Excerpt of McRove's aide deposition

From The Gavel:

Selected Excerpts from the First Half of Ralston’s Deposition



Regarding Karl Rove’s political email account:



BY MS. AMERLING: When did Karl Rove first start usìng his RNC e-mail account to send and receive e-mails from the White House?
A From day one.
[…]
Q For how long did Mr. Rove continue to use his political e-mail account to send e-mails from the White House?
A The entire time that I worked for hìm.
[…]
Q For how long did Mr. Rove continue to use his polit’ical e-mail account to send e-mails from the White House?
A The entire time that I worked for hìm.
Q Do you know how frequently he used this account?
A It would be hard for me to quantify how much. He used it a lot.
Q Did Mr. Rove have a BlackBerry provided by the RNC?
A I don’t know if the RNC actually provided the equìpment. It was a political BlackBerry, I don’t know if the BlackBerry came on — if he had it during the campaign — it was a political BlackBerry.
Q Did you ever see him use it?
A Yes.
Q When did he first start using this BlackBerry?
A I don’t know when he started using it in the White House. My best recollection is that he had it at the very beginning, but I can’t say exactly when it started.
Q Do you know how often he used it?
A He used it daily.
Q Many times over the course of a day?
A Yes.
Q Did he have a White House BlackBerry, an official White House BlackBerry?
A No, he did not.
[…]
Q Beyond Mr. Fitzgerald’s requests, were there other requests from other investigators for Mr. Rove’s e-mails?
A The only — there may have been, but the only other major investigation that I recall specifically was related to Enron.
Q Do you know when that would have been?
A I believe that was in 2001 sometime.
Q And you think in 2001 that Mr. Rove searched his e-mails to respond to a request for investigators relating to Enron?
A He or I searched.
Q And that search included a search of political e-mails sent over the political account?
A Correct.
Q Were other White House officials aware that Mr. Rove in 2001- was providing e-mails from his polìtical accounts to investigators who were looking at Enron?
A I believe so, because all of the documents that we collected were then turned over to the White House Counsel’s Office.
On political presentations, such as the one given to the GSA:
Q How many times are you aware of that Mr. Rove gave the presentations?
A During the first couple of years, my recollection — my best recollection is that he gave it, possibly, at least once to each of the agencies.
Q Which agencies?
A The major — the major Cabinet agencies.
Q What about after that?
A After he had done them at least once, he more often deferred to one of his deputies to gìve the presentation. So it would have either been Barry Jackson or Ken Mehlman, or whoever the Political Affairs Director was, and that person’s deputy. There were a lot of demands for his time, and since he had met with each of the agencies at least once, then he preferred that somebody else try to gìve it.
Q Was it his idea to give these presentations?
A You know, I can’t say specifically it was his idea, but my general understanding is that it was he and whoever the head of the Political Affairs 0ffice was who decided that they would do it.
[…]
Q And how were these presentations drafted?
A The Office of Political Affairs would draft it.
Q Who was involved in the drafting?
A Several people. The head of the Office of Political Affairs would be one of the key people. They would get information from somebody on staff who was not an expert but who had experience in pollìng information, and sometimes they did get information from the RNC.



Selected Excerpts from the Second Half of Ralston’s Deposition



On the mission of the 0ffice of Political Affairs:



Q What was the 0ffice of Political Affairs designed to do with respect to its constituency?
A Well, they worked with Legislatjve Affairs on any domestic agenda items. They worked with the other committees — the RNC, the NRSC, the NRCC to coordinate their activjties. They worked on campaìgns and races.
Q When you say “worked on campaìgns and races,” what did they do on campaigns and races?
A They would work with the committees in identifying particular districts — or races that they might be helping, and how the White House was going to help those particular races with political activity. So, for example, if there was a race in a State, the White House might allocate resources, politjcal resources, through surrogates.
Q “Surrogates” being like political appointees and others who were permìtted to engage in campaign activities –
A Exactly.
Q — even though they are employed by the Federal Government?
A Exactly.



On the issue of the Klamath River:



Q Were you aware that in early January 2002, Karl Rove gave a PowerPoint presentation, that he used to solicit Republjcan donors, to 50 Department of Interjor managers at a Department retreat in Shepherdstown, West Virgìnia?
A You know, I don’t remember that one specifically, but he gave those kinds of presentations. I wouldn’t doubt it.
Q Do you recall his discussing with you that he was going to gìve a presentation related to the Klamath River issue at a retreat?
A I don’t have a specific recollection. He may have, but I don’t have a specific recollection.
Q Were you aware that Mr. Rove traveled to Klamath Rjvelin late January and early February 2002 and spoke to the farmers there?
A He traveled so much. He may have. I vaguely recall that trip, but he traveled so much that I –
Q Do you recall anything about that trìp?
A No. I just have a very vague recollection of ìt.
Q Were you aware that Mr. Rove put together a Cabinet-Level task force on Klamath River issues?
A He may have, but I don’t remember.
Q You were not involved in that?
A It sort of sounds vaguely familiar, but I just don’t remember the details.
Q Were you aware that the Interior Department’s inspector general investigated the White House’s involvement in the Interìor Department’s decision about Klamath River water levels?
A I do not remember that.