Why is this sort of thing allowed to happen in America today?

timujin: Was deleting the records illegal?

Not when a Mormon does it.

Ooba Tooba: Why is this sort of thing allowed to happen in America today?

It's not. Well, one party pretty much pays for their infrequent indiscretions. Recraplicans, not so much.

So is anyone going to post what documents were destroyed?

T.M.S.: timujin: Was deleting the records illegal?

Not when a Mormon does it.

"Whoops! Sorry folks. It's the underwear. It's magnetic."

Ooba Tooba: Why is this sort of thing allowed to happen in America today?

Because no one speaks up. No one speaks up because very few have any power to change anything. Very few have the power to change anything because no one speaks up.

It's a vicious cycle, and these farkwads are allowed to run this country and everything that's great about it into the ground while we are subdued by reruns of "America's Next Top Model" and "Survivor".

Diogenes: It's not comforting that people are more upset over an imaginary Kenyan birth certificate than the destruction of real public records.

My brain imploded at the awesomeness of this comment. Will repeat it I'm sure.

Nadie_AZ: Ah mormons. It is only right if they think God said it was ok. See: polygamy, massacres, white salemanders, changing the text in religious scripture, changing holy temple vows. All in the name of political power.

/my temple name was Lehi. the ex was 'Julia'

???

ginandbacon: Jello shots would work better.

Mormons don't booze properly. They'd have been half-strength at best.

And this story will be covered by the lieberal lamestream drive by media less than Obama's choice of condiments.

Because People in power are Stupid: timujin: I've only been aware of this peripherally, what does the law say? Was deleting the records illegal?

Yes, yes it was.

The current version of the statute imposes a fine or term of imprisonment on whoever "unlawfully . . . alters, mutilates or destroys any public record." G.L. c. 66,
§ 15. Although section 15 is broad, three things limit its reach. First, it applies only to
"public records." Generally, public records are "documentary material or data, regardless of physical form or characteristics" that are "made or received" by a public official,
G.L. c. 4, § 7(26), and the term has been interpreted to include email.

[...]

Third, and most importantly for purposes of this report, section 15, is a criminal
statute. To sustain a conviction under it, the prosecution must prove that the person
charged had a certain state of mind; that is, it must be proven that the person knew that he or she was "destroying" public records. (new window)

Except for the part where the governor's office isn't specifically covered under the Public Records Act (state Supreme Court decision in 1997), and his staff went before the Records Conservation Board to detail how they were disposing of records.

From the Boston Globe:

"Starting in September 2006, the Romney administration began submitting applications to the Records Conservation Board to have documents moved to the state archives. They covered a wide range of topics, including gubernatorial correspondence, daily schedule files, photographs, briefing packets, and speeches.

At the same time, the board granted a request to destroy some documents, including routine items - such as vendor invoices, intern files, and accounting records - and those involving topics such as "travel expense records,'' "pardon/commutation records,'' and "individual appointment requests.''

By the way, there's 700-800 boxes of paper documents from the Romney administration in the archives. Start digging if you want.

Enjoy jail, Mitt.

Mitt's not gonna spend ine day in jail, Ponce. He's rich, white, a politician, never been caught with a dead woman or live boy, and rich.

/I know what I said twice
//$ome people are more equal than others

Or "one" day in jail, even.

tudorgurl: Ooba Tooba: Why is this sort of thing allowed to happen in America today?

Because no one speaks up. No one speaks up because very few have any power to change anything. Very few have the power to change anything because no one speaks up.

It's a vicious cycle, and these farkwads are allowed to run this country and everything that's great about it into the ground while we are subdued by reruns of "America's Next Top Model" and "Survivor".

#OccupyAllStreets

B-B-B-But where is all of Obama's school papers??!?!?!?

hurrrr!

Ooba Tooba: Why is this sort of thing allowed to happen in America today?

Because someone will point out that some Democrat did something bad, probably attending a NASCAR event while uppity.

Uh oh, his hair is slightly askew. Not good.

Blues_X: Said Romney: "Well, I think in government we should follow the law. And there has never been an administration that has provided to the opposition research team, or to the public, electronic communications. So ours would have been the first."


Except for the White House. And the Alaskan governor's office. And all those other administrations who have done it.


Here in Florida, Rick Scott's office has already "accidentally deleted records" several times since he's been in office.

Corvus: B-B-B-But where is all of Obama's school papers??!?!?!?

I love this mentality of the Right Wing. They demand access to everything down to Obama's High School Civics essays, and yet the same people will undoubtedly see no problem whatsoever with these actions by Mittens.

What a morman. Should've gotten a brain.

globalwarmingpraiser: I could care less what you believe or don't.

So in other words, you do care about what he believes. Otherwise, you would have said "I couldn't care less."

At least you're honest. If there's something about his criticism of your beliefs that gets your goat, maybe you should examine why.

In his defense, as governor he did not delete the records from the computers, as that would have been illegal. He instead sold the computers to his friends, workers, etc then they all formatted the hard drives as a condition of buying the computers so that sensitive data would not be leaked or misused.

/Romney is a RINO.

bdub77: Who gives a shiat you are all going to lose to Obama.

You mean they're all gonna lose to Hillary.

timujin: I've only been aware of this peripherally, what does the law say? Was deleting the records illegal?

No idea. Depends on the document retention rules in Massachusetts which I am completely unfamiliar with.

If no one in his administration was under formal investigation at the time, it's very possible he did nothing illegal.

hbomb1129: Are there no proper backups of those emails? We create several versions of backups, especially of our email server.

Oops

It would be illegal, had they not printed the records prior to deletion. By all accounts the deleted emails, etc were printed. His staff provided 700 boxes worth of material. Backing up email, or transfer of the email to some..site or whatever is not required...

These types of laws were never meant to be enforced. The only time this would come into play is if a huge scandal broke like mitt killing a hooker then emailing an aid about it. Or if some lackey is running something illegal on the side using state resources to do it. A governor deleting random emails under no suspcion won't even be news unless someone does some serious digging.

The Governor's Office is not covered under Massachusetts' FOIA law.

I imagine Mitt Romney's people bought their hard drives because they knew Deval Patrick was coming in after them and information that isn't supposed to be made public would "leak".

Generally speaking, something that any person has done doesn't necessarily have to be something wrong for that something to be twisted in a way that it can be used against them.

/has not RTFA yet, but will

So instead of Nixon, it's going to be "Romney you dolt!"?