Bush White House failed to archive e-mails

She said information currently on the backup tapes is completely inaccessible, which is why she wants Ferriero to restore all of them so the messages can eventually be part of the public record. The Obama administration already restored messages from the tapes for an additional 40 days identified by the two organizations as suspicious. Those messages have been sent to the NARA.

Weismann contrasted the Bush administration’s approach to preserving electronic communications to the current White House, which she said has better policies in place.

“I think they are actively trying to make sure those policies are complied with. And when they get evidence of the problem, they don’t ignore it,” she said, adding that the Bush administration’s technical personnel were aware of the e-mail archiving problem for years and chose not to act.

Weismann also commented on the recent reprimand of White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer Andrew McLaughlin, who used his personal e-mail account to communicate with his former Google colleagues about technology issues facing the Obama administration in violation of federal policy.

She called the incident “troubling” but said there was “no smoking gun” that McLaughlin intentionally used his personal account to conduct official business. Weismann said she is concerned that the White House is too focused on the technology aspect of transparency and not paying enough attention to document preservation.

“There’s very few agencies dealing appropriately with electronic records and e-mail,” Weismann said. “It’s a complicated problem, it tends to make people’s eyes glaze over.”