Judge orders White House to hold e-mails

AP via Yahoo ^ | 11/12/07 | PETE YOST

[Abathar]

WASHINGTON - A federal judge Monday ordered the White House to preserve copies of all its e-mails, a move that Bush administration lawyers had argued strongly against.

U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy directed the Executive Office of the President to safeguard the material in response to two lawsuits that seek to determine whether the White House has destroyed e-mails in violation of federal law.

The White House is seeking dismissal of the lawsuits brought by two private groups — Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government and the National Security Archive.

The organizations allege the disappearance of 5 million White House e-mails. The court order issued by Kennedy, an appointee of President Clinton, is directed at maintaining backup tapes which contain copies of White House e-mails.

The Federal Records Act details strict standards prohibiting the destruction of government documents including electronic messages, unless first approved by the archivist of the United States.

Justice Department lawyers had urged the courts to accept a proposed White House declaration promising to preserve all backup tapes.

"The judge decided that wasn't enough," said Anne Weismann, an attorney for CREW, which has gone to court over secrecy issues involving the Bush administration and has pursued ethical issues involving Republicans on Capitol Hill.

The judge's order "should stop any future destruction of e-mails, but the White House stopped archiving its e-mail in 2003 and we don't know if some backup tapes for those e-mails were already taped over before we went to court. It's a mystery," said Meredith Fuchs, a lawyer for the National Security Archive.

CREW and the National Security Archive are seeking to force the White House to immediately explain in court what happened to its e-mail, an issue that first surfaced nearly two years ago in the leak probe of administration officials who disclosed Valerie Plame's CIA identity to reporters.

Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald revealed early in 2006 that relevant e-mails could be missing because of an archiving problem at the White House.

The White House has provided little public information about the matter, saying that some e-mails may not have been automatically archived on a computer server for the Executive Office of the President and that the e-mails may have been preserved on backup tapes.

The White House has said that its Office of Administration is looking into whether there are e-mails that were not automatically archived and that if there is a problem, the necessary steps will be taken to address it.

[Abathar]

I thought this guy sounded familiar...

Friday, February 17, 2006 Judge Henry Kennedy Jr. Sides with Al Qaeda Again

Another Clinton appointee, Judge Henry Kennedy Jr., has decided to rule in favor of Al Qaeda again by ordering the Bush Administration to release documents for its warrantless surveillance program:

A federal judge ordered the Bush administration on Thursday to release documents about its warrantless surveillance program or spell out what it is withholding, a setback to efforts to keep the program under wraps.

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/02/judge-henry-kennedy-jr-sides-with-al.html

[Jaysun]

This is another leftist fishing operation. The White House shouldn’t have to divulge every communication no matter who is in office. The very idea is absurd.

[capt. norm]

Tell them the allegedly missing e-mails got mixed up with Hillary’s papers and won’t be available until her stuff is.

[highball]

Maybe so, but he’s right on this one.

[Right Cal Gal]

And the list of those suffering from BDS grows and grows....

[Abathar]

Why is that?

[techcor]

Didn’t the Clinton administration destroy a whole bunch of e-mails and got away with just saying “Oops!”?

[Rb ver. 2.0]

They’re trying everything they can to run against Bush/Cheney in 2008.

[Abathar]

I think it was Gore who did that if memory serves...

[trumandogz]

The White House shouldn’t have to divulge every communication no matter who is in office.

Bill and Hillary Clinton like what have to say.

[highball]

Because our system of government requires transparency. No administration should be allowed to destroy records that may be subpoenaed.

If a Dim had done this, if a Dim administration was fighting such a suit, we’d be all over them wondering what they had to hide.

[illiac]

All they have to do is say “OOPPSS”, they are already gone.....sorry...

[trumandogz]

The White House shouldn’t have to divulge every communication no matter who is in office.

Bill and Hillary Clinton like what you have to say.

[RJL]

Judge orders White House to hold e-mails

Boy, I sure hope the White House doesn't have catastrophic failures of both the email computers and the email back ups like the Clinton Gore administration had.

/S

[traditional1]

Find them on a table in the White House hallway, two years from now, next to the Rose Lawfirm Billing Records.....

[Sacajaweau]

IIRC, that’s what Gore was into on his computer...destroying emails.

[Calvin Locke]

Specifically, or at least the one I remember, is Hazel R. O'Leary ordering the wiping of hard drives in defiance of a court order.

Bush's DOJ let her get away with it. Heck, she caused a problem on a plane after 9/11, and they still cut her slack.

[Dinsdale]

Guaranteeing that e-mail will never be used for any important communication.

Even in the corporate world you know not to put anything into e-mail that you don't want subject to eventual discovery by shysters.

[techcor]

Thanks for the info. That jogged my memory.

[Ramius]

Because our system of government requires transparency. No administration should be allowed to destroy records that may be subpoenaed. [...] If a Dim had done this, if a Dim administration was fighting such a suit, we’d be all over them wondering what they had to hide.

No, I don't think so. There are reasonable limits that simply must be set on the preservation of electronic data. To require full retention of everything is simply unrealistic and wasteful of IT resources.

There are new FRCP's (Federal Rules of Civil Procedure) that have been promulgated early this year that reflect just that reality. The sheer volume of electronic data (especially email) is so enormous that keeping everything is simply unworkable for most organizations, and the White House would be no different.

Realize too, that by not having any ability to archive, store hierachically, and even delete ~anything~ they're also condemned to keep every spam message for every mailbox. That's ridiculous.