Judge OKs White House e-mail probe

[kpete]

Judge OKs White House e-mail probe
By Tim Dillon, USA TODAY

The White House in Washington. A federal judge has approved a private probe into the office that handles White House e-mails.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge agreed Monday to allow a private group to delve into the operations of an office at the White House as part of a controversy over whether large amounts of e-mail have disappeared.
Permitting any private organization to inquire into White House functions is an unusual step, a point U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly underscored in her six-page order.

The judge said she will allow Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to gather a "very limited" amount of information from the White House Office of Administration, which is in charge of preserving e-mail.

The issue for Kollar-Kotelly is whether the Office of Administration operates with substantial independent authority. If the judge finds that it does, the private group can pursue data about what went wrong with the White House e-mail system.

more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-02-11-whitehouse-email_N.htm