White House Emails Can Stay Missing: Judge

Records on millions of missing White House emails can stay secret after all, a federal judge ruled today. US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rejected a watchdog group's lawsuit, saying the records are kept in an agency exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. A probe, lawsuit, and appeal are all pending in the battle over emails that vanished mysteriously last year.

"We are disappointed in the ruling and believe the judge reached the wrong legal conclusion," a watchdog group rep told the Washington Post. "The Bush administration is using the legal system to prevent the American people from discovering the truth about the millions of missing White House e-mails." (More missing White House emails stories.)