Judge hands White House deadline on missing emails
Cough 'em up, George
THE WHITE HOUSE was ordered by a federal judge yesterday to show just cause within three days why it should not be required to produce to the court forensic copies of all its data storage media used by any employee between March 2003 and October 2005.
Public interest groups sued to obtain White House emails from that period but the Bush administration claims it "lost" all those emails and can't recover them.
In 2002 the Bush administration dismantled the Lotus Notes based Automatic Records Management System that the Clinton administration had installed in 1994. Between 2002 and 2004, the White House migrated to an email system based on Microsoft Exchange, according to testimony last month before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee by Theresa Payton, CIO for the White House Office of Administration. She testified that the Lotus Notes based email archiving system did not work properly with Microsoft Exchange.
We can almost see Karl Rove slapping his forehead and laughing, "Who knew?"
Consequently, potentially millions of White House emails generated just before and after the start of the Iraq war, as well as during the period when covert CIA agent Valerie Plame's cover was blown, have been discovered as missing.
The Bush administration has offered varying and conflicting stories about the "lost" White House e-mails. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said last April, "I wouldn't rule out that there were a potential 5 million e-mails lost."
Two citizens watchdog groups, the National Security Archive and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, are pursuing a federal lawsuit against the administration to force disclosure of the missing e-mails and installation of effective email archiving at the White House.
Yesterday's ruling by US Magistrate Judge John Facciola gives the White House three days to "show cause in writing ... why it should not be ordered to create and preserve a forensic copy of any media that has been used or is being used by any former or current employee who was employed at any time between March 2003 and October 2005."
A "forensic copy" means an exact duplicate of a physical data storage device.
The White House has until the close of business on this Friday, March 21st to respond to the judge's order. µ
L'Inq
InformationWeek
Comments
What's good for the goose
Sure, it is just fine for George Dubya to force through legislation to justify his administration spying on the email and phone calls of all Americans. BUT, they are certainly not permitted to see his email! OOPS!<delete...>.I cannot believe that Nixon was impeached, and this corrupt idiot still is allowed to govern the country. Time to wake up, Americans!
American priorities
Clinton was impeached for having his tackle diddled in the White House (not that he left office).Yet, Bush gets away with wiping his rear with the Constitution and telling the people to go f* themselves.
Clearly, Americans have yet to get over their (our, I'm in America) Puritan roots.
we've been trying to...
but due to this bottleneck in administration of justice known as "Congress" we haven't had much success. trying to get the rich to impeach their cronies is nigh impossible, unless you're Republicans going after a Democratic President.justice is indeed blind in modern America.
waterboarding is really like surfing
Come on folks, they looked high and low and those pestky 18 months of email are just nowhere to be found .Whereas my title shows the two to be alike ,only being one is on top of the board and the other is on the bottom .
that'll teach them to switch to Exchange
What a waste of taxpayer money. Lotus Notes is more secure, has better archiving, can do more, and they dump it and waste money on Exchange...just cause...
just because some judge wants to go digging through white house secrets doesn't me he has the clearance or right to... What we are seeing here is a fight of the balance of power... there has been a lot of judicial tyranny of late it time for congress to check their advance.people to often forget the checks and balances... and ignore them..the judges are to rule by the laws made and if necessary rule some unconstitutional.
There have been laws passed well within the constitutional powers given the executive branch. you should really look at what the constitution says before attacking those you hate :)
I know its hard to not to attack those you hate but really now might you get your facts straight first....
fyi..supreme court justices are not appointed for life...
bet you didn't know that one...
By what law
"The constitution is just a goddamn piece of paper "~George W.Bush Nov.2005
@Bryan -- you are wrong ...
@Bryan: You are wrong. Supreme Court justices (and all other Federal judges) *are* appointed for life. In extraordinary circumstances, it is possible to remove them, but that is extremely rare. Some judges at State and local levels do have limited terms, but they are completely separate systems.It isn't clear what bearing the term of Supreme Court justices has on any of this article or any of the comments, but your statement is completely incorrect and I want to correct it.
The issue of checks and balances is a bit more complex than you seem to know, but that is a subject that requires a lot more discussion than I'm prepared to devote to it right now.
Off topic: I wonder how your comment got to be dated 21 December 2007. I wonder what date mine will get.
@Blip - The quote is misattributed.
Due to a lack of verifiable sources, Doug Thompson of the Capitol Hill Blue (an anti-Bush website *cough*Aren't we all?*cough*) retracted his statement that George W. Bush said, "Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It's just a goddamn piece of paper!"Microsoft Exchange
I wonder if the administration got a deal on it, for not pushing the Microsoft anti-trust case.
Oh god am I getting cynical. I do however predict that G.W. Bush will be judged harshly by history.