Major development in CREW's lawsuit against the Bush Administration.

A White House declaration filed late last night in CREW v. EOP, CREW's lawsuit challenging the failure of the White House to preserve millions and millions of emails, makes the stunning admission that the White House failed to preserve ANY backup tapes for the period March 1, 2003 through May 22, 2003, a period of time during which the U.S. went to war in Iraq.

Previously disclosed documents by the House Oversight Committee had revealed that the White House also has no backup tapes for the period September 30, 2003, to October 6, 2003 -- a period that coincides with the Department of Justice opening up an investigation into the disclosure by top White House officials of Valerie Plame Wilson's covert identity.

Just as remarkably, the White House now argues that even with its own admission that critical backup tapes are missing, it should not be required to preserve ANY backup tapes because there is no evidence that any emails are missing. Of course, what the White House overlooks is that it has already told both the House Oversight Committee and Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald that critical White House emails are missing.

Below is the page of the declaration where the White House admits there are no backup tapes prior to May 23, 2003. The full declaration can be downloaded here [0].