Senator Leahy Says Missing RNC Emails Like Watergate Tapes 18 Minute Gap

Posted on April 12, 2007

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) of the Senate Judiciary Committee today compared the RNC's missing emails to the missing eighteen minutes on the Watergate tapes of conversations made in President Nixon's office.

The top Senate Democrat leading investigations into the dismissal of 8 U.S. Attorneys by the Justice Department is comparing e-mails lost by the Republican National Committee to President Richard Nixon's famous "18-minute gap" in White House tape recordings.
"Now we are learning that the 'off book' communications they were having about these actions, by using Republican political email addresses, have not been preserved," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said on the Senate floor.
He added, "Like the famous 18-minute gap in the Nixon White House tapes, it appears likely that key documentation has been erased or misplaced. This sounds like the Administration's version of 'the dog ate my homework.'"
The senator was referring to the Nixon White House tapes subpoenaed during the Watergate investigation. On one tape, there was an 18 1/2 minute gap. The former president's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, claimed responsibility for "accidentally" erasing 5 minutes of the recording, but not the remainder of the gap. Further investigations raised questions about the veracity of her testimony.
The Associated Press also noted that when actually delivered, Senator Leahy raised further doubts about the Republican Party's explanation for the lost e-mails. "They say they have not been preserved. I don't believe that!" he proclaimed. "You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've gone through too many servers." Leahy threatened further action in response to the news. "Those e-mails are there, they just don't want to produce them. We'll subpoena them if necessary."

So, to sum up: there are thousands of mysteriously missing emails which could shed light on the illegal firing of the U.S. attorneys and possibly implicate the White House in some kind of improprieties. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that they are missing. I can't believe Senator Leahy is so cynical about the ability of this administraton to tell the truth.