Judges Cool to FOIA Appeal Over Missing White House E-Mail

[sabra]

Source: AP

A federal appeals court gave a chilly reception Friday to a private group trying to force the Bush administration to surrender records detailing problems with the White House's e-mail system.

The problems may have resulted in the loss of millions of electronic messages.

During a half-hour-long argument, three federal appeals court judges suggested that the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to the records, a signal that the court might allow the documents to remain confidential.

No Automatic Archiving

The judges seemed dismissive of the argument that the White House office containing the records has responded to other FOIA requests for many years, until it was sued in the e-mail controversy.

Judge Thomas Griffith suggested the White House's previous position is not legally significant.

"Why does it matter? ... They made a mistake," Griffith told Anne Weismann, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Read more: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/65158.html?wlc=1226688401

[amdezurik]

1. well Griffith is a Bush crony after all

[bertman]

2. Why does it matter, Judge Griffith? It matters because these documents are public record and

they only disappeared, conveniently I might add, when the administration sought to hide its illegal actions. Is that a mistake, Judge? Or is it an intentional avoidance of accountability to the people of the United States of America? I think the latter, Judge.

[cosmicone]

3. If Judge Griffith's wrong leg was amputated by a surgeon

and the surgeon claims to have lost all records due to a "mistake" ... would he see it the same way?