EPA Inspector General and Darrell Issa Investigate Lisa Jackson’s EPA

Editor’s Note – The ‘rope-a-dope’ continues even after Lisa Jackson resigned. As she prepares to leave, the Inspector General of the EPA has also opened an investigation. We wonder if we will ever see all the emails – especially in light of the Fast & Furious Scandal where Executive Privilege has been levied to stymie the release of information due the public. See the “Presidential Records Act” of 1978 and 2011 here.

This from the “Most Transparent” administration ever – at least it may be in their alternate universe…

Darrell Issa demands EPA reveal all secret email accounts

By Joel Gehrke - Washington Examiner

House investigators pressed outgoing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson, in a letter noting criminal penalties for hiding federal records, to reveal all of the email accounts that she and agency employees use to conduct official business.

Jackson is receiving the letter just days after the EPA had to release, because of court order, 2,100 emails associated with an email account registered in the name of “Richard Windsor,” which was actually an alias used by Jackson.

“The use of an alias account to conduct official Agency business makes compliance with the [Federal Records Act] and [Presidential Records Act] more difficult because the alias may not be matched to an actual Agency employe[e],” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., wrote in the Wednesday letter, which was obtained exclusively by The Washington Examiner.

“The use of an alias email account to conduct government business also creates difficulties in fulfilling the FOIA or litigation requests. Furthermore, conducting official business using an alias may implicate criminal or civil penalties for the unlawful concealment of federal records,” Issa added. The committee asked for a response by January 29th.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has also written the agency about the secret email account, while the EPA inspector general has begun an investigation.

“Our objective is to determine whether EPA follows applicable laws and regulations when using private and alias email accounts to conduct official business,” assistant inspector general Melissa Heist wrote to the EPA on December 13, 2012.

Jackson said that she used the “Richard Windsor” account as a secondary account due to the large amount of email that her primary official account receives. The use of a secondary email is common enough, but some observers have criticized the lack of transparency associated with this account.

“I don’t know any other agency that does this,”  Anne Weismann of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told Politico. “[W]hy would you pick a fictitious name of someone of different gender? To me it smacks of … trying to hide.”

Chris Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which filed the lawsuit that led to the release of the Richard Windsor emails, criticized the EPA after receiving the first tranche of messages on Monday.

“Perhaps seeking to take the air out of a growing scandal, EPA’s defective compilation boasts an impressively anemic content-to-volume ratio,” Horner told CNS News. “It starts with Washington Post daily news briefs, then follows with Google alerts for “Lisa Jackson EPA” (none for “Richard Windsor”). Then EPA HQ national news clips. And so on. Rope a dope. Clever. Maybe too much so.”

The EPA has promised to release more emails. Read related articles here:

• ‘Richard Windsor’ departure from EPA is a victory for transparency
• EPA’s Lisa Jackson resigning as secondary email investigation begins
• Obama’s EPA administrator announces plans to resign
• EPA inspector general probing agency head’s use of private email account
• EPA admits secret email use as House leaders fume
• UPDATED WITH COMMENTS: House panel tells EPA, ‘show us your data,’ as Obama promised
• House GOP seeks info on alleged EPA internal email accounts

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