A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia Monday dismissed a lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) seeking access to e-mail records from the White House Office of Administration  under the Freedom of Information Act. The court held that the OA "is not an agency subject to the FOIA," even though OA had complied with such requests prior to August 2007. Lawyers for CREW have appealed the decision. In February, the court had allowed CREW to proceed with "very limited" discovery in the case.

CREW brought the lawsuit in May 2007 to gain access to information regarding potential lost e-mails at the Executive Office of the President. The issue of missing e-mails has been an ongoing controversy throughout the Bush administration, arising first during the CIA leak investigation and then again during the US Attorney firing scandal. In February, CREW urged US Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether the White House had violated the Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act in failing to preserve White House e-mails. CREW has publicly alleged that White House officials may have deliberately lost or tampered with e-mail records to hide illegal conduct.