Was Romney's office legal in their efforts to delete the electronic record of their activities? Quite probably — their quick answers indicate that they probably researched it very carefully.
But it seems nearly as probably that the effort was an intentional one to get rid of embarrassing and politically damaging documentation as Romney was transitioning to the national scene. Illegal stuff? No way of knowing. But not in keeping with the image he knew he'd have to adopt with a constituency beyond Massachusetts? Almost certainly.
Oh, and nice use of public funds in doing so. #ddtb
Embedded Link
Romney staff spent nearly $100,000 to hide records
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Mitt Romney spent nearly $100,000 in state funds to replace computers in his office at the end of his term as governor of Massachusetts in 2007 as part of an unprecedented effor…
When Rod Blagojevich was elected governor on an ethics platform (really!) he enacted laws to scrub computers owned by the state upon decommissioning. Ostensibly it was to prevent identity-theft type information from falling into the wrong hands (after investigators found massive amounts of personal data on old drivers’ license bureau computers). But the new law included a clause that – specifically – required scrubbing computers from the governor’s office at the end of each governor’s term. Apparently seeing the previous governor go to prison made him thoughtful.