By Nick Juliano , Rawstory.com, February 4, 2008

4 Feb 2008 // An independent watchdog is asking Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate alleged criminal mismanagement by the Bush administration that resulted in the disappearance of more than 10 million internal e-mails.

Ongoing lawsuits and congressional investigations have revealed that the White House apparently failed to properly maintain e-mail archives from March 2003 until October 2005. This also means that millions of e-mails, which could have provided valuable insight to historians examining the inner workings of Bush administration as it planned the Iraq war or leaked the identity of former CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, likely are lost forever.

Because the White House's failure to maintain its archives may have violated federal law, including the Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act, a special prosecutor is needed, says Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington [0], which is suing over the lost e-mails.

“The missing emails do not belong to the Bush administration, but to the American people," CREW's executive director Melanie Sloan said in a news release. "The Attorney General should take action to protect the right of future generations to look back and understand the role of White House officials in critical events.”

House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman released a report showing 473 days in which no e-mails are archived [1], and he's scheduled a hearing for later this month to examine what happened. Among those days are the week after Saddam Hussein's capture [2], the day the White House learned of an investigation of the Plame leak [3] and key dates regarding Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force [4].

The White House also has acknowledged [5] it recycled backup computer tapes prior to October 2003, meaning no permanent archive of e-mails from that timeframe exists.

CREW has previously requested special prosecutors be appointed to investigate the US Attorney firing scandal [5], although neither Mukasey nor his predecessor Alberto Gonzales took such a move.

"The need for an impartial special counsel is all the more pronounced, in light o f the recent history of improper White House involvement in, and politicization of, the work of the Department of Justice. For example, the administration has made clear that it will never allow the Department of Justice to pursue criminal contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials, including former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, and several U.S. Attorneys were fired for refusing to politicize criminal investigations," Sloan wrote in her letter to Mukasey (.pdf) [5].

"Frankly, the Department of Justice does not have the credibility or demonstrated independence required to investigate potentially criminal conduct by White House officials."