By way of Secrecy News, comes a provocative item. At the very end of a letter from Patrick J. Fitzgerald, from the Office of Special Counsel, regarding the case of the United States vs. Lewis (Scooter) Libby:
We are aware of no evidence pertinent to the charges against defendant Libby which has been destroyed. In an abundance of caution, we advise you that we have learned that not all email of the Office of Vice President and the Executive Office of President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system.
After having recently posted about electronic discovery and the Enron emails, this caught my eye. What is Fitzgerald saying? That not all the email has been preserved? Or that not all the email was preserved through the normal archiving process?
"Bottom line: Accidents happen and there could be a benign explanation, but this is highly irregular and invites suspicion," said Steve Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists government secrecy project.
"A particular subset of records sought in a controversial prosecution have gone missing," Aftergood said. "I think what is needed is for the national archivist to ascertain what went wrong and how to ensure it won't happen again."
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