Millions of White House emails that were "lost" between 2001 and 2005 can remain secret because the federal Office of Administration does not need to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled yesterday in a 3-0 decision. In effect, the court ruled that the White House Office of Administration isn't an agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
"Because nothing in the record indicates that [the Office of Administration] performs or is authorized to perform tasks other than operational and administrative support for the President and his staff, we conclude that OA lacks substantial independent authority and is therefore not an agency under FOIA," Judge Thomas Griffith's written opinion said.
The 14-million messages, which included emails from critical decision making periods of the Bush Administration, were originally "misplaced" and later found.
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