|| By FITSNEWS || S.C. governor Nikki Haley‘s office used to delete its emails Hillary Clinton-style … until it got busted.
Is she up to her old tricks again?
According to Buzzfeed, “Haley’s office said that she didn’t send or receive any e-mails related to the Confederate flag after a gunman killed nine people at Charleston’s historic Emanuel AME Church.”
Wait … what?
That’s right. Buzzfeed sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to Haley’s office seeking emails on the Confederate flag, only to be informed curtly by Haley’s chief legal counselor Swati Patel that “our office does not possess records responsive to your request.”
Really?
Hmmm ….
We wonder. Did Buzzfeed FOIA her “little engine that could” email, too? Or what about her personal Yahoo! account (which the founding editor of this website used to light up back in the day).
Under the state’s public records law Haley is required to “cooperate with the (S.C. Department of Archives and History) … to establish and maintain an active, continuing program for the economical and efficient management of the records of the agency or subdivision.”
Not only that, Haley is required to “deliver to (her) successor, or if there is none, to the Archives, all public records in (her) custody.”
Is she doing that?
Sure doesn’t seem like it. In fact it looks as though the most “transparent administration in South Carolina history” is once again being decidedly anti-transparent.
Seriously … which is it? Did Haley honestly not receive one single email related to the most polarizing issue to hit South Carolina politics in more than a decade (since the last flag flap)?
Or did the second-term governor – who was reportedly “stung” by the Facebook hate against U.S. president Barack Obama – engage in an effort to sanitize her inbox, hoping to paint a better picture for the fawning national media?
Hmmm …
Deleting emails is obviously nothing new for Haley.
She’s done it before – and after – her 2011 scandal.
During her 2010 campaign, Haley invoked a legislative exemption to keep her taxpayer-funded emails, computer records and public phone records private after she was accused of having two extramarital affairs. Months later, she conducted a positively Nixonian release of mostly spam emails – refusing to let the press have access to the vast majority of her taxpayer-funded correspondence or her government-funded computer hard drives.
She still hasn’t released any of that information, by the way …
Haley also refused to release emails related to the 2012 whitewash of serious ethical violations leveled against her – allegations we believe remain the biggest stumbling block to her national aspirations.
UPDATE: Ruh-roh, governor …
90 comments
Hilliary is getting away with deleting e-mails/violating law, Lois Lerner the same, why would Haley’s situation be any different?
Really simple answer on this one. I’m guessing she had her mind already made up and didn’t want to hear anything about it, so the IT services guys added the below words to her SPAM filter and sent all the emails with those words straight to the /dev/null (AKA the bit bucket). They were treated as SPAM, just like you couldn’t FOIA her Viagra email SPAM because it’s literally no longer there and never made it to her inbox.
*Confederate Flag*
*Confederate*
*Monument*
*CSA*
*Take it Down*
*Keep it Flying*
Etc, etc etc.
“Keep it Flying” was the Viagra SPAM?
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Your response is so eminently rational and sensible that none of the nutjobs who post here can possibly accept it.
As we often say here – FITS doesn’t let facts get in the way of a good story…
Oops! Looks like with the update all the rational air has been let out of the room.
This cannot be true, as I recieved an impersonal, probably pre-typed, generic response from the Office of Gov. Haley in my email inbox from July 8th! I have it saved and just looked at it seconds ago. It reads…
==================================
Dear Mr. [My Last Name],
Thank you for taking the time to contact us. These have been very difficult times for South Carolina, but our hearts and minds remain fixed on the nine families and the communities shaken by this tragedy. Their grace and strength set a powerful example for us all.
Even in the midst of our grief, South Carolina set about the process of
healing – not by talking about issues that divide us – but by hugging
our neighbors, holding vigils, honoring those we lost, and falling to
our knees in prayer. We came together as a state, as a unified people, to remember those we lost and to begin this healing process.
We’ve also come together in acknowledging that certain symbols and events of our past resonate differently among us. For some, the Confederate flag represents a history of their ancestry and heritage. For others, the flag is a deeply painful reminder of a brutally oppressive past.
Inspired by the victims’ families and the re-opening of Emanuel A.M.E. Church, I felt compelled to make a statement about moving the flag from the
Statehouse grounds. This is a moment in which we can say that the flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state, and that by removing a symbol that divides us, we can move forward as a state in harmony.
The time has come for us to set the flag among the other markers of our
history so we can set our eyes on the great promise of a united South Carolina. God bless.
My very best,
Nikki R. Haley
NRH/ahp
Auto-reply based on server rules if you hit certain key words, then bit bucket it all. I’ve seen screen shots of the email, they don’t come from an *.sc.gov address they are from some auto-responder built in to a web form. There’s nothing to FOI unless someone wants a copy of the form letter, but you can gather that Haley didn’t care about the citizens of South Carolina’s input.
I bet Haley hopes your campaign against her on a national level, is as successful as you were on the state level. (:
None of the verbiage Will cites specifically concerns retention of emails. Mr Patel said we don’t have them.
Read and delete.
No surprise here. She failed to acknowledge my letter pertaining to a rigged summary hearing under her command. Evidence was omitted and the Major acted as counsel for the accused. That’s the equivalent to a Grand Jury hearing for those who don’t know.
The ethics commission responded by telling me to notify the Adjutant General. He ignored my letter also. I finally got Livingston on the phone only to have him lie to me. Anyone care to hear it? (recorded)
I believe there was quite a bit of activity on her Facebook page. Hard to believe her office did not receive any email.
Swati Patel as Queen Namrata’s chief legal counsel………..Hummmm……….
A classic case of ethnic favoritism (and possibly nepotism) if there ever was one!!!!!!!!!
You’ll never get a straight answer for Mr./Ms. Patel on any damn thing I guarantee you that!!!!!
Bullshit, she worked for Sanford in the same position and Haley kept her on.
Swati is a Pakistani name, Patel can either be Indian or Pakistani. I doubt Swati is Sikh so it’s not likely she’s related to Nikki and not likely an ethnic choice with the whole Pakistani vs Indian and all.
I don’t trust none of those motherfuckers.
They’re liars all and have no concept of honor
July 31, 2015
*** FREEDOM OF INFORMATION OFFICIAL REQUEST ***
Dear Mr. Will Folks;
I am making a request for copies of all emails, text messages, letters and facilities either sent or received from any elected official between the dates of January 1, 2011 and July 31, 2015. This includes any stored communication with but not limited to Sen. Tom Davis, Attorney General Alan Wilson and US Representatives Mark Sanford and Jeff Duncan, who have also received FOIA requests.
You may respond through this medium to:
Respectfully
Bible Thumper
Wonderful request. Except Folks is not covered under the FOIA act,
No, but many of the officials he communicated with are.
I would not classify T-Rav as “an official” . . .
I would.
How about Curtis Loftis? Sure is an official. Fits loves him.. Loftis is facing ethics violations … Sure violated the law, many times…
Ah! Curtee is in California, spending money. I wonder who paid for the trip? The tax payers? Abuse of power is against the law, so is accepting kickbacks…
You would need to FOIA them individually and request their communications with Mr. Folks. Will is not an employee of any agency or governmental subdivision of South Carolina therefore the FOIA doesn’t apply to him.
Another day, another blatant lie from Nikki Haley.
Yep, she lies and lies, just like me! LMAO!!!
She is obviously pathological . Really don’t think she can help herself. Wonder why her parents did get her some help when she was younger…they had to have known about the illness.
LMAO!!! You call Tom Rice a CRIMINAL.Prove it.Liar.
That lying Muslim! I knew this would happen, can’t trust any of those dirty Republicans! Should have voted for Ervin!
You did. Remember? We voted together.
Come on Will, “ruh-roh” is that bunch of posters. I’m sure if you look far enough one of the will have seen the gubernor in a space ship canoeing with aliens.
To be fair, do you really think, out of the 6 million people living in SC and the 330 million people in the US, that not a single person sent her an email about it?
I bet the RNC did.
Would be interesting to see if they did.
Bet the NAACP did too. Instead of a request to her office, ask the State Legislature. I bet there was plenty between the Gov’s office and the Legislature.
Don’t think emails sent to generic boxes from users outside of gubamint count under the FOIA. If they did, there isn’t enough storage capacity in the state for all the idiocy flying around.
So only letters physically mailed to the government count under the FOIA in your opinion?
No, the definition says “records”, email and even notes from meetings and phone calls can be requested. However, a “reasonable charge” can be accessed for copies etc and they have longer period to respond so they generally fish by requesting digital records because the cost to obtain then is so low and they’re easier to peruse.
As for public records, an unanswered email from outside gubamint probably doesn’t count.
I don’t agree with that interpretation of definition.
30-20-40(b):
Public record” includes all books, papers, maps, photographs, cards, tapes, recordings, or other documentary materials regardless of physical form or characteristics prepared, owned, used, in the possession of, or retained by a public body.
I don’t see any exemption that would apply to generic e-mails to the governor’s office either.
I think it’s the “use thing” – don’t know for sure so let’s spend about $25,000 on a legal opinion telling us that “unopened, unanswered email from Bubba is a public record”.
I’m not sure why they didn’t just give them everything even remotely responsive and overwhelm them with BS – nobody with any sense puts anything in an email that could get them in trouble – oh wait, there’s that “any sense” thing….
I can provide a non-legal opinion for a pitcher of beer and some hot wings.
Hell I’ll do it for free.
OK, but then I’m keepin’ the pitcher of beer and the wings.
It was a long ride back from fabulous Fort Bragg and this debate was as interesting as anything on the radio…
If were her IT adviser/admin I’d advise that we should pull “Confederate Flag”, “Flag”, “Monument”, “Grounds”, “Pole”, “March”, “Rally” and “Idiots” as a search terms from the email servers, save the search results, burn them to a DVD or two and send them a big file with a stink pile of mess and one or two gems hidden. Let them spend the time to sort it out. It’s really not even worth taking the time to deny the request.
Pulling it all and putting it together would take a skilled outlook admin about 5 minutes of actual work, another 5 minutes to burn the disks, and waiting overnight for the query to run. Start it running when you leave for the day and get the results when you get in tomorrow morning.
Game, set, & match. Well done.
Maybe no, multiple courts have ruled that unanswered emails from outside of government do not constitute public records t: https://lozanosmith.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/california-appellate-court-rules-that-public-records-act-does-not-apply-to-electronic-communications-sent-on-personal-devices-to-personal-accounts/
Leave it to the courts to ignore obvious language I suppose. It’s certainly a trend.
Prepared – Nope
Owned – Nope: (the writer of the email “owns” it)
In the possession of: Nope (They were dumped in the bit bucket)
Retained By: – Nope see above about the current location in the bit bucket.
They don’t have them, they never really did, they aren’t “public records”
Meeting notes for a staff meeting – Public Record
E-mails between Nikki and Alan Wilson – Public Record
E-mails between Nikki and her Chief of Staff – Public Record
E-mail answered by Nikki to Johnny Reb about Flag Issue – Public Record
E-mail answered by Nikki’s Executive Assistant to Tyrone B. Panther – Public Record
E-mail to Mark Keel about security during Flag Flap 2.0 – Public Record
100,000 unanswered e-mails in a public facing email box from Sally, Johnnie, Tyrone, DeTushia, Unique, James, Neil, Tucker, Al, Jessie, Barry, Larry, Moe and Curly – Not Public Records and already reside in the proverbial bit bucket.
So the whole state doesn’t own a single 4TB drive?
That’s large enough to hold the text of every email written by every citizen of south carolina for the entire time that the internet has been in existence.
Those are used for personal porn stashes. Get with the program.
it would take a roomful of those drives for that.
Oh Colonel – I bet one of them has an actual email from Gov’s office. Either way – generally – I could care less. It doesn’t put down one pound of black top.
Maybe but the FOIA describes public records, I don’t think a “bitch from Bubba” counts, particularly if they went unanswered.
Good point. But why not just release those as well. I mean, who cares.
Who knows what these fishing expeditions cost. I think Quietus may have been on to something when she suggested they all were screened and sent to the circular file unread.
Spam filters are pretty damn good, especially if they are configured correctly. I’m sure the State of South Carolina subscribes to Spamhaus or some other filtering list to catch the big fish spammers and keep them out. Next there are filters at the mail server level that can be configured to reject combinations of keywords, email addresses, email from specific IP addresses, and domains. Combine this with the fact that Nikki.Haley@gov.sc.gov assuredly not her “real” email address but a public facing highly filtered box. The real address that goes to her computer and iPhone is likely something like NRH23@sc.gov or the like and the suffix numbers change from time to time to keep those who don’t need to know from knowing. The NRH email wouldn’t be keyword filtered so she could converse with her staff and other people that need to know but the public facing box (which likely forwards to the NHR address and an executive assistant after it’s filtered to hell and back) would be keyword blocked to keep down what she knew was coming.
Any email that fails to make it through the filter is either dropped directly to /dev/null or possibly put in a SPAM file for a period of time in case it contains death threats or the like (and those might even be sent by server rules directly to SLED for review without anyone outside of law enforcement every seeing them). Anything sent to /dev/null disappears for all practical purposes, though it’s possible it might reside in some server backup somewhere for awhile finding it would somewhat difficult and it’s only a matter of a short time before it would be over written.
But getting to the heart of Jackie or Rocky’s question, is an email received from an outside the government source that is not read or sent to a spam folder considered a public record?
See what I wrote below to Jackie about the prepared, owned, used, in the possession of, or retained by a public body section of the FOIA, I don’t think that it meets the definition of any of that. The only problem might be is if they keep them sitting around on a server rather than dumping them to /dev/null quickly then you could argue they are retained. I know if I was the admin of the servers, I’d want them dumped post haste as to not waste space.
Damned there is a lot of intellectual capital on this site. I’ll get off now – I probably poison the well.
I don’t think a “bitch from Bubba” counts…
Oy vey, Chief!
Not you TBG, your regular, run of the mill, Bubba…
You know, this one could get some legs. I’m sure Haley received a ton of emails from the pro-flag groups, and pissing them off right now is like stirring fire ants. And would become a nice PITA for the next Legislative session next Spring, and the House flag humpers will use it against her all week long and twice on Sundays. And all folks have to do to get this really going, produce emails from Haley’s office re: the Flag.
Then we can find out how your NON citizen mother in-law has a Obamacare subsidy and ask how this is possible.
Fraud and Rocky will be the poster child for changing that ‘loophole’.
It disgusts me so much I sent your story to Trump and Haley.My guess is you may get some airtime on Thursday night.
I believe her. And another thing, I didn’t know about the plan to shut down the George Washington Bridge, or the corruption in the Port Authority.
They asked for Haley’s emails sent/received, not emails sent/received by the Governor’s *office*. Maybe Haley doesn’t have an email address assigned to her by the State of S.C. If she doesn’t have an email address, you could not send her one. Likewise, she could not send on either.
Haley just wants to get that VP nomination. SC is far behind her. The reality is that most members of the Senate & House received 1000’s of emails regarding the flag and they continue to received them….Haley Clinton?
Who in the hell names their kid Swati?
I assumed he’s named after his tribe.
Wasn’t George Herman Ruth Jr. one of their tribal leaders?
LOL, the Babe sure could swat, that’s for sure.
The Sultan of Swat
There is a simple algorithm in Thunderbird eMail which purges as much or as little email as the user likes. She surely must know about this. I have never sent the Governor an eMail she has received.
The State of South Carolina is a Microsoft house, and Outlook is controlled mostly server side if you are using Exchange. I’m guessing they have numerous rules and filters set up to control what she sees, especially if it’s coming from the public.
Of course they don’t have emails about the Confederate flag. That’s because it’s the battle flag of the army of Northern Virginia, Silly.
Those Yankees at Buzz feed….
There appear to be several screen shots of emails from Haley or her office responding on the flag issue at the SC Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/South-Carolina-Division-Sons-of-Confederate-Veterans/108862639171103?fref=nf
Including is this response, which shows Haley’s email and is signed by her:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10207011405940522&set=p.10207011405940522&type=1&theater
Ignorance of the law used to be no excuse. In SC, an ignorant governor with an ignorant lawyer is the ONLY excuse Nikki needs. If we don’t like it, we can sue her. Yeah, right.
This cannot be true, as I recieved an impersonal, probably pre-typed,
generic response from the Office of Gov. Haley in my email inbox from
July 8th! I have it saved and just looked at it seconds ago. It reads…
==================================
Dear Mr. [My Last Name],
Thank you for taking the time to contact us. These have been very
difficult times for South Carolina, but our hearts and minds remain
fixed on the nine families and the communities shaken by this tragedy.
Their grace and strength set a powerful example for us all.
Even in the midst of our grief, South Carolina set about the process of
healing – not by talking about issues that divide us – but by hugging
our neighbors, holding vigils, honoring those we lost, and falling to
our knees in prayer. We came together as a state, as a unified people, to
remember those we lost and to begin this healing process.
We’ve also come together in acknowledging that certain symbols and events of
our past resonate differently among us. For some, the Confederate flag represents a history of their ancestry and heritage. For others, the flag is a deeply painful reminder of a brutally oppressive past.
Inspired by the victims’ families and the re-opening of Emanuel A.M.E. Church, I
felt compelled to make a statement about moving the flag from the Statehouse grounds. This is a moment in which we can say that the flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state, and that by removing a symbol that divides us, we can move forward as a state in harmony.
The time has come for us to set the flag among the other markers of our history so we can set our eyes on the great promise of a united South Carolina. God bless.
My very best,
Nikki R. Haley
NRH/ahp
She knows she got thousands of e-mails but she is trying to make it look like it wasn’t a big deal and nobody cares. Everybody that sent e-mails should send copies to the news stations covering this. And does anybody else find it funny that the same day the flag was taken down the naacp lifted their economical ban that they started when the flag was moved to the Civil War Memorial? Just curious…
Haley is a picture of spineless weakness and deception. Recall that b_tch.
What a lying, back-stabbing piece of work she is…I certainly hope she has no future political plans.
I sent a letter to her too, and I’m not even from SC!
I’d love for someone to FOIA how much in public funds the Queen and lawyer Patel have paid out in adverse/unlawful personnel action decisions and settlements. I bet it is multiple millions. Remember the poor guy whose medical info from agency personnel records was leaked by these two in a Friend of Nikki divorce case… what a circus.
The NEW NAZi world order has spoken. They any hear and see what fits into their NEW WORLD ORDER!!!! We will NEVER stop Flying our Flags.
At least Nikki Haley finally admitted to be an avid racist and decided to stop using the Confederate flag for her racism. I support the confederate flag and wouldn’t want it associated with racists like her.
So she lies. . . .what else is new.
The Headline reads:Nikki Haley Got No Confederate Flag Emails?
That’s a big fat lie,I sent the governor an E-Mail right after she jump into bed with the NAACP and the flag came down!!!
She is both a liar and delusional. We in the SCV/MOSB/UDC and numerous collateral groups and forum members FLOODED her daily with emails and posts to her Facebook page. She is utterly and totally contemptible, and is getting away with nothing with this nefarious activity.