Richard Windsor, the e-mail alias employed by former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson to communicate with high-level Obama administration officials, environmental activists, and other top EPA officials, is still listed in the agency’s digital directory as an EPA employee, according to an agency employee who asked to remain anonymous.
The source tells National Review Online that a search of the agency’s internal directory for Richard Windsor returns an employee by that name, “buried in there with active employees.” Windsor is listed as an employee in “OA” — the Office of the Administrator — which Jackson ran until her departure from the agency in February 2013. The listing for Windsor gives no indication that Jackson used “his” e-mail as an alias, or that “he” is otherwise connected to Jackson in any way. Windsor is not listed in the agency’s public staff directory.
The EPA declined to comment on the nature of its directory listings or on whether it is standard practice for the e-mail aliases of employees to be listed in the agency’s directory as people without tying them to the owner of the alias. National Review Online received an initial response — “Looking into this and will get back to you” — from an EPA spokeswoman, but did not receive any further response.
I reported on Monday that the non-existent Windsor received various awards and certifications from the EPA during Jackson’s tenure, including an award naming him a “scholar of ethical behavior” and a certification in e-mail records management training. The agency released those documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who initially reported Jackson’s use of the Windsor alias.
The Associated Press reported yesterday that several top Obama administration officials use secret e-mail addresses, and the administration defended the practice, saying it is necessary in order to manage the flood of e-mail traffic those officials receive.
Jackson’s use of the Windsor alias is the subject of an investigation by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, whose ranking member, Senator David Vitter, has said the issue represents the EPA’s “disregard for transparency.”