Magistrate Urges Order for White House (to preserve copies of all its e-mails)

[sabra]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. magistrate on Friday rejected arguments by the Bush administration and urged a federal judge to order the White House to preserve copies of all its e-mails.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola said it is necessary to hold out the threat of a contempt of court citation to ensure that White House personnel safeguard backup tapes of electronic messages that may have been deleted.

Whether to issue the order is up to U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy. The Bush administration has 10 days to say why Kennedy should not order preservation of electronic communications by White House officials and aides. Kennedy had referred the issue to the magistrate for a recommendation.

Facciola's report to the judge stems from a controversy dating back nearly two years over missing White House e-mails. An ethics advocacy group says the White House has deleted millions of e-mails and the private organization is suing the Executive Office of the President in an attempt to force the government to reconstruct any lost messages from backup tapes.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hsG0My2Q3Eu9Sj2PSupnj4xeQXxAD8SCEV9G0

[usregimechange]

1. Lost my ass

Were they "lost" due to an "archiving problem" or destroyed due to the criminal or political problems that would have ensued if they were preserved in compliance with the law?

[MelissaB]

2. The Magistrate! Damn!

All that "Sir" and "Ma'am" business must have gotten him a promotion.













J/k

K&R



Edited for stupid spelling error. :blush:

[Beerboy]

3. You beat me to it, ma'am.

;-)

[MelissaB]

4. Sorry about that, Sir!

:hi:

Who knew he was such a powerful force fighting evil?

[Beerboy]

6. Never mis-underestimate the power of politeness, ma'am.

The Sir and Ma'am stuff works wonders w/ the cops, it's not just fot the internets!
It actually works much better IRL, where it's effectiveness is made more powerful by it's very sparing use; much more so than it seems to be on the DU, except when someone sez 'Thank You Ma'am, may I have another?'
Now, about those records in the OP...:D

[robinlynne]

5. a contempt citation? That's it? no jail?

[HuffleClaw]

7. a token effort, they are LOOOONG since toasted n/t