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EPA only archived 86 out of 3.1 million agency texts in 2015

Cover-up: The EPA and its employees only archived 86 out of 3.1 million agency texts sent during 2015.

The EPA Office of Inspector General (IG) released the report requested by Texas Republican [Lamar Smith], which described enormous text message retention problems within the EPA. One unnamed senior official configured his phone to automatically delete texts after 30 days. The IG claimed EPA officials never “intentionally” violated the Federal Records Act and did not include the low number of archived texts in the body of its report, relaying it instead to congressional staff.

Multiple federal laws and regulations require that officials preserve all documents — including email and text messages — created in the course of conducting official business of the U.S. government.

Like the Pentagon officials I noted earlier today, how stupid does this inspector general think we are? When a government agency, in clear violation of numerous laws, archives less than 0.000003 percent of all texts, you either have to be willfully blind, stupid, or a participant in the cover-up to claim that this behavior was “never intentional.” Furthermore, the report included these juicy details, all clear evidence that the failure to archive was for at least two senior officials very intentional indeed:

The anonymous senior official who configured his phone to delete texts may have deleted vital information, the IG found. “The senior official responded that he did not have any text messages on the device for that (three-month) period,” IG auditor Teresa Richardson said in a podcast. “The device had been set to automatically delete text messages every 30 days. So it is likely that any text messages that were substantive and should have been preserved were deleted.”

The report found another senior official claimed to have zero texts, despite EPA’s quarterly mobile device usage report showing frequent texts from that person. Another official, a regional administrator, potentially lost federal records by failing to transfer or otherwise preserve texts after replacing an old phone.

The more people fired at the EPA, the better. It is presently being run by dishonest political hacks who are very willing to do things in direct violation of the law.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

8 comments

  • Cotour

    Related because the EPA and “climate change” are on the same page and IMO making the incorrect argument:

    A scientist friend sent me a chart to argue for “climate change” and global warming and “2016 was the hottest year on record”. My argument has turned into convincing him to give up the one argument and revert to another more reasonable one. I wrote:

    Let me elaborate a bit. Since anyone can seek out some level of information on the internet, both for and against your argument of “climate change” / global warming, there has been a muddying of the waters both through honest gathering of information and proven skewd / tweeked information. There exists evidence of information and disinformation, we can both agree to that and its hard for the general public to settle on what the “truth” is so there can be no consensus as to what is reasonable to do.

    This being understood the only reasonable course is to now change the argument from “climate change” to reasonably eliminating pollution in all of its forms . Reasonably eliminating pollution in all of its many forms can not be argued against, climate change can be, 1. because the term itself is ridiculous, when has the climate not changed? It is a simpleton term of manipulation. And 2. It can be demonstrated that the numbers are not what they have been represented to be, for the many reasons that can be sited.

    So your best argument turns into the one that I have been pointing out to you but you resist. Go my way and accomplish most of what your goal is, controlling pollution therefore limiting “global warming”.

    Be able to “see” a different course will get you where you and I want us to be. (I await a response.)

    1. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/09/19/uah-and-enso-now-includes-july-and-august-data/

    2. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2012/06/13/doctored-data-not-u-s-temperatures-set-a-record-this-year/#53cb71423cf2

    3. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/04/29/russian-scientists-say-period-of-global-cooling-ahead-due-to-changes-in-the-sun/

  • wayne

    That headline should be; “EPA intentionally destroyed 99% of all records.”
    Unfortunately, Trump isn’t going to unleash the DOJ on any of these people. Because they fully intend to do the exact same thing, when they are in charge; endless untouchable Gmail accounts & wholesale document destruction.
    Obama has taught everyone well.

  • Garry

    I imagine that texts exchanged within the EPA would be telling, given the nature of their enforcement activities.

    I can well imagine an agent inspecting some remote farm, factory, or what have you. I can picture him getting into conflict with the land owner, and communicating with his boss in the regional office. If they speak by phone the land owner might overhear, so text would seem to be a natural choice.

  • ken anthony

    Is breaking the law a means of firing (or would the process take so long that full retirement comes first?)

  • Mitch S

    Less than a month until A.G. Jeff Sessions.
    I don’t know how Trump’ll turn out to be as Pres, but it’ll sure be nice to see news mentioning AG Sessions, Sec State Tillerson, Sec Def Mattis etc instead of the toadies and cronies we’ve had the past 8 years.

  • Steve Earle

    My broken record:

    People need to GO TO JAIL. And the video needs to be on the News every night. Otherwise there will never again be any respect for the law by any Government Hack….

    The EPA needs to go away completely. Like the IRS, if it is allowed to exist in any form at all, it WILL be used again as a weapon for future corrupt officials.

    Edward:
    I appreciate the tact you are using with your friend, I have one just like that and while he agrees with many of my arguments about AGW he still defends the actions of the Warministas as justified because they will “clean up pollution” while fighting Climate Change, whether it turns out to be either real or imagined…..

    The problem with that line of thinking is what exactly constitutes “pollution”? And who gets to define it?

    Do we really want to cede defining yet another part of the language to the Al Gore’s of the world? The EPA has already tried to define any type of burning or combustion as “pollution”, including backyard barbecues!

    You could find yourself inadvertently playing into the hands of those who would use their own definition of “pollution” to gain the same kind of control over others sought by the Climate Change Ideologues. :-(

    While my friend thinks that pollution is smog-filled skies, bad-tasting water, and dying birds and frogs, the people he would trust to set policy know that “pollution” is just another way to scare people into compliance.

  • Federico Hernandez

    Obviously big time swamp draining badly needed.

  • Edward

    Steve Earle,

    Keep up the broken record. You are right that these crimes against America cannot go unpunished.

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