Aide: Easley wanted e-mail messages deleted

RALEIGH (The Raleigh News & Observer) - Former Gov. Mike Easley's press secretary said in sworn testimony that the governor wanted e-mail messages to and from his office deleted so they would not become public.

Renee Hoffman said that Easley, through his Communications Director Sherri Johnson, told public information officers throughout his administration to delete e-mails.

"She instructed me to tell them, tell the [public information officers] to delete their e-mails to and from the Governor's Office, to -- to not write about the Governor's Office in an e-mail, and to not put that instruction to their employees in an e-mail," Hoffman said, according to a deposition in a public records lawsuit filed by The News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer and several other organizations.