If nothing else, republicans are consistent in how they deal with crime (their crime… not the crime of others). First, at all costs, hide the crime. The less people know, the better. If the crime becomes common knowledge, deny having participated in it. Obfuscate! A confused populace is a manageable populace. If it doesn’t appear at this point to be getting any better, tell folks it had to be done or we would have ended up with another 9/11 on our hands. And, last but not least, blame Clinton.

CNN:

The Presidential Records Act, passed during the Nixon administration, requires the preservation of all official records of and about the president.

A White House spokesman defended the use of outside e-mail accounts as an appropriate method of separating official business from political campaign work.

But the use of those accounts by officials discussing the firings — and one from now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff — have led a liberal watchdog group to accuse administration of trying to skirt the law governing preservation of presidential records.
[...]

Neither administration officials nor Republican Party officials would agree to be interviewed on camera after repeated requests from CNN. In a written statement, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said staffers used different computers “to have a separate e-mail account for political activities.”

Stanzel said that procedure was modeled on “the historical practice of previous administrations.” But John Podesta, who served as White House chief of staff in the Clinton administration, disputed that.

“It doesn’t appear that they were doing what we did, which was to segregate political activity from official activity,” he said.