 3rd – oddly they didn’t give a reason for that date.”
This particular “investor adviser” posessed the kind of lack of inquisitiveness that probably contributed to the excitement level in the VP’s office.
As instructed, Solyndra announced the layoffs and a factory shutdown just after the elections were over. In spite of that, the DoE continued to give Solyndra installments of their taxpayer backed loan.
We all know how the 2010 elections turned out, so not disclosing the layoffs to the public until after the election didn’t exactly save Nancy Pelosi’s gavel.
Update: Rahm Emanuel still doesn’t remember anything about Solyndra… whatever that was.
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
The entire Solyndra scandal stinks to high heaven on several levels. And more levels are being exposed every day. It’s this kind of “hard facts” pressure on the Obama administration that’s being demanded by the American people.
As for Rahm Emanuel’s memory; one word - “Chicago”
