After the Microsoft anti-trust trial, people started to realize just how much information there was in an email history log. Later trials just hammered it home

After the Microsoft anti-trust trial, people started to realize just how much information there was in an email history log. Later trials just hammered it home. In response, everyone added a chapter to their document retention policy to cover emails. Emails are typically kept for 1 year, with exceptions for specific named individuals (CEO, Member of Parliament, Senator, Secretary of State, you get the idea). Secretary of State's retention period seems to be 30 years [3]. Individuals would be able to mark a document to be kept, but that's the exception rather than the rule. As soon as a court case where a person is mentioned starts, that person's documents are typically retained regardless of schedule - destroying docs that might be material is really frowned upon by the courts. All of this is typically mediated by a custom document retention server which costs a lot of money. The state department has a document retention policy [1], and I think this section [2] covers email. It lists retention at TEMPORARY: Transitory Files (including in electronic form) TEMPORARY: Destroy immediately, or when no longer needed for reference, or according to a predetermined time period or business rule (e.g., implementing the auto-delete feature of electronic mail systems). There might be something specific, but they all seem to be 1-2 years. With that in mind, let's look at this specific situation. The controversy started in March 2015. That puts Feb 2013 - the date the RNC is saying marks the end of the period they want revealed, outside of the document retention window (Controvery Start - 2 years). However, once asked you have to _search_ for a record. So the State Department would have searched through backups, there may be an old tape sitting around containing a backup of his personal computer. Nope, they couldn't find a copy of the PST (Microsoft Exchange or Outlook!). They would have found emails that he was party to where the other person was on a longer retention schedule. They may still find others if he sent emails to departments that don't have retention policies. Since this is a government department, all of this is defined by statute - it's up to Congress to set the time periods. If they want it changed, they need to pass a bill and then fund it because document retention is expensive (think format conversion). Finally, I understand that finance companies (stock traders) have additional retention requirements, even covering chat/SMS/etc messages. There is no cover up here, just proper application of good policy. [1] https://foia.state.gov/Learn/RecordsDisposition.aspx https://foia.state.gov/Learn/RecordsDisposition.aspx [2] https://foia.state.gov/_docs/RecordsDisposition/A-03.pdf https://foia.state.gov/_docs/RecordsDisposition/A-03.pdf [3] https://foia.state.gov/_docs/RecordsDisposition/A-01.pdf https://foia.state.gov/_docs/RecordsDisposition/A-01.pdf