As some of you may know, the IRS has recently claimed that it lost some 43,000 emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner due to a hard-drive crash. According to the IRS these emails are emails that were sent to people outside of the IRS, such as the Treasury Dept., the White House, and some Democratic members of Congress. Emails that Lerner sent to other IRS employees are still present. The loss of these emails is controversial because they are the subject of a Congressional investigation into the IRS targeting scandal, and because the IRS is legally obligated to maintain these emails. According to the U.S. Archivist, the IRS "Did not follow the law" because they did not notify the National Archives after they lost the emails.



But here's what I'm wondering: since the emails in question were those sent by Lerner to outside agencies and members of Congress, wouldn't those emails still be present on the computers of the other agencies. If the IRS computer crashed and wiped out their record of Lerner's emails, wouldn't the emails still be on the computers of the recipients of her emails if they're no longer on her computer. For example if she sent an email to an official at the White House, and her computer crashed, wouldn't the White House still have that email?



So really the course of action that Congress should pursue in this investigation is pretty clear: expand the subpoena beyond the IRS. Congress should subpoena the Treasury Dept., the White House, and other agencies that Lerner had sent those emails to, as well as individual members of Congress who were involved. If these other agencies claim to have also lost or deleted those emails, then it is likely that something is afoot.



Do you guys think we will ever get to the bottom of this? Will those emails ever been found? Is it time to appoint a special prosecutor? Perhaps we will have to wait for a subsequent presidential administration before the truth emerges.

 

This is the same caliber of excuse as "the dog at my homework" and about as believable, which is why there needs to be a special prosecutor already. Failure to conserve e-mails at the fed.gov is a criminal offense even if you buy the rest of the story.



Oh, and today they said some emails from the EPA were also lost, but like the IRS they're trying just as hard as they can to get 'em back.

 

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I'm about as worried over this as I am over the next sh*t I'll take.

I know this is a "big deal" because of the supposed white bullying of conservative groups, but there's just enough that goes the other way (in both instances.) So I think I can rest easy at night without giving half the aforementioned defecation about the inevitable outcome of this comparable pile.

 

Just end the IRS all together!

 

*ahem*



The IRS missing emails in particular is a bigger deal than it seems. They're (we're) being sued for acting like a third-world banana republic government agency. If they declare they can't produce the emails at all, it means the court can assume the allegations against the IRS are true and they destroyed them to hide the truth. Then the fun starts.

 

If we get audited, can we claim all of our receipts were saved on a hard drive and it crashed, hence...losing it all? If they can do it, can't we?

 

I'm guessing there will be a bunch of that in the coming years, and mostly it will be unsuccessful. Just because they fail to live up to existing federal data retention statutes doesn't mean you will get off any easier.