White House Admits Mishandling Staff E-mails

Tonight, Waxman released a statement after his staff was briefed by the administration: "This is a remarkable admission that raises serious legal and security issues. The White House has an obligation to disclose all the information it had."

In a briefing to reporters, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel explained that the administration's dual e-mail set up was a continuation of a practice similar to one used in the Clinton administration. "Out of an abundance of caution," and because of "logistical difficulties associated with operating two e-mail accounts at one time," Stanzel said, some staff members used their political e-mail accounts to communicate about official White House business. There are apparently about 20 individuals in the White House who have political e-mail accounts.

While the RNC has an automatic deletion policy, which typically deletes emails every 30 days, a policy had been set since 2004 to exclude the individuals at the White House staff from this automatic deletion. However, despite the exclusion, the White House said tonight that it has discovered that the RNC retention practices may not "at all times have preserved" the e-mails that potentially deal with White House business. A spokesman said that the White House Counsel's Office is working to determine how to recover any e-mails "that do reflect official White House business that may not have been otherwise preserved."