Press

PRESS

January 15, 2009

Major Victory in CREW’s White House Lawsuit

Lawsuits, The White House, Transparency, Press Releases

Washington, D.C. - Today, Magistrate Judge John Facciola ordered the White House to search the entire Executive Office of the President (EOP) and the Office of Administration (OA) to collect and preserve all emails sent or received between March 2003 and October 2005. The order further directs the White House to collect and preserve all materials that could be relevant to CREW’s lawsuit and prohibits their transfer to the Archives without the Court’s permission. CREW sued EOP and OA over a year ago after learning that millions of emails had gone missing from White House servers.

Today’s ruling was issued in response to CREW’s request for a preservation order given the upcoming presidential transition and the expected transfer of these records to the National Archives. CREW’s chief counsel Anne Weismann said, “We are gratified the Court recognized that unless these materials are preserved, the country faces the loss of historic records of national importance. Even once a new administration takes office, CREW will continue seeking to hold the Bush administration accountable for its role in the disappearance of the 14 million emails.”

Click here to read Judge Facciola’s preservation order
Click here to read Judge Facciola's opinion.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions. For more information, please visit www.citizensforethics.org or contact David Merchant at 202.408.5565 or dmerchant@citizensforethics.org