CREW and White House finally settled on missing email lawsuit

White House website:

Today, the President took another important step toward bringing that change to Washington—and toward fulfilling his promise to have the most transparent government in history—by successfully resolving a longstanding dispute about missing White House emails dating from the previous Administration.

First a little background. The missing email problem was first identified in 2005, when the Office of Administration conducted an internal analysis suggesting that millions of emails from the Executive Office of the President ("EOP"), created between March 2003 and October 2005, might be missing. Approximately two years later, in September 2007, the National Security Archive ("NSA") and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics ("CREW") filed lawsuits against the EOP and the National Archives seeking to recover any missing emails. The litigation continued for over a year, and involved numerous motions and other courtroom fights.

Shortly after taking office, President Obama made it a priority to resolve this dispute (which concerns the previous Administration's emails only). The White House quickly began discussions with NSA and CREW, and the parties agreed to stay the litigation on March 31, 2009—a temporary pause, in the hopes of working things out.

Today, the White House is pleased to announce that the parties have reached an agreement to settle the pending lawsuits. As part of the agreement, the White House will restore millions of emails from back-up tapes related to at least 33 different days during the Bush Administration. The millions of restored emails will be transferred to the National Archives. They eventually will be made available to historians, students, and the general public under laws providing for the release of such documents from prior administrations.

From the CREW:

After the Obama administration produces all the promised records, CREW will release a report, providing as much detail as possible. Sloan continued, “The Obama administration, which inherited the lawsuits and the dysfunctional White House email system, has done a terrific job straightening out the mess. Thanks to the Obama White House, a critical part of our nation’s missing history will be restored. This is yet another example of the administration living up to its promise of accountability and transparency.”

Click here to read the terms of agreement.