Former EPA Head Ordered Computer Records Destroyed on Last Day in Office; Court Grants Landmark Deposition of Browner, Other EPA officials

HERNDON, Va., April 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Former EPA Administrator Carol Browner ordered the destruction of her computer records on the last full day of the Clinton Administration. The admission was made in a hearing today before Federal District Judge Royce Lamberth in a lawsuit brought by the Landmark Legal Foundation. On September 29, 2000, Landmark sued the EPA to force the disclosure of the identities of special interest groups that may have worked with the Agency in producing environmental regulations in the final days of the former administration.

The EPA, represented by the United States Attorney's Office, revealed that on January 19, 2001 -- the same day Judge Lamberth issued a preliminary injunction at Landmark's request to preserve all responsive records -- Browner ordered the hard drive in her computer to be erased. The U.S. Attorney's Office also reveal today that others at the EPA had their computer hard drives erased -- Browner's chief of staff, the Deputy EPA Administrator, and the Associate Deputy Administrator.

Today Judge Lamberth granted Landmark's request to depose Browner and other EPA officials with knowledge about the EPA's computer records. He ordered further that the government provide a full report to the Court on the destruction of the records by May 18, 2001.

Mark R. Levin, Landmark President, stated, "For seven months the EPA has refused to make public information about the influence special interest groups may have exercised over the regulatory process in the last days of the Clinton Administration. Now the EPA admits that some of that evidence was destroyed even though the Court ordered that it be preserved. This a very serious matter."

Landmark Legal Foundation is a public interest law firm founded in 1976. It has offices in Herndon, Virginia and Kansas City, Missouri.

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-- Anonymous, April 27, 2001