Romney staff spent over $100K to erase and remove files

Reuters is reporting that Mitt Romney's staff spent over $100,000 to erase and replace computers as he left the office of Governor in Massachusetts before launching an unsuccessful bid for GOP presidential nominee in 2007.

While legal, it has been found to be highly unusual.

When Romney left the governorship of Massachusetts, 11 of his aides bought the hard drives of their state-issued computers to keep for themselves. Also before he left office, the governor's staff had emails and other electronic communications by Romney's administration wiped from state servers, state officials say.

Those actions erased much of the internal documentation of Romney's four-year tenure as governor, which ended in January 2007. Precisely what information was erased is unclear.

Republican and Democratic opponents of Romney say the scrubbing of emails - and a claim by Romney that paper records of his governorship are not subject to public disclosure - hinder efforts to assess his performance as a politician and elected official.

State officials acknowledge that Romney asked permission to destroy certain paper records.

More info at Yahoo News.