Energy staffers were warned not to use personal e-mail

[alp227]

Source: The Washington Post

The former head of the Obama administration’s controversial clean energy loan program warned a staff member last year not to include personal e-mail addresses in official correspondence, to prevent the personal accounts from being subpoenaed, documents show.

Jonathan Silver, a political appointee who oversaw the Energy Department’s $38 billion program, sent the warning days before a centerpiece of the program —solar-panel maker Solyndra —declared bankruptcy, pushing a congressional investigation into high gear.

...

Silver repeatedly communicated about internal and sensitive loan decisions via his personal e-mail, the newly released records show, and more than a dozen other Energy Department staff members used their personal e-mail to discuss decisions involving taxpayer-funded loans as well. The Washington Post received the e-mails from Republican investigators on the committee.

“The frequent use of non-government e-mail accounts and the contents of e-mails leaves little doubt that DOE officials participated in an intentional effort to shield their communications from legal scrutiny and the public,” committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and subcommittee Chairmen Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) wrote...

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/energy-department-loan-program-staffers-were-warned-not-to-use-personal-e-mail/2012/08/14/900621fa-e61f-11e1-8f62-58260e3940a0_singlePage.html

[truthisfreedom]

1. So what?

Bush.

[OnyxCollie]

2. Yeah, still waiting on those servers

that former RNC chairman Michael Duncan was subpoenaed to produce when the Bush administration got caught using RNC-supplied Blackberries for all their official correspondence during the US Attorney scandal.

[MADem]

5. All of the Bushie babies in the WH used to bring personal laptops to work.

They'd use the WH system to go online, and they'd use Yahoo mail accounts to talk about stuff they didn't want "on the radar" or on record.

It was outrageous. They got away with it, too.

Look at rMoney. His staff walked off with all those hard drives when he left the governor's office....

[xocet]

3. Exactly...

The Republican party is a confluence of greed and ignorance marching under a banner of hypocrisy emblazoned with IOKIYAR.

[MADem]

4. It is unprofessional in the extreme to use personal email for official correspondence.

People should NOT do it. Saying so is not nefarious, but doing so after telling others not to do it is rather stupid.

[tanyev]

6. Gosh, where was Darrell Issa's outrage when the Bush Administration ran rampant doing this?

[WestSeattle2]

7. Official business is subject to public disclosure requests; the use of private email to

circumvent public disclosure requests (Freedom of Information Act) should be illegal:

http://www.fed-soc.org/publications/detail/gmailgov-when-politics-gets-personal-does-the-public-have-a-right-to-know