[JURIST] Private government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) [advocacy website] Tuesday urged US Attorney General Michael Mukasey [official website] to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether the White House had violated the Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act [texts] in failing to preserve millions of missing White House e-mails [JURIST news archive]. In September 2007 CREW sued the Executive Office of the President and the National Archives and Records Administration over their alleged failure to preserve e-mails [complaint, PDF; press release] throughout the Bush administration. In its Tuesday letter [PDF text; press release] to Mukasey, CREW said:

The importance and historical significance of the missing email combined with the involvement of White House staff, make it imperative that the public have absolute confidence in whoever investigates this matter - the exact circumstance for which the special counsel provision was designed. The need for an impartial special counsel is all the more pronounced, in light of 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 US Attorneys were fired for refusing to politicize criminal investigations. Frankly, the Department of Justice does not have the credibility or demonstrated independence required to investigate potentially criminal conduct by White House officials.