White House Office of Administration immune from FOIA requests

By Michael Fraase

Tuesday, 17 June 2008 08:25PM CST

Section: Law

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) filesFederal District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has ruled that because the White House Office of Administration is not a federal agency it’s exempt from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

Last year, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a FOIA request to determine the extent of email problems in the White House. Specifically, CREW was interested in the disappearance of email related to Bush administration controversies between 2001-05. Reversing decades of compliance with FOIA requests since its creation in 1978, the White House Office of Administration refused. CREW brought a lawsuit, arguing that by failing to preserve electronic records, the White House had broken the law.

The White House, while acknowledging problems with its email system, insists that backup tapes are available.

Del Quentin Wilber, writing for the Washington Post, summed up Kollar-Kotelly’s decision:

“Acknowledging that the issue ‘is a close one, and is not easily resolved,’ Kollar-Kotelly wrote that the Office of Administration ‘lacks the type of substantial independent authority’ necessary for it to fall under the FOIA. She added that the office performs mostly administrative functions, which also exempts it, and that past compliance with the FOIA was ‘insufficient by itself’ to subject it to the law’s requirements.”

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