Legal Worries Over Missing Emails Grow

LEGAL WORRIES OVER MISSING EMAILS GROW
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John D. McKinnon john.mckinnon@wsj.com]
The revelation of missing emails at the White House and Republican National Committee could become a legal headache as well as a political problem for President Bush. The clock already is ticking on the administration's promise to Congress to find out what happened. Senate Judiciary Committee leaders plan to meet with White House Counsel Fred Fielding today to "get this matter moving forward...so that we can figure out whether anything wrong was done," Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) said on ABC's "This Week." Critics say the White House has violated the Presidential Records Act, a 1978 law that requires each administration to maintain an adequate record of its deliberations. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino acknowledged on Thursday that "We screwed up." What's of equal concern, potentially, are the legal obligations that arose for the White House because of federal investigations into the leaking of the identity of a CIA agent, Valerie Plame Wilson, and into Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Once those investigations began, the legal burden on the White House to preserve emails grew. The key issue for the White House is whether people involved in the erasures intended to impede an investigation.
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