White House Study Found 473 Days of E-Mail Gone

WHITE HOUSE STUDY FOUND 473 DAYS OF E-MAIL GONE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Dan Eggen and Elizabeth Williamson]
The White House possesses no archived e-mail messages for many of its component offices, including the Executive Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President, for hundreds of days between 2003 and 2005, according to the summary of an internal White House study that was disclosed yesterday by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-CA). The 2005 study -- whose credibility the White House attacked this week -- identified 473 separate days in which no electronic messages were stored for one or more White House offices. Chairman Waxman said he decided to release the summary after White House spokesman Tony Fratto said yesterday that there is "no evidence" that any White House e-mails from those years are missing. Fratto's assertion "seems to be an unsubstantiated statement that has no relation to the facts they have shared with us," Rep Waxman said. The competing claims were the latest salvos in an escalating dispute over whether the Bush administration has complied with long-standing statutory requirements to preserve official White House records -- including those reflecting potentially sensitive policy discussions -- for history and in case of any future legal demands.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR200801...
(requires registration)

* Days in Question
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR200801...

* Panel sets hearing on White House e-mails
Chairman Waxman said a White House spokesman's statements Thursday in the controversy over missing e-mails conflict with what congressional staffers were told four months ago. He scheduled a Feb. 15 hearing and challenged the White House to explain spokesman Tony Fratto's remark that "we have absolutely no reason to believe that any e-mails are missing."
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080118/a_capcol18.art.htm