January 18, 2008

Waxman: Hundreds Of Days Of WH E-Mails Missing

Henry Waxman fired the next volley in Congress' fight with the Bush administration over missing White House e-mails, publicly challenging the administration's version of events and setting a hearing for Feb. 15. The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee strongly disputed White House spokesman Tony Fratto's comments yesterday that there was "no evidence" any e-mails sent between 2003 and 2005 were missing.

"We have no evidence and we have no way of showing that any e-mail at all are missing," Fratto said yesterday -- moving away from the White House's earlier position that it was uncertain about the matter.

That assertion seemed to go one step too far for Waxman, who called Fratto's assertion "an unsubstantiated statement that has no relation to the facts they have shared with us."

The California Democrat disclosed an internal White House summary showing that, contrary to Fratto's statement, there were 473 days between 2003 and 2005 during which no electronic communication was archived for some government offices. Among them are the Executive Office of the President, which had no backup copies for 12 days, and the Office of the Vice President, which had no backup copies for 16 days. The White House is required to preserve official communication.

AP and the Washington Post have more details on the hearings set for next month.

Posted at 8:55 AM
Posted to: Bush Administration, Congress, House
Share via