After the Microsoft anti-trust trial, people started to realize just how much information there was in an email history log.  Later trials just hammered it home.<p>In response, everyone added a chapter to their document retention policy to cover emails.  Emails are typically kept for 1 year, with exceptions for specific named individuals (CEO, Member of Parliament, Senator, Secretary of State, you get the idea).  Secretary of State&#x27;s retention period seems to be 30 years [3].<p>Individuals would be able to mark a document to be kept, but that&#x27;s the exception rather than the rule.<p>As soon as a court case where a person is mentioned starts, that person&#x27;s documents are typically retained regardless of schedule - destroying docs that might be material is really frowned upon by the courts.<p>All of this is typically mediated by a custom document retention server which costs a lot of money.<p>The state department has a document retention policy [1], and I think this section [2] covers email.  It lists retention at TEMPORARY:<p><pre><code>  Transitory Files (including in electronic form)
  TEMPORARY: Destroy immediately, or when no longer needed for reference, or
  according to a predetermined time period or business rule (e.g., implementing the
  auto-delete feature of electronic mail systems).
</code></pre>
There might be something specific, but they all seem to be 1-2 years.<p>With that in mind, let&#x27;s look at this specific situation.  The controversy started in March 2015.  That puts Feb 2013 - the date the RNC is saying marks the end of the period they want revealed, outside of the document retention window (Controvery Start - 2 years).<p>However, once asked you have to _search_ for a record.  So the State Department would have searched through backups, there may be an old tape sitting around containing a backup of his personal computer.  Nope, they couldn&#x27;t find a copy of the PST (Microsoft Exchange or Outlook!).  They would have found emails that he was party to where the other person was on a longer retention schedule.<p>They may still find others if he sent emails to departments that don&#x27;t have retention policies.<p>Since this is a government department, all of this is defined by statute - it&#x27;s up to Congress to set the time periods.  If they want it changed, they need to pass a bill and then fund it because document retention is expensive (think format conversion).<p>Finally, I understand that finance companies (stock traders) have additional retention requirements, even covering chat&#x2F;SMS&#x2F;etc messages.<p>There is no cover up here, just proper application of good policy.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;foia.state.gov&#x2F;Learn&#x2F;RecordsDisposition.aspx" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;foia.state.gov&#x2F;Learn&#x2F;RecordsDisposition.aspx</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;foia.state.gov&#x2F;_docs&#x2F;RecordsDisposition&#x2F;A-03.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;foia.state.gov&#x2F;_docs&#x2F;RecordsDisposition&#x2F;A-03.pdf</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;foia.state.gov&#x2F;_docs&#x2F;RecordsDisposition&#x2F;A-01.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;foia.state.gov&#x2F;_docs&#x2F;RecordsDisposition&#x2F;A-01.pdf</a>