Solyndra Investigators Won't See Obama BlackBerry

White House rejects request from House panel
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 15, 2011 6:13 AM CDT
Solyndra Investigators Won't See Obama BlackBerry
In this 2008 photo, then-candidate Barack Obama checks his BlackBerry.   (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

President Obama's BlackBerry messages are off-limits to the House energy committee investigating the ugly bankruptcy of Solyndra, report Politico and CNN. White House officials say that revealing the messages would compromise presidential confidentiality, and that they have already given the panel plenty—including more than 900 pages of Solyndra-related communications from the White House, plus 70,000 pages more from the Energy and Treasury departments, and the Office of Management and Budget.

"I think it's a lot of politically motivated requests," said White House chief of staff Bill Daley. "But there's been a long history of White House communications being protected … from a lot of the legislative requests.” While several of the emails released so far have embarrassed the White House, with warnings of political risk and questions of loan legality, the White House counsel said none of the documents support GOP charges of cronyism. (More Solyndra stories.)

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