Millions of Bush-era e-mail messages to be recovered

Two groups announced Monday that they have settled a 2007 lawsuit against the government over millions of missing e-mail messages that were sent during the Bush administration, USA Today reported.

Citizens for Professional Responsibility and the National Security Archive reached a deal with the Obama White House to have 22 million missing e-mail messages from the Bush administration restored. The lawsuit accused the former administration of taking no action to prevent the loss of electronic records even after problems in the backup system were revealed.

The two groups sued the government in 2007 to recover millions of e-mail messages that were not preserved on White House servers over a two-and-a-half year period. As part of the settlement, the Obama Administration agreed to restore and turn over 94 calendar days of e-mail traffic.

"The dates for restoration were chosen based on email volume and external events because there simply was not enough money to restore all the missing emails," a CREW statement said.

One of CREW’s founders, Norman L. Eisen, is now special counsel to the president, MSNBC reported recently.

Another watchdog group, Judicial Watch, filed a lawsuit against the Obama White House last week seeking access to White House visitor logs after filing multiple unanswered Freedom of Information Act requests.