Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Judge Rules Against White House In E-mail Case
WASHINGTON - A federal judge on Monday ruled against the Bush administration in a court battle over the White House's problem-plagued e-mail system. With two-and-a-half months remaining before the Bush administration leaves office, U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy ruled that two private groups may pursue their case as they press the government to recover millions of possibly missing electronic messages.
Kennedy rejected the government's request to throw out the lawsuits filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive.
The government had argued that the courts did not have the authority to order the White House to retrieve any missing e-mails.
Kennedy, an appointee of President Clinton, said the two private groups seek precisely the relief outlined in the Federal Records Act and upheld in a previous case by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
CREW and the National Security Archive want a court order directing the archivist of the United States to initiate action through the attorney general to restore deleted e-mails.
Meredith Fuchs, the National Security Archive's general counsel, said that because of the ruling, a court order directing the White House to preserve 65,000 computer backup tapes remains in place.
Fuchs said that when the Bush administration surrenders its records to the government on Jan. 20, the incoming administration of Barack Obama can "do the right thing here and clean up this mess by ensuring that any missing e-mails are restored from computer backup tapes."
A White House document obtained by The Associated Press in August says the White House is missing as many as 225 days of e-mail dating to 2003.
The nine-page draft document about the White House's e-mail problems invites companies to bid on a project to recover missing electronic messages. The end date for the work was listed as April 19, 2009. The White House has not said whether it has hired a contractor.
CREW executive director Melanie Sloan called the court ruling "a clear victory for the American people. The Executive Office of the President does have to answer for the missing e-mail."
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the opinion is under review and that presidential aides are conferring with the Justice Department about the next steps in the case.
Sheila Shadmand, a Washington lawyer representing the National Security Archive, said the ruling enables protection of records "before they get carted off or destroyed as the current administration packs its bags to leave."
In February, a former White House computer expert told Congress the White House had no complete inventory of e-mail files, that there was no automatic system to ensure that e-mail was archived and preserved, and that until mid-2005 the e-mail system had serious security flaws.
Researchers at the National Security Archive disseminate historical materials to the public. CREW argued that the Bush administration is harming the private organization's efforts to gain future access to important historical documents that would shed light on the conduct of public officials.
12 Comments so far
Show AllWhat does it matter?
No one will be prosecuted regardless of what the emails say.
Sadly, you are correct, but at least they would make interesting reading and give historians some juicy tidbits for their works.
Does any one seriously think this ruling will result in "finding" the e-mails? If the hard drives haven't been wiped clean they have been dumped in the Potomac whose pollution, I'm sure, has the ability to disrupt even the vaunted bits and bytes of the wondrous silicon archives we have come to rely on so much.
Unless, of course, some mole has squirreled them, or copies of them, away somewhere ...... We can only "hope".
email is insidious it lives not only on the sender and reciever's computer drives, but in all of the intervening server drives, all of which are backed up over and over and over and over. these servers have hot-swappable mirror drives that are hot swapped and re-sync'ed ad nausium. once you hit "send" it is out there forever.
they will find all of the emails if they look.
and if you think that deleting a file or formating a drive will get rid of it read this:
http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/sec96/full_papers/gutmann/
Thank you Judge Kennedy. Although very few may be brought to justice, except for some chump the White house offers up, the sweaty hands should start trembling.
How many regular folks can find emails they've sent? You can't inadvertantly lose them, it takes a real effort. Let's cut to the chase on this one and get past the stall tactics. It isn't about executive privilege at this point any more, it's about the truth. Slam them up until they produce them. Put them in the lower 9th ward under the auspices of FEMA, but don't let them be standing around with their hands in your pockets saying "aw shucks".
In case you haven't noticed, the White House and its residents don't give a rat's ass about what any judge says. They'll just continue to go about their business of plundering the US treasury and killing people in wedding parties.
Let's not be stupid about this - of course they are irretrievable, having been Rosemary Woodsed into oblivion. Since they are not retrievable, those who lost them or ordered them lost (Dickie, Dubya, CondiBaby, etc.) should be held accountable, fined or imprisoned or both. Failure to maintain accurate records of activity doesn't play well in business, and it certainly shouldn't be allowed to play at all in government. Let's go after these crooks and liars while we can - like now. Don't expect help from Nancy Pelosi, by the way - let's find ourselves a nice trustworthy federal prosecutor and hand it over to him or her. Maybe Ken Starr has a friend who needs the work?
"In February, a former White House computer expert told Congress the White House had no complete inventory of e-mail files, that there was no automatic system to ensure that e-mail was archived and preserved, and that until mid-2005 the e-mail system had serious security flaws."
It took these idiots 5 years to correct "serious security flaws"? Only the G.W. Bush administration could get away with this BS while Congress turned its ugly face and put its tail between its legs in fear of this monster.
Astonishing!
I think this is the wrong approach. Rove and his acolytes have destroyed all. I would approach the Server Companies, like Google or Yahoo - or whomever - they MUST keep all emails archived - right? Google and Yahoo do mine. And here's a surprise - I'm NOT the corrupt, flesh-eating bastards that currently occupy the white-house-of-horrors.
I hope Michelle thinks to burn a little sage in every room of that place. Holy sh*t - I don't even want to THINK about what atrocities have been committed by those who on a daily basis kill women, children and babies around the world. I do hope however to live long enough to see these monsters behind bars, if not outright executed by firing squads.
There, I'm calm now. Just that image worked.
It's my understanding that the email server was owned by the RNC and that is who would have to restore the emails. Google and Yahoo had nothing to do with these servers.
Are the emails gone? It may be too late to find them. But how about demanding that records are kept for the use of the trillions of bailout dollars that are being taken from us?
We need accountability. It is amazing that we accept the "dog ate my homework" level of excuse.
Joe