Karl Rove Abused GOP Laptops, E-mail - L.A.T.

The Los Angeles Times reported today that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and his top staff used Republican Party-issued laptops and e-mail addresses along side their White House-issued computers and e-mail accounts. The separate "BACK CHANNEL," not captured by the White House data backup system (as required by law) existed ostensibly for fund raising communications (it's against the law to use government-issued equipment for political fund raising). However, critics charge that Rove and staff used the GOP system to discuss policy matters in a way that would not be captured by backups (unlike the White House system, the GOP back channel system purges all messages after just 30 days).