By Emma Dovi
(The White House sign which is the backdrop for all White House Press Briefings.)
(c) 2008 Associated Press (photo by J. Scott Applewhite)
On November 14, 2008, a three-judge panel ruled that the White House Office of Administation does not have to answer to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) laws, according to the First Amendment Center. This ruling could potentially be protecting the confidentiality of e-mails that seem to have gone missing from certain White House Offices in the Administrative division. The search for these mystery e-mails first surfaced as an issue during the Valerie Plame case about her leaked identity as a CIA agent. E-mails from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney were sought after by prosecutors only to discover that they were nowhere to be found.
The White House Office of Administration allegedly failed to put an e-mail archive into place, which in turn failed to document hundreds of e-mails. Anne Weismen, chief counsel for Citizens Responsibility and Ethics in Washington says the White House does not have the right to be exempt from producing these documents. Thomas Bondy, Justice Department lawyer, arguing for the White House, claims that these documents should be protected as part of "the importance of the Office of Administration, saying that President George W. Bush is the head of it," according to the First Amendment Center.
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