Contractor says he didn't know of production deadline for White House e-mails

By CNN Producer Ted Barrett

July 14, 2000
Web posted at: 6:59 p.m. EDT (2259 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A contractor hired to oversee the recovery of missing White House e-mails testified Friday that the Clinton Administration never informed him of the time-sensitive nature of the project or a federal judge's order to produce the messages as soon as possible.

Gregory Ekberg, testifying in a civil suit involving the e-mails, said he planned to have tapes copied into a searchable format by the end of 2000, which is when he said another contractor had told him the White House wanted the job completed.

Critics of the administration have accused the White House of trying to delay the recovery of the e-mails until after the November election because some of the messages might pertain to the ongoing campaign finance investigation of Vice President Al Gore. The White House denies the allegation.

Ekberg told CNN he would not have changed his approach to the job had he known of the deadline, and he blamed repeated technical failures for delays in completing the work.

U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth will decide whether to take oversight of the work away from the White House and appoint a special master to complete the recovery process.

Various witnesses have testified over the past two days of this pre-trial hearing that the White House hired a contractor who lacked the expertise to do the job and ignored advice on how to get the job done more quickly.

Ekberg disagreed, saying the contractor is "very competent, very dedicated."

On Thursday, Ekberg testified that an FBI agent approved a copying process that had started that morning and eventually will turn out as many as 35 tapes per day. At that rate, investigators, including the judge, will start seeing e-mails in four to six weeks, he said.

There are anywhere from 3,400 to 6,000 tapes, containing thousands of unarchived incoming e-mails that need to be transferred, according to the White House. Once the tapes are transferred, the e-mails will be searched to see if they relate to the subpoenas of various investigators.

The lawsuit was filed by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch.