For a long time now, the Bush White House has played the game of saying that a group of emails, related to the criminal investigations of the leak of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity, are just “missing”. Anyone who has used email for any length of time knows that email doesn’t just go missing, of course.
The National Security Archive at George Washington University filed suit against the President to get any email information related to the case that was not destroyed. In relation to that case, a good organization, Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, asked a simple question: If the emails are “missing”, what about the backup emails? Were they destroyed too?
George W. Bush refused to reveal the answer, saying that nobody had the power to make him say anything about the activities of his White House.
Now, brandishing the Constitution, federal magistrate John Facciola has challenged Bush’s claim to absolute power. Facciola has ordered the Bush White House to tell the truth: Are there backup emails, or aren’t there?
Bush has five business days to submit to the power of the Federal Branch as established in the Constitution. He has five business days to come up with an answer or take another step deeper into constitutional crisis.
