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"It very well may be that she said that." Vanore said. "I have spoken with Renee Hoffman. I am convinced that whatever she said at that May 29 meeting, she did not intend to advise any PIO to delete daily any and all e-mails sent to the governor's press office or received from the governor's press office. If that were her intention, then why would she keep e-mails?"

Under state law, it is a misdemeanor to destroy a public record without consent of the state Department of Cultural Resources.

Vanore said this weekend that a third public information officer remembers being told to kill e-mail messages. Vanore has declined to name the person.

No talk of e-mail

He said Tuesday he would reconsider if Hugh Stevens, an attorney for The N&O, would promise not to sue over e-mail messages. Likewise, Hoffman and the two public information officers who took the notes have been instructed not to discuss e-mail issues.

"Any lawyer worth a bucket of spit who is under a threat of lawsuit, if any talking is going to be done, the lawyer is going to do the talking," Vanore said.

Stevens has written a letter on behalf of The N&O to the governor's office stating that the newspaper might take legal action to enforce the state's public records law. Stevens said Tuesday that he is not inclined to make any promises about the newspaper's intentions.

"I certainly don't have any authority from my clients to say that, even if I were inclined to," he said.

Easley has convened a committee to study the executive branch's policies toward e-mail and other forms of electronic communication. One goal of that group is to give public employees clearer guidance on how to handle e-mail.

"People look at e-mails differently than they do paper, and they cannot do that," Easley said.

The committee will hold a public hearing Thursday.

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