You'd think that'd be all. Email messages have been judged as records and all should be preserved. Not so fast, bucko. The Clinton White House had some other ideas. And they were sneaky.

You see, the "law" applied to email, but then the question was whether the Presidential Records Act applied or the Federal Records Act applied. The difference is that Federal Records Act laws apply to "agencies" and are subject to the Freedom of Information Act, where Presidential Records are not.

If you or I want to be permitted, via a Freedom of Information Act filing, to see the records of the National Security Council, the NSC would have to be considered an agency. And, for almost 50 years, since 1947, it has been considered an agency. On March 25, 1994, President Clinton filed papers declaring that the National Security Council is not an agency, therefore is not subject to Freedom of Information Act regulations -- keeping all Clinton-era NSC email records out of public view.

In 1995, Judge Richey rejected this approach, claiming that the Clinton administration's attempts to reclassify the National Security Council as "Arbitrary and capricious...contrary to history, past practice and the law."

That, as you might imagine, is not the end of it.

Bush II administration (2001-2009)
We've covered a lot of what's going on in the Bush II administration throughout this article series, but one aspect of Bush II activities directly relates to the historical perspective covered in this article. On November 1, 2001, Bush II issued Executive Order 13,233 that effectively overturns the disclosure requirements for the Presidential Records Act.

You need to understand something about the Presidential Records Act. Even though information is intended to be disclosed to American citizens, any former president can restrict access to that information for a period of up to 12 years after leaving office.

There are some minor loopholes in this, primarily to protect real national security concerns. The law also requires all confidential and private communication between the president and his advisors to be made available, without any exception for "attorney-client" or "attorney work product" documents.

So President Reagan's records could (theoretically) be viewed in 2001, Bush I's records could (theoretically) be viewed in 2005, Bill Clinton's records in 2013, and Bush II's records in 2021.

Executive Order 13,233, drafted by Bush II's then White House Council Alberto Gonzales (yes, the very same guy for whom the entire White House email controversy began), gives the president (any president) new privileges with regard to records. It allows the president to restrict access to these documents -- virtually forever.

Now, if you think about the reason for the PRA, to allow the public, long after a president has left office, to really see what went on, this new Executive Order prevents citizens from ever gaining a clear view of the inner workings of a given presidency.