Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson failed to complete a required form listing all official records in her possession when she left the agency in 2013.
Jackson did not complete a Form 3110, which is required of all employees leaving the EPA or being transferred within it.
Jackson did not do so because of a “clerical oversight,” according to Larry Gottesman, the agency’s national Freedom of Information Act officer.
Gottesman’s explanation was contained in a Sept. 23 response to a FOIA request submitted by Christopher C. Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Gottesman provided forms completed by five other former top EPA officials that Horner had sought in addition to Jackson’s in his Aug. 1 FOIA request.
On its website, the EPA tells employees that when departing or being transferred within the agency, they “should identify and transfer all documentary materials, including paper and electronic federal records, in their personal workspace.
“Locations of electronic documents in the workspace include the computer hard drive, network drives (user and share), e-mail (in boxes, sent boxes, and folders) and removable media such as diskettes and CDs.
“Simply put, ‘identify and transfer all documentary materials’ means figure out what you’ve got and put it where it belongs.”
Jackson resigned from the EPA in December 2012 shortly after it was reported that she had conducted official business using a government email address that included a fake name, “Richard Windsor.”
Horner revealed Jackson’s use of the fake-name email in his book, The Liberal War on Transparency.
Two congressional committees investigated Jackson’s use of the fake email, and she was widely criticized by Republicans in Congress and transparency advocates outside of government. But no penalties were ever assessed against Jackson.
Gottesman has not responded to a Washington Examiner request for comment.
Mark Tapscott is executive editor of the Washington Examiner.
