-Caveat Lector- http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAX9P5DKOC.html EPA Head Browner Asked for Computer Files to Be Deleted By John Solomon Associated Press Writer Published: Jun 29, 2001 WASHINGTON (AP) - The same day a judge ordered her agency to preserve records, then-Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner asked a technician to delete her computer files, according to testimony in a court case seeking contempt penalties against the government. Browner says she did not know about the court order and simply was seeking to remove some games, which her son had installed on her work computer, before leaving office with other Clinton appointees on Jan. 19. "It didn't seem appropriate to leave behind a computer with kids' games," Browner said in sworn testimony filed in court this week in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The conservative group that sued the EPA for documents isn't buying Browner's explanation, and on Friday asked U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to hold her and other top staff whose electronic records were destroyed in contempt of court. The Landmark Legal Foundation offered Browner's deposition - as well as other testimony indicating a deputy erased his computer files on Feb. 2, two weeks after the court order - as evidence the agency violated Lamberth's record preservation order. "It is difficult to imagine a more thorough evisceration of the FOIA, and the court's authority in enforcing this statute, than this case," the group said in seeking civil contempt penalties against Browner and other officials. The Freedom of Information Act guarantees Americans access to government records. Landmark sued EPA last fall seeking documents detailing agency contacts with outside groups concerning last-minute environmental regulations the Clinton administration was imposing before leaving office. The government acknowledged this spring that computer files from Browner and other top staff were wiped clean despite Lamberth's order. Government lawyers have blamed slow communications for the deletion of records. EPA's inspector general, its internal watchdog, is investigating. Lamberth issued a protective order on Jan. 19, as the Clinton administration was heading out of office, that instructed EPA to preserve all documents that might be relevant to the request. That same day, computer technician contractor Kevin Bailey testified, Browner came to him and asked that her computer be purged. "She needed her files deleted; she wanted her files deleted," Bailey testified in the Landmark lawsuit. '"I would like my files deleted. I want you to delete my files.' Something like that." Browner acknowledged making the request, but said she wasn't sure of the exact terms she used. At the time, she added, she did not know about the judge's order. Browner said she doesn't think her request affected the case because she seldom used her computer - except for occasional word processing or travel reservations. Browner said she asked the technicians "to clean up the computer, and in my particular instance, it meant my son's computer games. I had no idea what else may have been on that computer since I didn't use it regularly." Browner said she simply wanted the EPA to be courteous during the transition to the new Bush administration and that staff, as part of the routine, removed personal items that had apparently accumulated on their work computers. "People generally told me they were taking their personal matters off of their computers, which caused me to remember the games," she said in a deposition last week. Browner testified she could not recall ever hearing about the FOIA lawsuit. It had dragged on for months and was reported in news accounts, and e-mails showed many of her top aides had discussed it. Browner said the first she heard about the case was in a call in which one of her aides told her about the judge's Jan. 19 order to preserve records. That call, she said, came after she had already asked that her computer hard drive be wiped clean. ======================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ======================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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