[Wilum]

I work for a company that contracts to government and according to our IT people, the Emails have to be retained for 7 years.

[Red Badger]

...the United States Code for government record retention. That code, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 33, governs what a government record is and requires that agencies must notify the Archivist of any records that are destroyed and the reasons for destroying them. The code was put into place after Iran-Contra to keep government workers and contractors from deleting records.

Disposal of records outside the statutory standards requires permission in writing.

Unless you don't give a damn about the rule of law in the first place.................