Leahy, Specter To Rove’s Lawyer: Turn Over The Emails

Senate Judiciary Committee heads Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) have written Karl Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, asking him to turn over emails from Rove’s RNC account related to the U.S. Attorney scandal.

“White House officials have claimed many of these Rove e-mails were ‘lost,’” the senators say, “although some of Rove’s e-mails were reportedly shared with the Department of Justice as part of its probe into the Valerie Plame case.”

Earlier this month, the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Alberto Gonzales to turn over these Rove emails. Gonzales responded that he had “retained only the e-mails related to the Plame investigation and returned the electronic media containing the rest of Rove’s e-mails” to Luskin.

May 24, 2007
Robert D. Luskin
Patton Boggs LLP
2550 M Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20037

Dear Mr. Luskin:

The White House has confirmed that an unknown number of e-mails, including those of your client, Karl Rove, from both White House accounts and those sent or received using political Republican National Committee accounts, have not been archived. You stated publicly that Mr. Rove’s emails were turned over to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as part of the investigation into the leak of the identity of a covert CIA officer by officials in the Administration that led to the conviction of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

The Department’s response to the Committee, however, suggests that these emails were not in fact turned over permanently to Mr. Fitzgerald. According to the Department, Mr. Fitzgerald only obtained access to the “electronic media” containing these emails to do a search for documents related to the Plame investigation and then he returned this electronic media to you in a sealed condition.

Do you retain possession of this electronic media and will you provide the Committee with Mr. Rove’s emails related to our investigation voluntarily?

Sincerely,

And, also, ask Luskin to turn over the faxed letter that he claimed to get from Fitzgerald that stated that Rove was not being charged as the leaker. Where is that letter?