Last year, before Hillary Clinton's secret email system became publicly known, Congress passed a law to keep presidents from trying the same trick. If Clinton wins the White House, the law could well be put to the test.
The statute is the Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014. It recognizes that government officials sometimes (or in Clinton's case, all the time) want to use private email accounts — in the words of the law, "non-official electronic messaging accounts" — to conduct government business. Such communications are still federal records, Congress declared, and must be preserved in accordance with existing laws requiring not just the president but all federal officials to preserve their documents.
This is what the new law says about emails:
The President, the Vice President, or a covered employee may not create or send a Presidential or Vice Presidential record using a non-official electronic message account unless the President, Vice President, or covered employee (1) copies an official electronic messaging account of the President, Vice President, or covered employee in the original creation or transmission of the Presidential record or Vice Presidential record; or (2) forwards a complete copy of the Presidential or Vice Presidential record to an official electronic messaging account of the President, Vice President, or covered employee not later than 20 days after the original creation or transmission of the Presidential or Vice Presidential record.
That's pretty clear. All presidential communications must be preserved in a timely fashion.
The next paragraph of the law stipulates that federal employees who intentionally violate the Presidential Records Act are subject to "disciplinary action" as determined by the "appropriate supervisor." Such punishments can include suspensions and cuts in pay and rank.
None of that, of course, applies to the president of the United States. As far as the chief executive is concerned, there's no enforcement mechanism in the law.
"The Presidential Records Act is set up on the notion — like all of our laws — that people are going to comply," notes a lawyer who follows these issues after service in the Justice Department in both the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. "There isn't really a clear legal way to hold the president accountable for this stuff." Via: Washington Examiner
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