Electronic Details

During Watergate there were Nixon's secret White House recordings, documenting meetings and phone conversations for historical record. The tapes, of course, later became the key pieces of evidence indicating high level conspiracies surrounding the Watergate break-in and its subsequent investigation. Were it not for those tapes, there would have been no smoking gun.

Today, we see case after case of email being used as documentary evidence for investigations. The eyes of the Beltway have frequently fixed upon Jack Abramoff's email chains. And now, with special investigators looking into claims that elements within the White House leaked the identity of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame, email trails have again taken center stage (in the form of documented conversations).

Email technology has created paper and electronic trails where none may have existed before. These records construct time frames, document conversations, and provide a history of interaction, even when that interaction took place behind the veil of double secret background.
Forget for a second the case of Karl Rove (or any other WH staff) and the Plame Affair. Plenty of blogs are already dissecting the legality and appropriateness of the White House's role, even if Joe Wilson managed to ably discredit himself without help from anyone else. There is enough righteous indignation to go around.

What is important to take note of is the way in which seemingly private email has the potential to become very public, and can fill evidentiary gaps more readily than any media in history save phone taps. Separate from the legal implications, loose emails can also cause great embarrassment.

I've always written emails as if I were cc'ing both my mother and the district attorney. As General Counsels across the government and industry come to grips with the best way to cope with this new reality, political managers should take note of policies that protect the candidate from legal or politically embarrassing troubles generated through email traffic.