CREW files TRO to stop White House from destroying documents

11 Oct 2007 // Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sought a temporary restraining order in federal court today to stop the White House from destroying back-up copies of millions of missing emails.

The White House’s office of administration has refused to disclose information about the estimated 5 milllion missing emails that were deleted from the White House computer system from March 2003 until this year. The emails are important because they document the inner workings of top White House aides.

CREW and the National Security Archive, a public research library at George Washington University, filed independent lawsuits seeking information about the emails, saying their destruction would violate the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act.

Anne Weisman, general counsel at CREW, said a temporary restraining order is necessary because the White House has repeatedly failed to assure the public that it would preserve back-up copies of the missing emails.

Weisman sent a letter to Alan Swendiman, director of the office of administration, seeking “immediate written assurances that the OA has taken, and will continue to take, all steps necessary to preserve the back-up tapes, which at this point are all that is left of the large volume of historically important documents deleted from the servers.”

The only response that Weisman received, after much haggling, was that the office would protect all emails from Sept. 25, 2007 forward. That is the date that the ethics watchdog filed their lawsuit. There was no mention, despite a follow-up request, about the missing emails prior to that date, raising red flags at the ethics watchdog group.

"It’s imperative that they be under a legal obligation to preserve them," Weisman said. "I don’t think anyone has any confidence that these historical records are in good hands. Millions of emails are missing and they have refused to restore them."