VIDEO Melanie Sloan on Hardball Bush administration's contradictions E-MAILS & FOIA

[L. Coyote]

5 million missing e-mails discussed.

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Melanie Sloan on Hardball discussing the Bush administration's own contradictions over FOIA
Submitted by crew on 24 August 2007 - 10:02am.
http://www.citizensforethics.org/blog/


Melanie Sloan appeared on Hardball last night to talk about the contradictions between what the Bush administration said in court documents about FOIA requests -- and what the White House website said. Hardball managed to find someone to try to defend the Bush administration's contradictions. But, as Melanie notes, the law is the law and even the Bush administration is supposed to follow the law:

[L. Coyote]

1. Does the FOIA officer in the Office of Administration have "the easiest job in the world?"

Does the FOIA officer in the Office of Administration have "the easiest job in the world?"
Submitted by crew on 23 August 2007 - 7:42pm.
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/29963

Chris Joyner, who writes about First Amendment issues at the Clarion-Ledger (http://www.clarionledger.com/misc/blogs/firstamend/2007/08/easiest-job-in-world.html), asks who has "the easiest job in the world?" He also has an answer:

Apparently, it's FOIA officer Carol Ehrlich in the White House's Office of Administration.

The Justice Department is claiming (http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-08-22-justice-foia_N.htm?csp=34) the office, which handles (surprise) administrative functions for the White House, is not covered by FOIA, despite the fact that it has a FOIA officer and has responded to FOIA requests in the past. In fact, an executive order has the office was under a FOIA improvement plan. No matter, Justice said.

Noting that CREW's Melanie Sloan was "not impressed with Justice's claim," Mr. Joyner also has a suggestion for anyone who know Ms. Ehrlich:

Anyway, if you went to school with Carol and are looking to catch up, now is a good time to call. Turns out, her workload just got a lot lighter.

[L. Coyote]

2. Source: White House to remove FOIA information from website

Source: White House to remove FOIA information from website
Submitted by rusty on 23 August 2007 - 10:42am.
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/29961


This week, the White House has been making the argument that somehow the Office of Administration is no longer subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). CREW has just learned from a source that the White House has begun peeling off all of the Office of Administration FOIA-related content.

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Wash. Post: Bush FOIA claim "at odds with a depiction of the office on the White House's own Web site"
Submitted by crew on 23 August 2007 - 8:42am.
http://www.citizensforethics.org/blog?page=1

Today's Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082202441.html) confirms what CREW reported yesterday. The Bush administration's claim that the Office of Administration is not subject to FOIA requests is, in fact, contradicted by the Bush administration's own White House website. Like our blog post, the Washington Post includes a screen capture of the website :

The Bush administration argued in court papers this week that the White House Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act as part of its effort to fend off a civil lawsuit seeking the release of internal documents about a large number of e-mails missing from White House servers.

The claim, made in a motion filed Tuesday by the Justice Department, is at odds with a depiction of the office on the White House's own Web site. As of yesterday, the site listed the Office of Administration as one of six presidential entities subject to the open-records law, which is commonly known by its abbreviation, FOIA.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit group, filed a lawsuit in May seeking Office of Administration records about the missing e-mails, including when they were deleted from government computer files. CREW said it understood that internal White House documents had estimated at least 5 million e-mails were missing from March 2003 to October 2005. .........

[L. Coyote]

3. Bush administration fighting CREW's FOIA over the five million missing White House e-mails

Bush administration fighting CREW's FOIA over the five million missing White House e-mails
Submitted by crew on 22 August 2007 - 9:01am.
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/29949


The Bush administration is fighting CREW's effort to release information about missing e-mails. In April of 2007, we filed a FOIA request (http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/27688) with the White House Office of Administration to find out about the missing five million e-mails after receiving information about this startling development from a confidential source. CREW also released a report, Without A Trace (http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/27607), documenting how the Bush administration lost over five million e-mails. Now, the Bush lawyers are trying to expand executive privilege even further (http://www.mercurynews.com/nationworld/ci_6681039):

The Justice Department said Tuesday that records about missing White House e-mails are not subject to public disclosure, the latest effort by the Bush administration to expand the boundaries of government secrecy.

Administration lawyers detailed the legal position in a lawsuit trying to force the White House Office of Administration to reveal what it knows about the disappearance of White House e-mails.

[L. Coyote]

4. Kick for visibility

:kick:

[L. Coyote]

5. ditto