IRS Loses Thousands of Subpoenaed Emails

The IRS has lost thousands of Lois Lerner’s emails—all under a subpoena request—because of a hard drive crash.  For those of us that stopped following the IRS scandal story some time ago, this is a moment for reflection.  Hard drives crash and data is lost.  Not everyone chooses to testify before Congress, even when threatened with contempt.  Congressional committees are often stymied in their quest for the truth, or at least the truth they are looking for.  Taken together, these events are very likely coincidental.  A few years ago I was at an event and was seated at a table with a number of older lawyers.  One of them mentioned that as a young man he worked for a Congressional committee when the Watergate break-in news came out.  As this group of Democrats talked about it the day after the break-in, someone suggested that Nixon might be involved.  They all quickly dismissed the idea, with someone saying that even Nixon wasn’t that stupid.  Though time proved them wrong, I hope that this time it is merely a coincidence.

Comments

[Chip]

If the implication here is that Obama might be involved in targeting the Tea Party -- well, that would be stupid, but for a different reason. The Tea Party has helped the Democrats keep the Senate the last two cycles by nominating ridiculous candidates in competitive races. The Tea Party just defeated Eric Cantor. So, no, I do not think Obama would want to do anything to target them.

[anon123]

To me, the question is the same what did you know and when did you know it. Yes, hard drives break, but there are back ups. The emails were at one time backed up on a server. Did the IRS wait until the back ups were destroyed before telling Congress? Was it deliberate? Incompetence?

[An0n]

The assertion that Outlook E-mails would be lost by a hard drive crash is, frankly, risible. Outlook operates on a model that the E-mails are kept on a server. The IRS has offered an explanation but it pretty much beggars belief.

[Just saying...]

Emails exist in more than one place. Forever. Remember Enron and esp. the failed attempt by Arthur Andersen to destroy damning emails? The senders tried, recipient had them, ISP provider, sender/recipient's company's servers.

[anon123]

AnOn, I believe that the IRS is now saying that the files on the servers have been deleted. I for one would like to understand the IRS's data retention policy, and again, why the delay in reporting to Congress that they could not produce the emails.