Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

After yesterday’s demand by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Leahy and Ranking Member Specter that the U.S. Attorney General comply with the May 2, 2007 subpoena that he did not respond to by the Monday’s May 15th deadline, the Justice Department replied late yesterday with a carrot-on-a-stick response. What did they claim to have?

Only one e-mail cc’ing White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove that concerning the firing, hiring, or political issues behind the massive U.S. Attorney terminations.

In practical terms, what did the Justice Department’s response contribute to the ongoing investigation by Congress into alleged politically-motivated White House control of Justice Department prosecutions?

Most would conclude nothing. Nada. Rien. Niente. Zilch. ничего. אפס .لا شي. Nichts. 何も.

In the reply (inset, below) from Principal Deputy Attorney General Richard A. Hertling, he alleged that the DOJ’s Office of Information and Privacy found only “two identical e-mail chains, one in Kyle Sampson’s e-mail account and the other in Courtney Elwood’s account, that are responsive to the subpoena.”

One e-mail addresses a McClatchy newspaper article on the firing of David Iglesias, the former U.S. Attorney for New Mexico, and communications with Sen. Pete Domenici’s office. The e-mail is from the President’s Special Assistant and White House Deputy Political Director Jeffrey Jennings to Karl Rove, White House Counsel Fred Fielding, Kevin Sullivan, Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino, andGonzales’ ex-Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson. White House Political Director Sarah Taylor is cc’d on the e-mail:

A second e-mail in the chain is, again, from Jennings:

These e-mails, however, do reveal one important detail: they contain Karl Rove’s non-White House “back-channel” e-mail in connection that he used for White House correspondence. That’s a violation of federal law, specifically, the Presidential Records Act whose purpose is to mandate the preservation of all work-related correspondence e-mails.

They also reveal that newly appointed White House Counsel Fred Fielding knew Rove was using his RNC e-mail (kr@georgewbush.com) for White House business. Fielding was cc’d on the e-mail turned over to the Committee. More on that later.

Incredibly, Hertlin notes that it returned Rove’s e-mail and “electronic media” (i.e., his hard drive) that remain the subject of the subpoena “to Mr. Rove’s counsel, Mr. Robert Luskin, in a sealed condition.” The only way for the Judiciary Committee to take another shot at a forensic analysis and review of Rove’s e-mail appears to be litigating this out in court.

Here is the Justice Department’s carrot-on-a-stick response, suggesting there may be more Rove e-mails to come. In fact, Hertling hints that there could be more: “We are continuing to search for documents responsive to the Committee’s subpoena.”