A few days ago I was discussing the “controversy” around Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State, and how hypocritical the Republican reaction has been. I pointed out that:

• Colin Powell also used a private email address (although not a server) while Secretary of State
• Jeb Bush also used a private email server as Governor, and discussed National Guard troop movements through that account.
• Trey Gowdy and Jason Chaffetz have also used private email accounts to conduct government business.
• General Patraeus lied to the FBI and deliberately gave his mistress state secrets, while Hillary was merely careless.

But the really big one, the one that deserves more than a casual mention, is that Bush administration’s use of an RNC server to discuss sensitive government information that they wanted to keep out of the public eye.

For those of you who don’t remember, on December 7, 2006, the Bush administration dismissed a number of U.S. Attorneys (i.e. federal prosecutors) in the middle of their terms, apparently because some had investigated political controversies involving Republicans, and conversely had not brought charges against Democratic politicians whom Republican operatives wanted to have targeted. A subsequent 2008 report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General found that the Administration’s actions were “arbitrary”, “fundamentally flawed”, and “raised doubts about the integrity of Department prosecution decisions.” However, Department of Justice prosecutors ultimately concluded that the conduct did not rise to the level of being a prosecutable criminal offense (just as they subsequently decided that Hillary Clinton’s actions were also not prosecutable). The incident did lead to the resignation of then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Congress investigated the firing of these seven U.S. Attorneys, and after making requests for a number of documents, discovered that a vast numbers of internal Administration emails were not available, in violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978.[1] The administration officials had been using a private Internet domain, called gwb43.com, owned by and hosted on an email server run by the Republican National Committee.[2] It was discovered that the White House’s Deputy Director of Political Affairs, as well as numerous White House other staffers, were using emails assigned to the gwb43.com domain to discuss the firings and their political ramifications. Eventually the Bush administration had to concede that as many as 22 million emails may have been deleted from the RNC servers, and that as many as 50 White House staffers were improperly using the email accounts associated with the RNC servers to conduct business.

Let me repeat that:

• 22 million emails
• 50 White House staffers

And this is the same gang that is so upset that Hillary Clinton used a private email server to conduct business while she was Secretary of State.

They hypocrisy of it all just screams out, especially when combined with the email-related mistakes that other Republicans have made (see above).

I’m sorry Republicans, you guys are just major hypocrites.
I’m sorry Republicans, you guys are just major hypocrites.
I’m sorry Republicans, you guys are just major hypocrites.

[1] The Presidential Records Act of 1978, 44 U.S.C. §§ 2201–2207, governs the official records of the office of the President and Vice President, and mandates the preservation of all presidential records. The PRA and established a new statutory structure under which Presidents must manage their records in accordance with specific legal requirements.

[2] This server still exists, although it requires authentication for anyone to log onto it. This was apparently a private email server that did not host any webpages.