House investigates EPA emails, as agency says administrators have two accounts

The Daily Caller reported first that Jackson was using an email alias, based on research by Competitive Enterprise Institute fellow Christopher Horner. He says the agency’s use of secret email accounts dates back to the Clinton administration and then-Administrator Carol Browner.

“You remember Ms. Browner, the lady who suddenly ordered her computer hard drive reformatted and backup tapes erased, hours after a federal court issued a ‘preserve’ order … that her lawyers at the Clinton Justice Department insisted they hadn’t yet told her about?” Horner said in the Daily Caller story. Horner and the institute filed a lawsuit in September claiming EPA employees are using the private Gmail-type accounts to send official emails.

The House committee says federal law requires agencies to preserve all internal records associated with official activities and prohibits the use of private email accounts for government business, unless there are procedures in place to track and store such messages.