Some Obama Records May Not be Preserved

WASHINGTON — The nation's archivist says he is not comfortable with allowing White House staff members to determine whether their electronic messages from personal accounts are work-related and must be saved.

The archivist of the United States, David Ferriero, told a House hearing Tuesday that official communications to or from a presidential employee's personal device clearly must be preserved under the law. However, a staff member gets to determine what is official.

The Obama administration's chief information officer, Brook Colangelo, says there's no way to automatically capture communications from personal accounts unless they are accessed from a government-issued computer or personal device. Colangelo says the administration relies on voluntary compliance, bolstered by periodic training on which records are considered official.