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 For Immediate Release
Jul 10, 2000 Contact: Press Office
202-646-5172
LAMBERTH ORDERS IMMEDIATE EVIDENTIARY HEARING IN E-MAIL MATTER

Court Calls White House Claim That It Could Not Have Begun Earlier E-Mail Recreation "Preposterous"


(Washington, DC) Today, the Honorable Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered an immediate evidentiary hearing, with full testimony under oath, including the right of cross-examination, to uncover why it has taken the Clinton-Gore White House over 20 weeks (i.e., five months) to even begin formulating a plan to recreate the so-called "missing" e-mail relevant to Judicial Watch's $90-million class action Filegate lawsuit. Below are some excerpts from the Court's ruling:
    Elementary mathematics illustrates, however, that copying two tapes each day is better than none. By analogy, if the data at issue were in hard-copy rather than computer form, the EOP's [Executive Office of the President's] position would essentially be that it need not copy or produce a single document until it could find a copier capable of reproducing large quantities of the documents together. This court cannot accept such a preposterous position.

    . . . Therefore, had the EOP begun copying tapes, not only would some data now be available for searching, but also the EOP could have tested its capability to complete the restoration process, modified its plan as necessary, and developed an estimate for when the entire process could be completed.

    The EOP did not do this, however. Nor has it provided the court with any explanation of why it did not do so. Instead, after twenty weeks, the EOP has not made one concrete step towards producing any of the non-ARMS e-mail, and can not give the court any estimate of when it might do so. Accordingly, the court finds that an evidentiary hearing to determine the best way to restore and search non-ARMS e-mail is warranted. The evidentiary hearing shall be scheduled immediately.
The Court also ordered a search of Vince Foster's archived hard drive.

"Judge Lamberth is the only real hope of the American people to get to the bottom of the e-mail scandal and other matters which are pending before his Court in Judicial Watch lawsuits. He is a man of utmost integrity and, like Judge John Sirica, only he can get to the bottom of and redress the corruption in the Clinton-Gore White House," stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.

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