Court Grants National Security Archive Motion to Search White House Computers and Preserve E-mails

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/38990

Court Grants National Security Archive Motion to Search White House Computers and Preserve E-mails
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2009-01-14 20:30.

National Security Archive

On the eve of transition, federal judge orders outgoing White House staff to surrender electronic media containing e-mails


Washington, D.C., January 14, 2009 – The United States District Court for the District of Columbia today granted the National Security Archive’s emergency motion for an extended preservation order to protect missing White House e-mails. With the transition from the Bush Administration to the Obama Administration taking place in six days, and all the records of the Bush White House scheduled for a physical transfer to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on that same day, the Court has directed the Executive Office of the President (EOP) to search all its computer work stations and has ordered EOP employees to surrender any media in their possession that may contain e-mails from March 2003 to October 2005.

“There is nothing like a deadline to clarify the issues,” said Archive Director Tom Blanton. “In six days the Bush Executive Office of the President will be gone and without this order, their records may disappear with them. The White House will complain about the last minute challenge, but this is a records crisis of the White House's own making.”

Counsel for the Archive, Sheila Shadmand from Jones Day made clear: “The White House has been on notice since we filed our lawsuit a year and a half ago that they would have to retrieve and preserve their e-mail. Instead of coming clean and telling the public what they have been doing to solve the crisis, they refused to say anything. At this point, it is critical to preserve evidence that can help get to the bottom of the problem and prevent it from happening again.”

Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola has scheduled an emergency status conference today at 2 p.m. to consider additional measures that may be necessary to protect the records during the transition. (Courtroom 6 of the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse)

The Archive filed its emergency motion for an extended preservation order on March 11, 2008. After considering the objections of the White House, Magistrate Judge Facciola issued two reports, on April 24 and July 29, 2008, recommending that District Judge Henry H. Kennedy issue an order requiring search, surrender and preservation of the computer workstations and external media devices, such as CDs, DVDs, memory sticks, and external hard drives. Today’s order adopts those reports and recommendations, granting in part the Archive’s emergency motion.

The National Security Archive filed its lawsuit on September 5, 2007 against the Executive Office of the President and NARA, seeking to preserve and restore missing White House e-mails. A virtually identical lawsuit filed subsequently by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has been consolidated with the Archive's lawsuit. A chronology of the litigation is available here.

[lunatica]

1. The deleted records can be retrieved too...

There are plenty of trails too. One person emails another and cc's two or three more and they all reply to one or all and forward it to their pals and before you know it there are a dozen email trails all with started from one email.

Servers back up all files for security and there you are. Another repository for emails and all kinds of documents.

They can't wipe this slate clean

[babylonsister]

4. Hopefully you're right. Sadly, *'s scrubbers might know of a way

around that.

[lunatica]

7. They would have to try to erase all the emails of everyone who ever received any

including the public ones like yahoo or hotmail. Plenty of these aides, underlings, staffers, interns, lovers, and friends have sent and received incriminating emails. It's the equivalent of a Gordian Knot. The problem is that there will be enough evidence somewhere on private accounts. It's almost impossible to delete anything from a computer so it's really deleted, much less hundreds of servers which are connected.

[babylonsister]

8. Ooh, you give me hope! nt

[joeunderdog]

2. Thought we'd lose this battle.

This could get interesting.

[SoCalDem]

3. Here's the problem..

Does anyone think that the Bush people still have "incriminating" stuff on their computers? they are not as backward as people think. I'd bet money that they have had their own "people" scouring computers...for MONTHS..

and, If I recall, don't all outgoing administrations have their "stuff" taken out, and new equipment brought in for the new admin?

[lunatica]

5. I'm betting they're too anal retentive

Why do you think politicians and Presidents keep records of every last word they say? It's because they have egos the size of the planet and they are always thinking about their legacy. To have someone come in to scrub all evidence of your daily activity is like death to them.

Nixon was only able to scrub 18 minutes and no more. They're pathologically incapable of erasing themselves.

[ThomWV]

6. This is the best news so far this year.