White House Declares Office Off-Limits
Administrator of Missing E-Mails Not Subject to Open-Records Law, It SaysThe Bush administration argued in court papers this week that the White House Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act as part of its effort to fend off a civil lawsuit seeking the release of internal documents about a large number of e-mails missing from White House servers.
The claim, made in a motion filed Tuesday by the Justice Department, is at odds with a depiction of the office on the White House’s own Web site. As of yesterday, the site listed the Office of Administration as one of six presidential entities subject to the open-records law, which is commonly known by its abbreviation, FOIA.
What is at issue here is not what powers the White House has to privacy. The issue is why. This is a criminal investigation. What possible reason would the White House have ever been given to claim secrecy or privilege as a way of with-holding evidence in a criminal proceeding? Sure, it’s been ruled that they have the right to keep their deliberations private. This has nothing to do with deliberations. This has to do with violations of the Presidential Records Act.
Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists, said that given the previous ruling on the NSC, the White House may be successful in its bid to close off its administrative office to public scrutiny.
"It’s obnoxious, and it’s a gesture of defiance against the norms of open government," Aftergood said. "But it turns out that a White House body can be an agency one day and cease to be one the next day, as absurd as it may seem."
It’s obnoxious, and it’s a gesture of defiance against the norms of open government.
…as is the rest of their whole Administration from day one.
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