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Ayotte Wrote Herself Permission Slip to Bury Email

by: Dean Barker

Mon May 10, 2010 at 20:44:21 PM EDT
Up until now I've been a bit skeptical that the FRM ponzi scandal would do little other than reveal  incompetence on the part of Kelly Ayotte and her failure to follow up on it.

But now I think we might just be on the verge of full-blown scandal that could spell serious damage to her senate bid.

This is a transcript from the dead-tree piece in Sunday's UL (and again, kudos to DiStaso and the UL for holding onto this story and not letting go):

In a report under her official letterhead issued on July 15, 2009, she interpreted a provision of the law to mean that if an electronic record is deleted but remains in the "delete" file or on a back up system, it would be considered "legally deleted" and would be "properly treated as no longer subject to disclosure" under the right to know law.

...Ayotte's predecessor, Peter Heed, had a simpler interpretation of the treatment of computer records.

In a March 2003 memo, he wrote "Public documents stored in computers shall be available in the same manner as records stored in public files if access to such records would not reveal work papers, personnel data or other confidential information."

Take another look at the date of that memo: July 15, 2009.

Kelly Ayotte filed to run for Judd Gregg's senate seat less than a week later.

On her way out the door, Kelly Ayote wrote a permission slip for herself to keep her digital communications as Attorney General secret.

This thing stinks to high heaven.

UPDATE: Well that was fast.  Team Ayotte is requesting that her emails be made public (the ones that are supposedly deleted).  I guess they decided that the earlier tactic of stonewalling the press wasn't going to fly anymore.  In this new Politico piece, however, is this interesting observation:

The Hodes campaign also said the July 15 opinion proves that Ayotte's previous claim she wasn't involved in the decision about how to handle her e-mails was "demonstrably false."
Dean Barker :: Ayotte Wrote Herself Permission Slip to Bury Email
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Ayotte Wrote Herself Permission Slip to Bury Email | 7 comments
It boggles the mind. (0.00 / 0)
If the law says to keep public records (records that the public has paid for), how can it be legal to throw them away?  
What a country, where first men and now information has to be freed!
Changing positions faster than a speeding bullet.... (4.00 / 4)

Today's Monitor says that Kelly Ayotte (or her campaign) has reacted to yesterdays news that the legal memo she wrote two days before resigning directing that files that still existed in spite of efforts to delete them legally didnt exist and werent to be released (yes try wrapping your head around that).

Within hours of the highly suspect timing of that "legal opinion" being exposed, she now says that the state should release all such memos as soon as possible.

Well the Right to Know Law hasn't changed a whit in the interim, all that has changed is the calculation of what is politically expedient. Isnt what she now is urging contrary to what she told state employees was the mandate of the law in July.

Sic transit lexis mundi, I guess.

(The Monitor story isnt on line yet).

"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  

Mea culpa. Dean (4.00 / 2)
lex not lexis.

"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  
[ Parent ]
Ayotte's Wink To Current AG (4.00 / 1)
Kelly Ayotte at least pretended to ask the AG to release her emails and schedule while she was AG. Most telling is the following quote that appears in the 5/11/10 UL:

Ayotte said if her request is denied because the attorney general cannot or chooses not to circumvent the law to accommodate her, "I'd have to respect the attorney general's decision on it."

Sounds more like a wink to the current AG while she makes her request. Amazing.....

I dont think so. I doubt that anyone believes the policy in the July 15th memo has too much to go on its shelf life. (4.00 / 3)

It might be a wink if there was any chance that he might do so, but the position she took in the July 15th memo is so blatantly contrary to the clear wording of the law that it is not remotely likely that anyone not about to launch a campaign is going to adopt it.

The current attorney general will end up releasing any documents subject to the right to know law (some of her emails might be considered outside the scope of the right to know law on grounds wholly apart from the fact that they  had been deleted). He will not, nor should he, circumvent the law-- he should (and no doubt will) simply follow the law.

It is important to note that her request that the emails be released is without any effect other than as political cover-- the emails don't belong to her and never did. The law is clear that they are the property of the people and neither her desires nor those of any public servant have anything to do with the question of whether they need to be released under the right to know law.

They either do or they do not.  

"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  

[ Parent ]
Exactly (4.00 / 3)
A document is either a public record or it is not. The fact that it is on a backup tape does not make it less of a public document.

The attorney general is the people's lawyer, and, as the people's lawyer, should have given as much access as possible to public doucments, not look for ways to keep them secret.  The secretive approach in this policy that she signed reminded me too much of the way Craig Benson handled right to know requests.  



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

[ Parent ]
Ayotte Unfit for Public Office... (0.00 / 0)
This lady simply isn't fit for public office with these views.  NHP is and Independent site.  We were really looking at her because of her being appointed by two opposing Governors.  It seemed attractive.  No way.  That was a crazy ruling.  Just crazy.  I don't give a rats...you know....what's in those emails.  Her position about them is the last straw.  She simply cannot represent NH in the Senate.  No way.  What a dangerous position.  Anyhow.  And I've just had two cups of coffee this am....:).
[ Parent ]
Ayotte Wrote Herself Permission Slip to Bury Email | 7 comments

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