The Purge: Another Texas Governor Gets In Email Trouble
If you've stopped by this here blog within the last few months, you know we've been examining Texas Governor Rick Perry's office policy of deleting state emails after one week*.
"Our emails get automatically deleted every 7 days," said Governor Perry's spokesman Robert Black. "We kept the same policy and schedule as Governor Bush."
But does Bush set a good example for open government? This just came across the wire:
WASHINGTON - A federal judge Monday ordered the White House to preserve copies of all its e-mails, a move that Bush administration lawyers had argued strongly against.Read more from the APU.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy directed the Executive Office of the President to safeguard the material in response to two lawsuits that seek to determine whether the White House has destroyed e-mails in violation of federal law.
The White House is seeking dismissal of the lawsuits brought by two private groups — Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government and the National Security Archive.
The organizations allege the disappearance of 5 million White House e-mails. The court order issued by Kennedy, an appointee of President Clinton, is directed at maintaining backup tapes which contain copies of White House e-mails.
The Federal Records Act details strict standards prohibiting the destruction of government documents including electronic messages, unless first approved by the archivist of the United States.
*I started asking questions after I read that Missouri Governor Matt Blunt was facing a barrage of questions about his office policy of deleting emails every TWO weeks, as opposed to Texas' one-week standard. BTW, Blunt is still having to answer questions -- recently a deputy general counsel in his office quit over the email retention policy.
