[NYTr] Archive seeks to discover true extent of missing e-mails at White House

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

National Security Archive Update, October 29, 2007
http://www.nsarchive.org


Archive seeks to discover true extent of 
missing e-mails at White House;

Demands the initiation of discovery to ensure Executive Office of the 
President cannot render judicial preservation decisions meaningless

For more information contact:

Meredith Fuchs/Tom Blanton, 202/994-7000 Sheila L. Shadmand (Jones
Day), 202/879-393

Washington D.C., October 29, 2007 - The National Security Archive
filed a motion on Friday, October 26, seeking expedited discovery
against the Executive Office of the President to find out what
e-mails are missing from the White House e-mail system or backup
tapes.

Archive General Counsel Meredith Fuchs explained, "The pressing
need for the information arises out of troubling representations
by the EOP and its components about its document preservation
obligations and the location of its backup tapes. We need information
so we can take steps to preserve all possible sources of e-mails
deleted from the White House servers."

Also on Friday, a similar motion was filed in a virtually identical
lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in
Washington (CREW) on September 25, 2007.

The Archive filed this case on September 5, 2007, against the
Executive Office of the President (EOP) and its components seeking
to recover at least 5 million federal e-mail records improperly
deleted by the EOP. After the government failed to provide adequate
assurances that backups and copies of the missing e-mail would be
preserved throughout this litigation, on October 11, 2007, CREW
filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against the White
House defendants in its case. A hearing in CREW's case was held
before Magistrate Judge Facciola on October 17, 2007. Magistrate
Judge Facciola issued a Report and Recommendation on October 19,
2007, advising the Court to grant a temporary restraining order.
The government has filed objections to Magistrate Judge Facciola's
Report and Recommendation, and CREW has responded to the government's
objections.

Visit the Web site of the National Security Archive for more
information about today's posting.

http://www.nsarchive.org

________________________________________________________

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