Court rules on 'lost' Bush emails

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A US federal appeals court has ruled that a White House office does not have to release records about millions of lost Bush-era emails.

The court decided that the White House Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and does not need to publish the records.

During George W Bush's presidency, millions of emails went missing when a new computer system was installed.

But the ruling means records detailing the loss will not be released.

Further steps

The court's decision is a response to a Freedom of Information request from a group known as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew).

Crew wanted the White House Office of Administration to publish documents relating to the missing emails, including reports analysing system problems, plans to find the missing emails, proposals to create an improved system and records of any retained messages.

During the court case, the White House revealed that it had identified some 3,500 documents relating to the email system.

The problems with the Bush-era email system were first discovered in 2005.

Some 14 million missing emails were subsequently located, and hundreds of thousands of other messages were later restored from computer backup disks.

But Crew - concerned that significant numbers of emails were still missing - filed a lawsuit calling on the US government to take further steps to recover any lost messages.

When the email problems were first discovered, some critics expressed fears that the White House had erased from backup disks messages relating to controversial issues like the decision to invade Iraq and the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's covert status.