New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin today hurled criticism at technology experts who claim that City Hall’s missing e-mail was intentionally removed by someone with top-drawer access to the computer system.

Assigning blame “is not their charge,” Nagin said Thursday, a day after two computer experts hired by the city said that an unknown tech-savvy person apparently removed the mayor’s e-mail inbox from the server.

In a WWL-TV interview, Nagin dismissively described the unknown individual as “some phantom employee.”

Nagin also implied that the Louisiana Technology Council, the company hired to find the data, not only was eager for “15 minutes of fame” but also was in over its head.

“I just hope that this is not a case where . . . we did not get the company with the expertise that we needed,” he said.

–NOLA.com ^[1]