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White House Ordered to Keep E-Mails
With Suits Pending Over Missing Messages, Judge Issues Directive on Backup Tapes
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, November 13, 2007; Page A04
A federal judge ordered the White House yesterday not to destroy any backup computer tapes of its e-mail, pending civil litigation seeking to learn more about what happened to a trove of messages missing from a 2 1/2 -year period earlier in the Bush presidency.
…The order stems from the disappearance of possibly millions of e-mails sent and received by aides to President Bush from March 2003 to October 2005. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group that has been critical of the administration, has said it was told by internal sources that the White House determined that at least 5 million and perhaps many more e-mails from that period were not saved as required by law.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/12/AR2007111201626.html