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Just when you thought that the Clinton administration had done everything it could to smear its image, the U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation dealing with various electronic mail messages that have been hidden by the administration. Sources say that the Clinton administration also used intimidation tactics to keep the hidden messages a secret.
At issue in the Justice Department probe is a programming error in the White House’s computer system that took place in 1998. The computer error had failed to keep an archive of thousands of e-mails sent to some 500 White House employees from outsiders. The seemingly inadvertent error turned nasty when White House officials threatened employees that worked for the private contractor that ran the e-mail archive to keep quiet about the missing records.
Chief of the Justice Department's campaign finance task force Robert Conrad said in papers filed in District Court that the White House e-mail recording system failed to capture incoming e-mail to some individuals and that e-mail messages were not searched in response to subpoenas. "It has been alleged in this court and elsewhere that among the e-mails ... were communications related to various criminal investigations, including the task force investigation of campaign fundraising controversies," he said.
Commenting on the probe, White House spokesman Jim Kennedy said, "We have been in touch with the campaign finance task force in the Justice Department over the past few weeks and we will continue to provide the information that they need."
In a separate incident, the White House counsel disclosed that a vast quantity of e-mail from and to Vice President Gore and his staff was never properly recorded – and therefore was never reviewed to determine if it was relevant to investigations of Democratic fund-raising abuses in 1996.
Although Vice President Gore is not the focus of the investigation, the findings by the Justice Department are sure to be spun by the Republican Party in order to defame Gore. By dong so, republican candidate George W. Bush, Jr. would have an edge on Gore in terms of credibility.
The investigators were able to get a hold of the missing e-mails through backup copies that were made of the omitted files under investigation. Beth Nolan, counsel to President Clinton, said, “The nature, scope and cause of the problem, as well as its effect on the system and users, may be difficult to ascertain.” However, she continued, “backup tapes of e-mail records are secure,” adding: “we are quickly moving toward a solution that will enable us to search these records.”
In this age of technology, computers are used for everything from online shopping to maintaining bank account information. Depending upon the outcome of the investigation, this may be the first time that e-mail accounts have had an important effect on the presidential campaign. It will be interesting to see how the players in this investigation play their cards. Maybe if Vice President Gore has been brushing up on his solitaire, he’ll have the right?
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