WHITE HOUSE FILING IN CREW LAWSUIT REVEALS NO BACKUP TAPES DURING LAUNCH OF IRAQ WAR

6 May 2008 // Late last night, in response to an order of the court in CREW v. EOP, the White House filed a third declaration of Office of Administration Chief Information Officer Theresa Payton in which the White House admitted, among other things, that it has no backup tapes for White House emails for the period March 1, 2003 through May 22, 2003.

The White House also argued that it should not be required to save any backup tape pursuant to a court order because, according to the White House, there is no evidence that any White House emails are missing, notwithstanding a wealth of documentation released by the House Oversight Committee and the prior admissions by the White House to the Committee and Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald and its own press officers that emails are, in fact, missing.

The court is considering whether to expand the current preservation order to require the White House to preserve additional copies, including those on other media.

The White House declaration can be found on the right.