Federal Judge Upholds Lawsuit Ordering White House To Recover Missing E-Mails

November 11, 2008 12:37 p.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A federal judge has ruled against the White House and refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by two watchdogs accusing the Bush administration of violating the Federal Records Act by failing to retrieve e-mails lost in 2003 to 2005.

U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy on Monday upheld the lawsuit of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the National Security Archive. The two groups had sued the White House last year for failing to recover e-mail messages lost because the Executive Office of the President had stopped using the old records management system in 2002. They want the White House to "initiate action through the attorney general to restore the deleted emails before they become irrecoverable."

The Bush administration had sought the dismissal of the case, saying the court had no authority to order it to recover the missing e-mail messages.

"The Court has rejected the administration's argument," CREW's executive director Melanie Sloan said in a news release. "The White House, which values secrecy above nearly all else, finally will be held accountable for the millions of missing emails. This is a huge victory for government transparency and the American people."

"This ruling gives the public a clear voice in demanding preservation of our nation's history, even when that history is created at the White House," Sheila Shadmand, an attorney for the Archive, told The Public Record.