[JURIST] The White House said Saturday it would cooperate with the US Senate Judiciary Committee in choosing an independent consultant to recover lost administration emails wanted to the Senate's US Attorney firing probe. On Wednesday, US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [official website] blasted the White House [JURIST report] for failing to turn over all documents, including emails, requested by the Committee in its investigation into the US Attorney firing scandal [JURIST news archive], and suggested that White House reports that certain emails had been lost were untrue.

On Tuesday, a White House spokesperson said that several emails appear to be lost [ABC report] that fall within the Committee's document requests. At least 21 staffers used Republican National Committee (RNC) email accounts while at work to avoid liability under the Hatch Act [backgrounder], which prohibits the use of government resources for political purposes. Other laws, however, prohibit staffers from failing to preserve presidential records. AP has more.