White House reassembling e-mails, computer technician testifies

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,500227878-500328543-501869195-0,00.html

By GREG TOPPO, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (July 14, 2000 11:17 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) -
New and reliable equipment is helping the White House reassemble
thousands of missing e-mails that were once thought to be
irretrievable, a computer technician testified. The e-mails are sought
in a civil lawsuit against the Clinton administration.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who was hearing a second day of
testimony Friday, must determine how to get the messages to
investigators in the case brought by the conservative legal group
Judicial Watch.

He could appoint a special master to oversee production of the e-mails
or order a company to perform the reconstruction. He also could let
the White House proceed with the job.

Terrence Misich, an Army chief warrant officer who is overseeing the
project, testified Thursday that a searchable database of the e-mails
should be ready in four to six weeks. He blamed earlier delays on poor
copier systems.

Also Thursday, two former White House computer consultants said
workers could have retrieved the lost e-mails in a matter of months if
the White House had committed enough resources.

White House officials said earlier this year that thousands of
e-mails, including some from Vice President Al Gore's office, were not
properly archived and were lost because of a computer glitch.

As a result, the messages were never reviewed by White House lawyers
to determine if they should be turned over to investigators under
subpoena in cases ranging from the Monica Lewinsky scandal and
Whitewater to campaign fund raising.

Misich said that despite months of work, technicians could not
reliably retrieve the e-mails until now because they could not find
the proper equipment to do the job.

Former White House computer worker Sheryl Hall, testifying on Judicial
Watch's behalf, estimated that it would take about four months to six
months for about five workers to restore the thousands of lost
e-mails. She said workers could have begun producing the files in a
matter of days, given the proper tools.

Betty Lambuth, a second former computer consultant, testified that the
job would take as long as four months.

Because of an apparent programming error, incoming e-mail messages
dating back to August 1996 were not searched in response to subpoenas
by the Justice Department and congressional investigators.

Congress, Independent Counsel Robert Ray and the Justice Department
are investigating whether the e-mail problem was an innocent mistake,
as the White House contends, or part of an effort to obstruct their
investigations into the Lewinsky scandal and the White House's
gathering of the FBI files of past Republican appointees.

The White House denies any wrongdoing.

House Republicans say the White House has dragged its feet in solving
the problem and threatened technicians who revealed the glitch.

Judicial Watch attorney Larry Klayman, who argued the case, told
Lamberth that the White House may have intentionally hired consultants
with little expertise in restoring the data in order to delay the
investigation.

The court hearing took place as Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., urged White
House counsel Beth Nolan and Attorney General Janet Reno to support
appointment of an outside expert to supervise the e-mail effort.

Burton said the House Government Reform Committee, which he heads,
"has no confidence that the White House will satisfy its obligations
to produce information in a timely fashion."


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