Judge rules for White House in e-mail controversy [not subject to the Freedom of Information Act]

Yahoo ^

[Sub-Driver]

Judge rules for White House in e-mail controversy

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago

A federal judge ruled Monday that a White House office that has records about millions of possibly missing e-mails does not have to make them public.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly says the Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, enabling the White House to maintain the secrecy of a lengthy internal paper trail about its problem-plagued e-mail system.

The decision came in a lawsuit filed against the administration by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a private group that has been trying to find out the extent of the White House's e-mail problems for more than a year.

The functions of the Office of Administrative "are strictly administrative," Kollar-Kotelly ruled.

[TexasRedeye]

I’m sure the Supremes will quickly overturn this 5 - 4 with Kennedy writing for the majority!

[BGHater]

Sucks for us all.

Now we won't be able to see future administration documents, both Dem and Repub.

So much for them being the servants, and not the masters.

[Psycho_Bunny]

I recall the Clinton White House paid millions of dollars to a technology contractor to "fix" THEIR email "problems".

Guess that never happened.

[Republican Extremist]

Take that, Waxman!!!!!

[theDentist]

I wonder who nominated the Judge?

[BARLF]

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. Judge Kollar-Kotelly was appointed to the United States District Court in May 1997. She received a B.A. in 1965 from The ...

[Orange1998]

For the People, By the People..... oh never mind.

[Orange1998]

I agree it works both ways. Maybe more will see a different light if the Dems take the Presidency.

[rwfromkansas]

At first I shouted “yay” at this decision, but the more I think about it, the more I think it is wrong.

It may be administrative, but it still is a federal government office.

Also, while not all offices are subject to FOIA, it seems to me this one should be. If not, then the WH can just shove all their documents into their office to avoid being accountable.

It will just become a hiding place for documents, and I have a problem with that.

[newzjunkey]

Hopefully this will be appealed. Seriously, they need to get a grip on technology. Clinton's administration lost email, even hard disks went missing (wasn't the one from Los Alamos found behind a copier?) during his run.

I don't care what party is in power, there needs to be accountability.

[rhombus]

Has anyone demanded that all Congressional emails be made public? Heck, execute a warrant about a guy who has cash stuffed in his freezer and Congress-critters circle the wagons. Why is it these same people demand accountability from the Executive branch?

[SunkenCiv]

Republican National Committee:
Obama Fundraising Hypocrisy (Obama - Code Pink Scandal)
PR Newswire via SunHerald.com | Saturday, June 14, 2008 | RNC
Posted on 06/14/2008 1:41:16 PM PDT by kristinn
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2031160/posts

[antiRepublicrat]

I remember hearing some horror stories from Clinton’s contractors, basically boiling down to “You’re just here for show, and Hillary will eat your babies if you actually try to fix anything.”

Still, there is no excuse for missing email this time. Bush knew about the seriousness of the issue coming in, and it is not that hard to make their system auto-archive everything.

[VeniVidiVici]

Maybe more will see a different light if the Dems take the Presidency.

Um, probably not.

If you recall, the Gore/Clinton emails were demanded to be produced. After hemming and hawing, they said the emails were "lost". Irretrievable.

At least the President said "no" and went to court instead of just lying about it. Which the Democrats will always do to cover-up.

[antiRepublicrat]

Her? She was the Microsoft antitrust judge after the first one was thrown from the case. I remember she was also the one who slammed Bush over delaying the release of former presidential archives.

[antiRepublicrat]

At least the President said "no" and went to court instead of just lying about it.

Actually, he said the emails were "lost" just like Clinton did, and is now blocking any investigation into how they could have been lost. Even worse.

[Lord_Baltar]

How is this a win for us?

When I say “us” I mean the American People, and not just the current ruling party?

This sword you are cheering now, could very well have two edges.

When a Dem President is in office, and the Reps want their e-mails, are you still going to cheer when this decision comes back to bite the Reps in the backside?

[VeniVidiVici]

Actually, the end of the article states:

“The White House has acknowledged problems with its e-mail system, while saying that if any e-mail is missing, it can be found on disaster recovery backup tapes.”

Sounds completely different from the lost and no backup Gore email.

[nina0113]

If you recall, the Gore/Clinton emails were demanded to be produced. After hemming and hawing, they said the emails were "lost". Irretrievable.

And I knew there were some shenanigans going on, because we used Lotus Notes (as did the White House) at that time. Notes mailboxes are in a tree. The only way to not backup an individual mailbox is to expand the tree, then de-select that particular mailbox.