White House Gives Probers E-Mail 

        By Gregory Lardner, Jr.
                    
        Washington Post Staff writer   
        Wednesday, May 3, 2000;      

        The White House yielded 
        yesterday to a sharply worded congressional 
        protest and produced a thick stack of e-mail 
        correspondence dealing with former White House 
        intern Monica S. Lewinsky along with several 
        documents President Clinton's lawyers originally 
        contended might be privileged. 

        Facing a third round of hearings on subpoenaed 
        e-mail that the White House says was lost 
        because of computer glitches, White House 
        counsel Beth Nolan said she wanted to make it 
        clear that "the White House is fully 
        cooperating" with the House Government Reform 
        Committee's investigation.

        The inquiry has already churned up a variety of 
        records, including one showing that a large 
        volume of e-mail for White House aide Sidney 
        Blumenthal was deleted from his personal 
        computer in December 1998 at the height of the 
        impeachment crisis. According to a Jan. 6, 1999, 
        memo by White House computer specialist Daniel 
        "Tony" Barry, a copy of which was obtained by 
        The Washington Post, White House officials were 
        talking about deleting the messages to 
        Blumenthal from their automated, permanent 
        archives as well. No reason was mentioned, nor 
        was the final decision.

        Blumenthal, an aggressive defender of the 
        president, declined to comment. White House 
        spokesman Jim Kennedy said he was trying to 
        determine who might have wanted the e-mails 
        deleted from the permanent archives and why, but 
        he said he had no reason to think it was 
        Blumenthal. As for the deletions from 
        Blumenthal's personal computer, Kennedy said 
        White House aides are encouraged to regularly do 
        that.

               c 2000 The Washington Post Company 










       http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar.../A58371-2000May2.htm  05/03/2000