Ride the Lightning

THE ITALIAN STALLION: JUDGE FACCIOLA TAKES ON WHITE HOUSE

March 21, 2008

Only because I had the pleasure of lecturing with Judge John Facciola last week at ABA TECHSHOW do I have the nerve to dub him “The Italian Stallion.” I hope his sense of humor is intact because the moniker is really a tribute to his dogged pursuit of the “missing” White House e-mails and his dedication to seeing that federal archiving laws are complied with. In his March 18th show cause order, the judge gave the White House three days to explain why it shouldn’t be required to forensically image certain computer hard drives to ensure that no further e-mails are lost.

A considerable number of e-mails, potentially millions, have been erased and it is as yet unclear how many are still available on backup tapes. As I’ve noted before, any Geeks ‘R Us firm could have handled the White House backup with more professionalism. It is impossible to know whether the White House IT staff is really that incompetent or whether something more malevolent is at work –  it is dismal to contemplate either alternative.

The original suit was brought by the National Security Archive to force the White House to restore missing e-mails and institute a functional archiving system, as required by federal law. Complying with the law isn’t rocket science, to put it mildly. It has occurred to many that the absence of these e-mails seems terribly convenient.

Judge Facciola’s order may be found at http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20080318/forensic_copy_order.pdf

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