White House Agrees To Restore Bush-Era Emails

The EOP (Executive Office of the President) agreed on 14 Dec. to restore a total of 94 days of missing Bush era e-mails.

The agreement is the culmination long-running lawsuits challenging the failure of the Bush White House and the NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) to take any action after confronted with evidence that millions of e-mails had gone missing from Bush White House servers over a two and one-half year period.

The missing e-mails came to light as part of a 2007 congressional inquiry into the Bush administration’s firing of U.S. attorneys. The White House admitted then the e-mails were missing and that in 2002 the White House abandoned the electronic records management system put in place by the Clinton administration.

Nevertheless, the Bush White House failed to recover or restore the missing e-mails and knowingly continued to use a broken system for preserving electronic records. CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) and the NSA (National Security Archive) filed lawsuits.

The dates for restoration were chosen based on e-mail volume and external events because there simply was not enough money to restore all the missing e-mails. The EOP will continue to provide CREW and the NSA with records documenting the missing e-mail problem, the response of the Bush White House to that problem, and the options the Bush White House considered for preserving electronic records, but inexplicably rejected.

According to CREW, that Bush administration officials deliberately ignored the problem and, in fact, knowingly allowed it to worsen.

“We may never know exactly what happened to all the missing e-mails, and which Bush administration officials were involved in the coverup, but we do know the American public never got the full story,” Melanie Sloan, CREW’s Executive Director said in a statement. “The Obama administration, which inherited the lawsuits and the dysfunctional White House e-mail system, has done a terrific job straightening out the mess. Thanks to the Obama White House, a critical part of our nation’s missing history will be restored.”

Roy Mark eWEEK USA 2014. Ziff Davis Enterprise Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Recent Posts

Apple, Google Mobile Ecosystems Should Be Investigated, CMA Told

CMA receives 'provisional recommendation' from independent inquiry that Apple,Google mobile ecosystem needs investigation

21 hours ago

Australia Rejects Elon Musk Claim About Social Media Ban For Under-16s

Government minister flatly rejects Elon Musk's “unsurprising” allegation that Australian government seeks control of Internet…

1 day ago

Northvolt Files For Bankruptcy Protection In US

Northvolt files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, and CEO and co-founder…

1 day ago

UK’s CMA Readies Cloud Sector “Behavioural” Remedies – Report

Targetting AWS, Microsoft? British competition regulator soon to announce “behavioural” remedies for cloud sector

2 days ago

Former Policy Boss At X, Nick Pickles, Joins Sam Altman Venture

Move to Elon Musk rival. Former senior executive at X joins Sam Altman's venture formerly…

2 days ago

Bitcoin Rises Above $96,000 Amid Trump Optimism

Bitcoin price rises towards $100,000, amid investor optimism of friendlier US regulatory landscape under Donald…

2 days ago