Breaking the Law--a New Paradigm for American Presidencies

White House Has No Comprehensive E-Mail Archive System Used by Clinton Was Scrapped

By Elizabeth Williamson and Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, January 22, 2008; A03

For years, the Bush administration has relied on an inadequate archiving system for storing the millions of e-mails sent through White House servers, despite court orders and statutes requiring the preservation of such records, according to documents and technical experts.

President Bush's White House early on scrapped a custom archiving system that the Clinton administration had adopted under a federal court order. From 2001 to 2003, the Bush White House also recorded over computer backup tapes that provided a last line of defense for preserving e-mails, even though a similar practice landed the Clinton administration in legal trouble.

As a result, several years' worth of electronic communication may have been lost, potentially including e-mails documenting administration actions in the run-up to the Iraq wa…