Among the many lessons of the Jack Abramoff case, there was one very important one about the use of new technology. Despite our laws that promote transparency in government, U.S. government officials can conceal much of what they do by using private servers on government time, even to do government work. They can thus effectively create a zone free of the Freedom of Information Act.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., ran into this issue when investigating any possible White House involvement in the Abramoff scandal. As it turned out, many emails were sent and received in the Bush White House on servers owned by the Republican National Committee.