Aide's testimony shows WH violating its own e-mail policy.

From Raw Story:


The Thursday testimony of J. Scott Jennings, an aide to President George W. Bush, offered further insight into the routine violations of e-mail archiving rules by White House staff.

"I came to the White House, as you said, in 2005, and when I came, I was given two e-mail accounts as you know, and devices such as a BlackBerry and a laptop that were connected to my RNC e-mail account, and only one device, a computer desktop, connected to my official account," Jennings told Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. "So, over the course of time, it became efficient and crucial for me to be able to respond to communications in a 24-7 manner."

Jennings, who serves as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs in the White House, went on to say he continues to use his RNC e-mail account heavily for a variety of official business, such as hiring and firing US Attorneys.

"I use my RNC account for many matters, including [US Attorneys-related issues]," he said.
Jennings' remarks came after a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform report from June identified him as a heavy user of an RNC e-mail account that was not properly archived.

"The RNC has reported that the first available e-mail for Scott Jennings is dated January 1, 2003," the Oversight Committee report observed. "However, the RNC has only preserved four of Mr. Jennings’s e-mails dated earlier than August 2006. In contrast, the RNC has over 35,000 e-mails sent and received by Mr. Jennings during the nine months between August 2006 and April 2007."

"[I]f you happen to receive an e-mail on a personal e-mail account that otherwise qualifies as a Presidential record, it is your duty to ensure that it is preserved and filed as such by printing it out and saving it or by forwarding it to your White House e-mail account," Gonzales wrote to White House staff in a Feb. 2001 memo.

Jennings noted in the Thursday hearing that he was no longer using the 'sjennings@gwb43.com' account found in many documents turned over to Congressional investigators as part of the US Attorneys probe. He said he had stopped using the account because of junk and hate mail.

Jennings, ironically, had just been asked what his current e-mail address was.

"It is jsj@gwb43.com," he answered, committing his new 'private' address to the public record.