WASHINGTON, Jan. 8, 2008
White House Ordered To Provide E-Mail Info
Federal Magistrate Orders White House To Say Whether Missing E-mail Is On Backup Tapes
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(AP/CBS)
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Interactive The Leak People and events surrounding the leak of a CIA officer's name.
The order by U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola comes amid an effort by the White House to scuttle two lawsuits that could force the Executive Office of the President to recover any e-mail that has disappeared from computer servers where electronic documents are automatically archived.
Two federal laws require the White House to preserve all records including e-mail.
Facciola gave the White House five business days to report whether computer backup tapes contain e-mails written between 2003 and 2005.
The time period covers the Valerie Plame affair in which at least three presidential aides were found to have leaked Plame's CIA identity to the news media.
"Do the back-ups contain the e-mails said to be missing?" Facciola asked.
In a four-page order, Facciola said he needs to know "if the missing e-mails are not on those back-ups."
Facciola noted the importance of acting quickly since e-mails that might be retrievable from individual computer workstations in the White House "are increasingly likely to be deleted or overwritten with the passage of time."
White House spokesman Tony Fratto declined comment while reviewing the magistrate's order. In the past, the White House has said there could have been some e-mails that were not automatically archived because of a technical issue.
In their lawsuits, the National Security Archive and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington suggest the e-mails were improperly deleted from White House computer servers. Over 5 million White House e-mails are missing, CREW alleged. Recently, the group said it has been told by reliable sources that the actual figure of missing e-mail is over 10 million.
In asking that the complaints be dismissed, the Bush administration says the president's record keeping practices under the Presidential Records Act are not reviewable by the courts. Also, the Federal Records Act does not allow the far-reaching action the two private groups are demanding, the administration contends.
Two months ago, the two private groups focusing on issues of government secrecy obtained a court order directing the White House to preserve the backup tapes.
Fast Fact
The Bush administration had offered to have the government file a sworn declaration stating that the White House is safeguarding all backup materials. Instead, Facciola recommended that the judge in the case, Henry Kennedy, issue a court order because "a declaration is not punishable by contempt. In other words, without such an order, destruction of the backup media would be without consequence." Kennedy did as Facciola suggested.The White House was ordered to report whether computer backup tapes contain e-mails written between 2003 and 2005.
The subject of missing White House e-mail arose early in 2006 when the prosecutor in the Plame investigation, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, disclosed that not all electronic message traffic of the EOP and the office of Vice President Dick Cheney "for certain time periods in 2003" was preserved through the normal archiving process.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Add a Comment See all 68 Comments
- Shoot, are the courts even on our side?
Posted by offtheback at 12:02 PM : Jan 09, 2008
No. - Reply to this comment
- The Bush/Cheney gang not only needs to be removed from office, they need to be vigorously prosecuted for treason, malfeasance, theft, election fraud and murder.
Posted by mick7744 at 04:13 AM : Jan 09, 2008
If there was any real justice in America that would be exactly what would happen. Sadly however Bush and Cheney have declared themselves to be above the law and have stacked the Supreme Court even further to enforce this new version of the Nazi justice system of the 1930''s. As it was back then we can only hope the other nations will find a way to drag them in front of an international tribunal for the punishment the so richly deserve. I for one would be proud to be the one to hand them over personally. - Reply to this comment
- manage and ownership are not the same words.
Yeah, manage means you get all the benefit and profit and don''t have to deal with the negatives of ownership, like taxes and liability.
That about got it? - Reply to this comment
- Too bad liberals don''''t have the stomach to demand from Sandy Berger what documents he stole out of the National Archives for Bill Clinton.
Must be a cover-up or something going on..
Posted by One_American
Yeah, I need to see the *** stains too. BC''s *** got him into trouble with his wife. GW''s *** earned us global distain. - Reply to this comment
- I can hear the conversation now "***, did you know there could be backups of those emails that accidently went missing?" "No I didn''t G W." "Well better look into it before they get here shouldn''t ya?" "Now that we know they might exist, they won''t for long Mr. Prez"
Ya dummies, you just told them where to find and destroy the rest of the evidence.
Shoot, are the courts even on our side? - Reply to this comment
- I''d love to see these e-mails, but I bet we never do. The Republicans will see to that, one way or another. Open government is the key to democracy - the Republicans don''t believe in democracy. They want a sham state where sham elections are held to imitate a democracy, but essential information is suppressed and the outcome is never in doubt. Like in Iraq and Israel.
- Reply to this comment
- Those emails are not gone...they are on a server somewhere.
Posted by jh6379 at 11:19 AM : Jan 09, 2008
And Bush is trying to figure out how to delete them.... - Reply to this comment
- More contempt for the law from the white house... Never saw that coming. Any other American would have been in jail and through the system months ago. People supporting this administration are not American, they are traitors to every citizen in this countryand everything the country stands for.
- Reply to this comment
- I''m holding up 3 fingers. Pick one George.
- Reply to this comment
- I can hear it now, "but I was over yonder, bein'' the tallywacker kid in mah cowboy duds, what''r e-mails", singing, "Ah am mah own grandpa". Lil'' dikkie cheney all the while plans the take down of the infamous White House Mails scandals, planting evidence all over, blaming others to take the fall, this ought to be a riot. Sort of like blending the Three Stooges comedy with Zombie movie themes.
- Reply to this comment
- I don''t even know why I read this article. It''s not like it''s NEWS that these people are trying to hide Politically Motivated Firings. With the way that everything else has gone with it, I''m surprised that the files that the courts and Prosecutors have on record , haven''t just mysteriously came up missing, or there has been an unexplained fire destroying them or something. At least it would be something exciting instead of the same old run around.
- Reply to this comment
- WAAAAAH, LIBS are just too funny. Now you think Bush owns federal timberland and some ports. Get over it you loser.
Posted by mbcsmith at 09:50 AM : Jan 09, 2008
Bush DOESN''T own the national forests - they belong to the American public. So what gives him the right to sell the land to real estate developers, lumber companies, and other private businesses?
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20070205-2324-wst-bushbudget-northwest.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/10/AR2006061000071.html
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0210-04.htm
http://usliberals.about.com/od/environmentalconcerns/a/RoadlessRule.htm
Try not to be so ignorant. Knowledge is actually a good thing.... - Reply to this comment
- Does anyone else see a problem with the fact that the president of the united states, the guy who is basically in charge of enforcing the nation''s laws, has to be ordered by a federal magistrate to follow the law?
- Reply to this comment
- WAAAAAH, LIBS are just too funny. Now you think Bush owns federal timberland and some ports. Get over it you loser.
Posted by mbcsmith
Wow, speaking of losers, here''s mbcsmith coming along to interject his two cents (which is worth 8% less from last year). - Reply to this comment
- Poor widdle omega3 doesn''''t know big words like manage and ownership are not the same words.
So sad little omega3 doesn''''t play nice.
Posted by ilikecats1 a
Oh I understand the difference, it is you that are clueless. Crack open a newspaper once in a while.
WASHINGTON %u2014 The Bush administration on Friday detailed its proposal to sell more than 300,000 acres of national forests and other public land to help pay for rural schools in 41 states. - Reply to this comment
- There''s pro''bly not a scrap of paper left in the White House or VP residence, and all the serverbackups for computers had a bad glitch and erased everything. All that''s pro''bly gonna be left is some old ''No Child Left Behind'' posters.
At least we won''t have to rent a warehouse to store it all in, like NYC had to do for Guiliani. Nor will we need another BUSH frigging library! - Reply to this comment
- Oh....you never heard of federal land sales to the timber companies or his attempts to sell the ports to the Arabs? Crack open a newspaper once in a while you idiot.
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Posted by omega39 at 09:18 AM : Jan 09, 2008
WAAAAAH, LIBS are just too funny. Now you think Bush owns federal timberland and some ports. Get over it you loser. - Reply to this comment
- Whew! I''''ve read that 6 times and still don''''t know where to put a comma...
Posted by Nancy_Naive at 05:20 AM : Jan 09, 2008
If you were this regime it would probably be in GITMO... - Reply to this comment
- Bad Bushie Moster owned the WHOLE big country and sold it all to other meanie munsters. Now it''''s ALLLL gone. So sad, waaa!.
Posted by ilikecats1
Oh....you never heard of federal land sales to the timber companies or his attempts to sell the ports to the Arabs? Crack open a newspaper once in a while you idiot. - Reply to this comment
- This guy doesn''''t have to answer to anyone? That''''s called communism isn''''t it? It must be tough being a communist President in a democratic country and trying to change our constitution from being by the people and for the people to for George Bush and his buddies and by George Bush and his buddies.
Posted by harp1963
Nah, communists nationalize everything to the state, Bush has sold off this country piece by piece right out from under the citizens feet. - Reply to this comment
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