spacetoday.net: NASA lawyer admits to destroying recording

Posted: Fri, May 25, 2007, 8:54 AM ET (1254 GMT)
NASA

NASA's top lawyer told members of Congress at a hearing Thursday that he destroyed a video recording of a meeting held by the NASA administrator last month, raising the ire of some members. NASA chief counsel Michael Wholley said he destroyed DVDs of a meeting Mike Griffin had with members of the agency's inspector general (IG) office after discovering that the private meeting was mistakenly videotaped; the destruction of the videos was intended to prevent them from entering the public record. However, members of the investigations and oversight subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee said that the video constituted a public record and its destruction may be a violation of law. The top Republican on the subcommittee, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, said he would sign a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking for a formal investigation should the subcommittee's chairman, Rep. Brad Miller, draft one. The April meeting between Griffin and the IG staff came after an outside investigation of the head of that office, Robert Cobb, was critical of his conduct, including interactions with his staff. That investigation is also of interest to Congress, although a hearing into the IG investigation planned by the Senate Commerce Committee earlier in the week was postponed.