White House Official Tells Judge Searching for Missing Emails Requires Too Much Work

[babylonsister]

White House Official Tells Judge Searching for Missing Emails Requires Too Much Work
by Jason Leopold


The White House’s chief information officer said the Bush administration should not be compelled to search for millions of emails on individual computers and hard drives that may have been lost between 2003 and 2005 because it would be too expensive and require hundreds of hours of work, according to a filing the White House made with a federal court late Friday.

Friday’s court filing by the White House came in response to an order issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola last week demanding that the White House show cause why it should not be ordered to create and preserve a “forensic copy” of emails from individual hard drives. Facciola entered the order in part because the White House admitted that it did not preserve back-up tapes prior to October 2003.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and George Washington University’s National Security Archive sued the Bush administration last year alleging the White House violated the Presidential Records Act by not archiving emails sent and received between 2003 and 2005.

In documents filed with Faciolla Friday, Theresa Payton, the chief information officer at the White House Office of Administration, said the White House routinely destroyed its hard drives every three years “in order to run updated software, reduce ongoing maintenance, and enhance security assurance. So its unlikely that any lost emails would be retrieved anyway.

“When workstations are at the end of their lifecycle and retired... under the refresh program, the hard drives are generally sent offsite to another government entity for physical destruction in accordance with Department of Defense guidelines,” states Payton’s sworn affidavit filed with Facciola late Friday.

“And even if some older computer workstations were in use, finding them and copying their hard drives with the hope that the residual data contains relevant e-mail information would create an ‘awfully expensive needle to justify searching a haystack,’” a separate court filing the White House made Friday says.

more...

http://atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/3622/81/

[fascisthunter]

1. Impeach Bush and Cheney Already! (nt)

[MadMaddie]

2. If the WH is not compelled to follow the law then it's simple....

they should be prosecuted.

How hard is that to understand. If this were the average American refusing to do this they would be prosecuted.

[fascisthunter]

8. Pretty Simple Cause and Effect There (nt)

[MadMaddie]

19. Indeed!

[MaryCeleste]

22. When this first came up, I looked it up and best I could tell there was no penalty

Which seemed kind of odd for the USC

[htuttle]

3. "Man Says Filling Out 1040 Form Too Expensive And Requires Too Much Work"

Think that one would fly?

:eyes:

[panader0]

10. Seriously. I am so tired of the privledged having special rights.

[Xipe Totec]

4. The lazy and unwise, are condemned to do chores twice

It would have been easier to preserve the e-mails in the first place.

So, suck it up, and do your job!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. Then we should fire the White House CIO and we would save money

awfully expensive eh? Or maybe it is cheaper to put them in jail first?

[annabanana]

6. ". . . besides, we just aren't that interested in what you want".

[Fire Walk With Me]

7. Remind them of all the times Bushie recommended "Hard Work".

It's not just for people other than Bush.

[Blackhatjack]

9. Judge should issue an order that Theresa Payton, be held in contempt until...

All the information has been located and copied for the court, because to allow her to take up the Court's time and resources making such a lame argument is too time consuming.

This way, as soon as the White House complies.... she gets out!

[Solly Mack]

11. Well, as long as they can get away with it....

and so far....they have gotten away with everything

Why would they expect this to be any different?

They wouldn't

[Usrename]

12. Can we impeach them now?

:banghead:

[yourout]

13. What a load of shit........even the most rudimentary IT system has automated backup..

If they are missing it's because they want them to be missing.

[MadMaddie]

20. Exactly! These people think the American people are as idiotic

as they are.

[InsultComicDog]

14. Tell the IRS that paying your taxes is too much work

[InsultComicDog]

15. oops

someone already came up with that... sorry

[superkia]

16. America is one big jail and its being run by criminals! We are the...

inmates and if we act up(civil disobedience) we will be punished and lose some other right they have given us. What happened to the constitution or the people that died to give us some freedom?

[Hekate]

17. Translation--"We're not done destroying all the evidence yet."How about one set of laws fr everyone?

:argh:

Hekate

[Rex]

18. Any why between 2003 and 2005 you ask?

We here at DU know why. And to how the justice system gets treated by a pack of corporate pirates I say, hahahahahahahahahaha, you...stupid...motherfuckers.

Grow some braincells, stop being used and abused. You will never see those records.

[Snarkoleptic]

21. Sadly, we've lowered our expectations to the point that we expect this from these assholes!

[McCamy Taylor]

23. Wait---AT&T has them all in its secret room! Get them from the NSA!

[Supersedeas]

24. is that what Ms. Payton told Congress too??

[varelse]

25. The 'needle' is the key to bringing a corrupt cabal to justice... one that has

destroyed our constitutional rights, slaughtered millions of innocent people, stolen two elections, incarcerated & tortured innocent women, children, and men, framed a Democratic governor, "purged" the roster of federal attorneys, and now threatens to finish off our democracy by launching an unprovoked attack on yet another country.

What price should be put on finding this "needle"? I'd set it fairly high - say one half of a percent of the total income of the top half percent of American households? Would that break the bank?