Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

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CREW and Obama Admin. Reach Settlement in Lawsuit over Missing Bush White House Emails

On December 14, CREW and the Obama administration announced a settlement agreement in CREW's long-running lawsuit challenging the failure of the Bush White House and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to recover and properly archive millions of emails that had gone missing from White House servers over a two and a half year period.

The settlement stipulates the Executive Office of the President (EOP) will restore a total of 94 days of missing emails, which will then be sent to NARA for preservation and, eventually, public access. CREW and the National Security Archive, which also filed a lawsuit, worked with the Obama administration to choose which dates' emails will be restored based on lowered volume and historic dates. In addition, the EOP will continue to provide CREW with documents relating to the discovery by the Bush White House in late 2005 of the missing emails and what, if any, steps the Bush administration took in response. Finally, the Obama administration now has in place an effective system for managing and preserving its emails.

So far, documents released in the suit have shown the Bush White House unquestionably lied when it claimed there was no email archiving problem and, instead, ignored the crisis and knowingly allowed it to worsen. All documents CREW has received so far have been posted on www.governmentdocs.org for public review, and future documents will be added as CREW receives them.

The Obama administration has lived up to its promise of openness and transparency by working with CREW to sort out this mess. Thanks to all involved parties, critical records of recent infamous chapters of our nation's history will be saved. Several questions remain, but this legal victory represents a great win for those who advocate for government accountability and transparency.