[NYTr] Archive Opposes Govt Attempt to Dismiss White House E-mail Lawsuit

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

National Security Archive Update - Dec 14, 2007
http://www.nsarchive.org


Judge Orders White House to Preserve E-mail Backup Tape

For more information contact:

Meredith Fuchs/Tom Blanton [National Security Archive] - 202/994-7000
John B. Williams/Sheila L. Shadmand [Jones Day] - 202/879-3939

Washington D.C., December 14, 2007 - The National Security Archive
yesterday rebutted the government's argument for dismissal of the
Archive's lawsuit in federal district court seeking to recover 5
million or more Executive Office of the President e-mails that are
missing from the period 2003 to 2005.

"It is remarkable that the government wants to stop the public from
trying to protect records that belong to the people of the United
States, particularly records that tell the story of this countrys
policies," stated Meredith Fuchs, the Archive's General Counsel.
"When records are wiped out of existence, it is impossible to ever
fully understand the governments decisionmaking."

The Archive's latest filing comes in a lawsuit brought against the
Executive Office of the President (EOP), the White House Office of
Administration (OA), and the National Archives after White House
spokesperson Dana Perino acknowledged this year that over 5 million
e-mails generated within the White House from 2003-2005 are missing.
The lawsuit seeks to compel the Archivist of the United States and
the heads of the EOP and the OA to fulfill their responsibilities
to restore e-mails improperly destroyed and prevent future destruction.
A virtually identical lawsuit was subsequently filed by Citizens
for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and has been
consolidated with this case. Last month, Judge Henry Kennedy granted
a temporary restraining order, directing the EOP to preserve all
e-mail backup media until the case is resolved.

"After failing to manage its federal and presidential records
properly, the government now is trying to use its own unlawful
conduct as a shield against this suit. The fact that there may be
presidential records on the same servers and backup media as the
federal records we are trying to preserve is not a reason to deny
us an opportunity for relief," explained attorney Sheila Shadmand,
from the law firm Jones Day LLC, which represents the Archive.

The National Security Archive, an independent non-governmental
organization based at the George Washington University, brought the
original White House e-mail lawsuit (which included a wide range
of scholarly, library and public interest co-plaintiffs) against
Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. That
lawsuit produced landmark rulings in the early 1990s that e-mail
had to be treated as government records. Those rulings led to the
preservation of more than 30 million White House e-mail messages
from the 1980s and 1990s.

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

http://www.nsarchive.org

________________________________________________________

THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental
research institute and library located at The George Washington
University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes
declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no
U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication
royalties and donations from foundations and individuals.