According to the Washington Post, countless e-mails to and from many key White House staffers have been deleted to avoid congressional subpoenas.

The Presidential Records Act orders that all White House emails are stored for ever, mostly for historical reasons. However the Bush's team has been getting around this by using their Republican National Committee accounts, which can be deleted.

The main culprit was Bush's adviser Karl Rove, who reportedly used his Republican National Committee provided Blackberry and e-mail accounts for most of his electronic communication.

The White House says it has no idea how much data has been lost. It blamed “White House policy” for not giving clear enough guidance. However as the Post pointed out the policy as it was written is pretty clear.

"Federal law requires the preservation of electronic communications sent or received by White House staff,” it says. It adds that personnel working on behalf of the Executive Office of the President are expected to only use government-provided e-mail services for all official communication. µ