COURT ORDER SOUGHT IN WHITE HOUSE E-MAIL CONTROVERSY
 
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 19:35:42 -0600 (CST)


http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080307/twl-white-house-e-mail-1be00ca.html

Agence France Presse

WASHINGTON  -  A  private group told a federal court Thursday the Bush 
administration  made  apparently  false  and  misleading statements in 
court about the White House e-mail controversy.

The  group  asked the judge to demand an explanation regarding alleged 
inconsistencies between testimony at a congressional hearing last week and 
what the White House told a federal court in January.

"This  evidence  demonstrates  defendants'  blatant  disregard for the 
truth  and  the  processes of this court," Citizens for Responsibility and 
Ethics  in  Washington  told U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy in court 
papers.

CREW  wants  the judge to compel the Executive Office of the President to 
explain why it should not be held in contempt of court.

In  a  sworn declaration, White House official Theresa Payton told the 
court  on  Jan.  16 that "substantially all" e-mails from 2003 to 2005 
should be contained on back-up computer tapes.

However,  at  a  hearing  of the House Oversight and Government Reform 
Committee  on  Feb.  26,  the panel's Democrats released a White House 
document that called that claim into question.

E-mail  was missing from a White House archive for the period of Sept. 
30-Oct.  6,  2003  from  the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, the 
White  House  document states. The backup tape covering that seven-day 
period  was  not  created until Oct. 21, 2003, raising the possibility 
that e-mail was missing from the earlier period.

The  congressional  panel also released written statements by a former 
White   House  technical  supervisor  saying  that  a  15-person  team 
conducted an extensive multi-phase assessment that resulted in a final 
250-page analysis on the problem of missing White House e-mail.

In  her  sworn  declaration to the federal court in January, the White 
House  official  said  she  was  aware  of a chart created by a former 
employee  regarding  missing  e-mails,  but  said  nothing  about  the 
250-page analysis.