Thompson Campaign Press Release - Huckabee Rhetoric vs. Record on Destruction of Government Property

Huckabee Rhetoric: Destroying Government Documents is Anti-American

Huckabee Record: When leaving office, Huckabee destroyed 83 hard drives and four servers in four locations

Huckabee Should Release Back-Up Copies of Deleted Hard Drives

McLean, VA -- When asked on Fox News Sunday about the destruction of the CIA tapes, Mike Huckabee responded that "[i]f we're covering somebody's rear end, we need to expose their rear end and kick their rear end..." Mike Huckabee is singing a very different tune now that he's running for President, because as Governor of Arkansas he destroyed 83 hard drives and four servers before leaving office. According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, back-up copies of all deleted information were given to Huckabee's then-chief of staff, but to this day have never been released.

Huckabee on Fox News Sunday, 12/9:

• "So when we start destroying documents, what are we destroying them for? Are we doing it for security purposes or to cover somebody's rear end? If we're covering somebody's rear end, we need to expose their rear end and kick their rear end for doing something that's against the best interest of the United States and the responsibility and the respectability of this country."

83 hard drives and four servers in four locations were destroyed: Governor's office at the Capitol, Governor's Mansion, Huckabee's Washington Office, and the state police hangar.

• "At the instruction of Huckabee chief of staff Brenda Turner, the state Department of Information Systems crushed hard drives for 83 computers and destroyed four servers after some information was downloaded onto backup tapes. The computers were located in the governor's offices at the state Capitol, the Governor's Mansion in Little Rock, Huckabee's Washington office and the hangar for the state police airplane the governor traveled on." (Jon Gambrell, "Ethics Commission Dismis ses Complaint Against Huckabee," AP, 3/16/07)

The destruction cost the taxpayers $13,000, which bankrupted the governor's emergency fund.

• "The former governor spent the remaining $13,000 in the governor's emergency fund to destroy the computer equipment before he left office Jan. 9." (Jon Gambrell, "Ethics Commission Dismisses Complaint Against Huckabee," AP, 3/16/07)

Governor Beebe had to ask for an additional $598,391 to replace the computer equipment and for office maintenance: $335,000 for equipment purchase and $112,245 for maintenance and software support." (Andrew DeMillo, "Beebe Says Crushing Of Hard Drives By Predecessor 'Unusual,'" AP, 1/20/07)

Huckabee's Chief of Staff was given a back-up tape for all of the destroyed computers and servers. "Department of Information Systems Director Claire Bailey said hard drives for 83 computers and four servers were destroyed, or 'crushed,' after information was downloaded onto backup tapes. Underwood supervised it and delivered the backup tapes to Huckabee Chief of Staff Brenda Turner, who had ordered the hard drives crushed, Bailey said." (Seth Blomeley and Michael Wickline, "Huckabee Left Computers, Fund Gutted," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 1/19/07)