CREW sues White House over missing e-mails Nick Juliano

Published: Wednesday May 23, 2007 Print This Email This A Washington-based legal watchdog has sued the White House Office of Administration alleging the administration refuses to comply with a public records request related to more than 5 million e-mails from administration officials that have gone missing, according to a press release. "The White House has decided to play an unlawful game of high-tech hide and seek with the American public," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, in the release. Last month, CREW filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking the White House's Office of Administration to turn over records related to the millions of e-mails the watchdog says were lost between March 2003 and October 2005. CREW filed the request in March and said it was told last month that the Office of Administration would expedite the request. Since then, though, no documents have been turned over. According to the watchdog, the White House office has documents that detail dates for which the e-mails are missing and analyzed the scope of the problem. It is those documents CREW is trying to procure through its public records request. "Thus far, CREW has learned that the administration has both lost five million White House emails and pro-actively tried to cover up the loss," Sloan said. "CREW has sued the Office of Administration to shine a spotlight on these reckless and possibly illegal activities and to restore these records for the benefit of future generations."



