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CREW Asks for IG Investigation into Department of Education use of Private Email Accounts

Washington, D.C. – Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the Department of Education Inspector General’s office to initiate an investigation into employees who – in violation of federal law and with the full knowledge of the Department’s Office of General Counsel – have been using non-governmental email accounts for official business.

On March 28, 2007, CREW filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Department of Education, seeking records related to the Reading First program. On May 9, 2007, CREW’s counsel, Dan Roth, had a telephone discussion with FOIA officers who told Mr. Roth that Department personnel “often use private email addresses,” and that the Department “wouldn’t have access to that.” Mr. Roth asked whether private email accounts were used for official business and was told that they were, adding that this issue has arisen in the past in reference to other FOIA requests.

On May 14, 2007, a Department FOIA officer confirmed that Department employees use private email addresses for official business.

If employees are regularly using private email accounts to send official email and the Department neither tracks nor stores such email, the Department may be violating the Federal Records Act (FRA), which requires agencies to preserve records of official business.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said today, “Last month, the American public learned that the White House was violating the Presidential Records Act. Now we’ve learned that Department of Education has been violating the Federal Records Act. How many other agencies are knowingly violating federal law?” Sloan continued, “Complying with the law is not optional. One would think that those in charge of the government would understand this, but apparently not.”