White House

The White House disclosed to a federal court on Friday that some of its computer hard drives from before October 2003 have been destroyed.

Rebuffed by the Department of Justice after pushing for contempt charges to be brought against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, House Democrats filed a federal lawsuit today in a renewed attempt to force Bolten and Miers to testify before Congress.

A non-profit organization filed a motion in federal court Thursday, stating that the Bush administration made false and contradictory statements in court about the White House e-mail controversy.

President Bush is hedging on whether or not he'll disclose the list of donors to his presidential library even as a bill that has already passed the House of Representatives might ultimately force him to do so.

The White House e-mail system is “primitive” and creates a “high” risk that data would be lost, according to a computer expert’s statements presented today at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) criticized the White House Monday for an item in the proposed FY09 budget that puts the new FOIA office, originally slated to be in the National Archives, in the Justice Department instead.

The White House has declared war on the new Office of Government Information Services -- popularly known as the office of the "ombudsman" -- that was created through the Freedom of Information Act reform bill signed into law by President Bush on Dec. 31.

Last week, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) responded to the Bush administration's rumored plan to instruct the Department of Justice to take over functions that had been assigned to the newly-created office of Government Information Services, set forth by the recently passed FOIA reform bill.

Leahy and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) made sure Attorney General Michael Mukasey was aware of the rumor when they spoke with him at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday.

President Bush has ordered federal agencies to respond to recent recommendations that address how to more efficiently declassify documents.

The Washington Post has a great rundown in Sunday's paper about the extensive efforts at secrecy pushed by the White House over the past seven years and the resulting backlash this near-total information blackout has caused.