IRS "loses" 2 years of Lois Lerner emails. How convenient.

[Voltaire 4,554]

You know what, when it first broke, this scandal was too juicy and I was certain something would turn up and so was surprised when nothing did. It should have legs. Of course the key figure was Lois Lerner who refused to testify. So I've always kept my eye on this one because it's clear there must be a reason she was covering up. There's something there.

So, this losing her emails thing in conjunction with her refusal to testify is pretty disturbing. I'm really not liking the attitude that it's not a big deal. Unethically and illegally using positions of administrative oversight to target political enemies isn't something to be brushed off.

I don't know if we'll find the smoking gun but I smell gunpowder in the air. I certainly hope we can uncover whatever it it is that Lois Lerner is covering up.

[IGotWorms 3,302]

You know what, I've always smelled a rat with this scandal. When it first broke, it was too juicy and I was certain something would turn up and so was surprised when nothing did. Of course the key figure was Lois Lerner who refused to testify. So I've always kept my eye on this one because it's clear there must be a reason she was covering up. There's something there.

 

So, this losing her emails thing in conjunction with her refusal to testify is pretty disturbing. I'm really not liking the attitude that it's not a big deal. Unethically and illegally using positions of administrative oversight to target political enemies isn't something to be brushed off.

 

I don't know if we'll find the smoking gun but I smell gunpowder in the air.

I've said all along that this one is the "real" scandal.

 

(Well this one and the NSA spying revelations, which actually spans across two administrations, republican and democrat, so unfortunately nobody in power is interested in getting to the bottom of that one.)

 

But we haven't heard much about it because the republicans would rather scream about Benghazi or returning POWs or whether Obama is a secret America hating mooslim.

 

Personally I find the IRS thing very disconcerting as it crosses a sacred line IMO and it's quite easy to imagine the shoe being on the other foot at some point in the future. It sets a very very bad precedent

[Googballz 39]

This story is falling apart faster than the Youtube video story on Benghazi.

 

 

Who knew that the Obama administration had a penchant for black humor? Earlier this year, in February, President Obama told Bill O’Reilly during an interview on Fox News that there was “not even a smidgen of corruption” in the IRS scandal involving the targeting of conservative nonprofit groups. In July 2013, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew foreshadowed his boss’s nonchalance by insisting that there was “no evidence” that any political appointee had been involved in the scandal.

Now we may know why. After months of delay in responding to congressional inquiries, the IRS now claims that, for the period of January 2009 to April 2011, all e-mails between Lois Lerner — the IRS official at the center of the scandal — and anyone outside the IRS were wiped out by a “computer crash.” As House Ways and Means chairman Dave Camp wrote in a statement, this loss means that “we are conveniently left to believe that Lois Lerner acted alone.” After all, there isn’t a “smidgen” of e-mail evidence to suggest otherwise.

A growing number of computer professionals are stepping forward to say that none of this makes sense. Norman Cillo, a former program manager at Microsoft, told The Blaze: “I don’t know of any e-mail administrator [who] doesn’t have at least three ways of getting that mail back. It’s either on the disks or it’s on a TAPE backup someplace on an archive server.” Bruce Webster, an IT expert with 30 years of experience consulting with dozens of private companies, seconds this opinion: “It would take a catastrophic mechanical failure for Lerner’s drive to suffer actual physical damage, but in any case, the FBI should be able to recover something. And the FBI and the Justice Department know it.”

 

In March of this year, John Koskinen, the new IRS commissioner, testified before Congress that all the e-mails of IRS employees are “stored in servers.” The agency’s own manual specifies that it “provides for backup and recovery of records to protect against information loss or corruption.” The reason is simple. It is well known in legal and IT circles that failure to preserve e-mails can lead to a court ruling of “spoliation of evidence.” That means a judge or jury is then instructed to treat deletions as if they were deliberate destruction of incriminating evidence.

Why is the loss of the Lerner e-mails particularly important? Last year’s report by the IRS inspector general set out a timeline of the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups. A full 16 of the 26 non-redacted events in the inspector general’s timeline took place during the period for which all of Lerner’s e-mails were “lost,” and these 16 instances refer to “e-mail” as the source for information on that event. As tax expert Alan Joel points out, much of the context about how the IRS scandal developed and who may have known about it is now “lost” in the black hole the Lerner e-mails are supposed to have been sucked into.

Since the IG report, we have learned that Lerner was engaged in highly suspect activity. As the Wall Street Journal editorial page noted on Saturday:

She shipped a database of 12,000 nonprofit tax returns to the FBI, the investigating agency for Justice’s Criminal Division. The IRS, in other words, was inviting Justice to engage in a fishing expedition, and inviting people not even licensed to fish in that pond. The Criminal Division (rather than the Tax Division) investigates and prosecutes under the Internal Revenue Code only when the crimes involve IRS personnel.

If there is an ongoing cover-up of the IRS scandal, it’s obvious why some folks would be desperate to continue it. Last year, Time magazine’s liberal columnist Joe Klein wrote that the IRS scandal placed President Obama “on the same page as Richard Nixon.” Article II of the Articles of Impeachment by the House Judiciary Committee in 1974 included a charge that Nixon had caused, “in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.” The Judiciary Committee was also deeply disturbed by the Nixon administration’s apparent efforts to conceal evidence. When investigators found a crucial “18-and-a-half-minute gap” from a Watergate break-in conversation involving Nixon and his aides, the administration implausibly claimed that Rose Mary Woods, Nixon’s longtime secretary, had accidentally erased that portion of the tape. Later, Woods herself said she could have been responsible for no more than five minutes of the gap.

Now we have the “IRS server ate the e-mails” excuse. “Barack Obama has brought us Jimmy Carter’s economy and Richard Nixon’s excuses,” Steve Stockman (R., Texas) waggishly observed Friday. At a minimum, the House committees investigating the IRS scandal should demand that everyone involved in the search for the Lerner e-mails appear before them and testify under oath. I strongly suspect that if anything is amiss, one or more employees will not want to commit perjury to protect political higher-ups.

Normally, an independent prosecutor would be appointed to get to the bottom of all this. But don’t expect such a move from Attorney General Eric Holder. When he was the No. 2 official at Justice during President Clinton’s second term, he was instrumental in blocking the appointment of any new special prosecutors for various Clinton scandals. Holder himself has mastered the art of withholding documents from Congress. In 2012, the House of Representatives (including 17 Democrats) voted to hold Eric Holder in contempt for ignoring a subpoena for documents in the Fast and Furious gun-running scandal.

As yet more evidence of this administration’s seeming tendency toward black humor, the current Justice Department investigation of the IRS scandal is being headed by Barbara Bosserman, a trial attorney who was a large donor to both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, with her first donation dating all the way back to the primary season in 2008. But, of course, Justice says there’s no conflict of interest. Not even a smidgen.

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/380444/dog-ate-my-e-mails-two-years-john-fund

[drobeski 3,061]

This week's GOP Outrage of the Week is brought to you by the 2014 Jaugar XJR.

this weeks "it's fake outrage,fox news and bush did it too" brought to you by EBT, afro glo,Johnson and Johnson's no tears baby shampoo,areopostle, msnbc, the new york times and dj's local 875.

[NewbieJr 540]

OOTW

[jerryskids 5,169]

OOTW

You are flying solo on this one. Good thing you aren't a hack.

[IGotWorms 3,302]

Anyone know anyone who has been held "fully accountable" yet?

Seems like you are being held fully accountable in the Most Hated Posted thread

[MDC 5,877]

Well this is odd.

 

I disagree with the second sentence but it's unnecessary to tell you why because you already took my talking points in the third/fourth sentences. A paragraph, divided against itself, cannot stand.

Allow me to explain:

 

I have no idea where Google Pilot actually stands on an issue because his principles are completely flexible depending on who is in office. So whereas millions of missing emails were no big deal years ago today they're worthy of outrage.

 

I can't say where he actually stands on missing emails. I doubt he even has an opinion. The only constant is that Google Pilot will always, always take the wormiest, most partisan knew jerk view of any issue in every instance. So his actual political positions are completely flexible, the only constant is that his views are completely aligned with the GOP talking point of the day.

 

HTH

[NewbieJr 540]

You are flying solo on this one. Good thing you aren't a hack.

lol. I haven't even commented on it. Just making fun of the usual hacks thinking of their weekly new outrage. Lolol. Boy who cried wolf. Ever hear of it?

[Bill E. 666]

Forget what it is about. The funny part is the IRS is using standard excuses that none of us would get away with. Whether you are left or right, you have to find the excuses like...

 

"we lost the emails due to a computer crash" and "well we tried cooperating by giving you other documents you asked for"... hillarious. Like others mentioned these excuses should be allowed in audits going forward.

[jerryskids 5,169]

lol. I haven't even commented on it. Just making fun of the usual hacks thinking of their weekly new outrage. Lolol. Boy who cried wolf. Ever hear of it?

Interesting response phurfurbie. So what is your opinion?

[Reality 2,710]

 

Not quite...they sent quite a lot of emails too.

At this point...could be big (depending on the number of emails missing).

Could be minor or really nothing.

Either way...some talking heads will go on about it and hacks will assume things without knowing anything.

Hence the outrage in this thread.

The lost email excuse is embarrassing. It doesn't matter what else you or I think.

[Googballz 39]

lol. I haven't even commented on it. )

Exactly.

 

Your entire schtick is the equivalent of a child throwing a temper tantrum.

[DankNuggs 305]

This week's GOP Outrage of the Week is brought to you by the 2014 Jaugar XJR.

I like the F Type convertible

[Voltaire 4,554]

Allow me to explain:

 

I have no idea where Google Pilot actually stands on an issue because his principles are completely flexible depending on who is in office. So whereas millions of missing emails were no big deal years ago today they're worthy of outrage.

 

I can't say where he actually stands on missing emails. I doubt he even has an opinion. The only constant is that Google Pilot will always, always take the wormiest, most partisan knew jerk view of any issue in every instance. So his actual political positions are completely flexible, the only constant is that his views are completely aligned with the GOP talking point of the day.

 

HTH

RP is the definition of consistent. I have successfully predicted his positions 99% of the time. I only guessed wrong twice, both times it involved dead terrorists. With that knowledge of my failures, I've updated my files and can now safely predict his position 100% of the time.

 

When we hit Osama, I really expected that everyone here would be happy and celebrate. But no, I was wrong. RP was unusually glum that day. Instead he made sure to pee in the punch bowl by telling the the rest of us -repeatedly- that Obummer shouldn't get any credit for the mission. While the rest of us weren't thinking or cared in a lick about how this would affect Obummer's reputation, this was the obsession on one person here's mind. He just couldn't join arms and celebrate the death of Osama with everybody else. No. Instead, he insisted that the important aspect of the Osama raid that needed addressing was that no credit should be given to Obummer. It was OK to celebrate if we must, just so long as we remembered the most important thing.

 

I thought that was pretty tacky and tasteless. But there was another even more amazing thing to be had. Again, dead terrorist.

 

RP who had always consistently defended torturing terrorists as necessary and never saw anything wrong with having them play naked twister pulled another huge stunner. It had to do with the a$$hole terrorist in Yemen who hid with al Qaeda and, using his perfect unaccented American English, went on the internet preached jihad and promoted domestic US terrorism to any American Muslim he could reach- one of his recruits being the Ft. Hood shooter. Obummer authorized a drone missile for his ass. Bye Bye. Good riddance, right? Happy day for America? Not to RP. ACLU Pilot sobbed uncontrollably over how this heroic American citizen's rights were violated by that evil criminal in the White House.

[NewbieJr 540]

Exactly.

 

Your entire schtick is the equivalent of a child throwing a temper tantrum.

Oh wait. You were actually serious about this topic? This outrage is real? Oops. My bad. You should have saud something. Lol

[NewbieJr 540]

RP is the definition of consistent. I have successfully predicted his positions 99% of the time. I only guessed wrong twice, both times it involved dead terrorists. With that knowledge of my failures, I've updated my files and can now safely predict his position 100% of the time.

 

When we hit Osama, I really expected that everyone here would be happy and celebrate. But no, I was wrong. RP was unusually glum that day. Instead he made sure to pee in the punch bowl by telling the the rest of us -repeatedly- that Obummer shouldn't get any credit for the mission. While the rest of us weren't thinking or cared in a lick about how this would affect Obummer's reputation, this was the obsession on one person here's mind. He just couldn't join arms and celebrate the death of Osama with everybody else. No. Instead, he insisted that the important aspect of the Osama raid that needed addressing was that no credit should be given to Obummer. It was OK to celebrate if we must, just so long as we remembered the most important thing.

 

I thought that was pretty tacky and tasteless. But there was another even more amazing thing to be had. Again, dead terrorist.

 

RP who had always consistently defended torturing terrorists as necessary and never saw anything wrong with having them play naked twister pulled another huge stunner. It had to do with the a$$hole terrorist in Yemen who hid with al Qaeda and, using his perfect unaccented American English, went on the internet preached jihad and promoted domestic US terrorism to any American Muslim he could reach- one of his recruits being the Ft. Hood shooter. Obummer authorized a drone missile for his ass. Bye Bye. Good riddance, right? Happy day for America? Not to RP. ACLU Pilot sobbed uncontrollably over how this heroic American citizen's rights were violated by that evil criminal in the White House.

and he calls other people hacks! ROFL

[MDC 5,877]

RP is the definition of consistent. I have successfully predicted his positions 99% of the time. I only guessed wrong twice, both times it involved dead terrorists. With that knowledge of my failures, I've updated my files and can now safely predict his position 100% of the time.

 

When we hit Osama, I really expected that everyone here would be happy and celebrate. But no, I was wrong. RP was unusually glum that day. Instead he made sure to pee in the punch bowl by telling the the rest of us -repeatedly- that Obummer shouldn't get any credit for the mission. While the rest of us weren't thinking or cared in a lick about how this would affect Obummer's reputation, this was the obsession on one person here's mind. He just couldn't join arms and celebrate the death of Osama with everybody else. No. Instead, he insisted that the important aspect of the Osama raid that needed addressing was that no credit should be given to Obummer. It was OK to celebrate if we must, just so long as we remembered the most important thing.

 

I thought that was pretty tacky and tasteless. But there was another even more amazing thing to be had. Again, dead terrorist.

 

RP who had always consistently defended torturing terrorists as necessary and never saw anything wrong with having them play naked twister pulled another huge stunner. It had to do with the a$$hole terrorist in Yemen who hid with al Qaeda and, using his perfect unaccented American English, went on the internet preached jihad and promoted domestic US terrorism to any American Muslim he could reach- one of his recruits being the Ft. Hood shooter. Obummer authorized a drone missile for his ass. Bye Bye. Good riddance, right? Happy day for America? Not to RP. ACLU Pilot sobbed uncontrollably over how this heroic American citizen's rights were violated by that evil criminal in the White House.

I think we are in agreement but mostly arguing semantics now. Google P's position is utterly predictable but he changes his stance depending on the party involved. So oddly enough his hypocrisy and flip flopping has become predictable.

 

I wasn't surprised at all by the way he reacted when we got Osama. And if there were another 9/11 type attack he would be delighted. That's the kind of guy he is.

[BunnysBastatrds 1,909]

Jaguars suck.

[NewbieJr 540]

I think we are in agreement but mostly arguing semantics now. Google P's position is utterly predictable but he changes his stance depending on the party involved. So oddly enough his hypocrisy and flip flopping has become predictable.

 

I wasn't surprised at all by the way he reacted when we got Osama. And if there were another 9/11 type attack he would be delighted. That's the kind of guy he is.

This. He's also Putin's fan club president. The absolute worst kind of American.

[Mike Honcho 4,009]

Anyone know anyone who has been held "fully accountable" yet?

 

 

Scooter Libby?

[OldMaid 1,838]

I like the F Type convertible

Me too.

[Googballz 39]

Scooter Libby?

 

Is that really the best defense of this administration you can come up with?

 

Wow! That's sad.

[Googballz 39]

. And if there were another 9/11 type attack he would be delighted. That's the kind of guy he is.

 

Someone is getting pretty far out into the weeds trying to deflect from the latest news on Obama's IRS scandal.

[NewbieJr 540]

 

Someone is getting pretty far out into the weeds trying to deflect from the latest scandal of the week.

FIFY

[Voltaire 4,554]

I can't say I know much about tech stuff and what's recoverable and how, I'm the least qualified person here who can judge the validity of the excuse, but I do know when my BS detector goes off.

[MDC 5,877]

 

Someone is getting pretty far out into the weeds trying to deflect from the latest news on Obama's IRS scandal.

You spent months celebrating Benghazi, another 9/11 would be like Christmas to a scumbag loser like you. No wonder your wife left.

[Googballz 39]

I can't say I know much about tech stuff and what's recoverable and how, I'm the least qualified person here who can judge the validity of the excuse, but I do know when my BS detector goes off.

Every tech guy I see comment on this says it should be easy to retrieve the emails. Heck, the IRS director testified they are all backed up on servers, so there is no way this story isn't a flat out lie.

[drobeski 3,061]

Wouldn't the people the emails were sent to still have them or did her crash destroy their email servers too

[Mike Honcho 4,009]

Is that really the best defense of this administration you can come up with?

 

Wow! That's sad.

 

Is that really the best defense of this administration you can come up with?

 

Wow! That's sad.

 

It wasn't a defense at all, so your pity is wasted. HTH.

[Mike Honcho 4,009]

Every tech guy I see comment on this says it should be easy to retrieve the emails. Heck, the IRS director testified they are all backed up on servers, so there is no way this story isn't a flat out lie.

 

 

Although Mr. Koskinen had indicated in congressional testimony that I.R.S. emails were stored on servers in the agency’s archives and could be recovered, the agency said Friday that was not the case.

The I.R.S. said that because of financial and computing constraints, some emails had been stored only on individuals’ computers and not on servers, and that “backup tapes” from 2011 “no longer exist because they have been recycled.”

 

 

Wouldn't the people the emails were sent to still have them or did her crash destroy their email servers too

 

The I.R.S. initially provided 11,000 of her emails that it deemed directly related to the applications for tax exemption filed by political groups. Under pressure from Republican leaders, Mr. Koskinen later agreed to provide all of Ms. Lerner’s emails but said that doing so might take years. Since then, the I.R.S. has provided roughly 32,000 more emails directly from Ms. Lerner’s account.

After the agency discovered that its initial search of Ms. Lerner’s emails was incomplete because of the computer crash, it recovered 24,000 of the missing messages from email accounts on the other end of Ms. Lerner’s correspondence, the I.R.S. said.

 

 

I.R.S. Commissioner to Testify on Ex-Official’s Lost Emails

[Mike Honcho 4,009]

Every tech guy I see comment on this says it should be easy to retrieve the emails. Heck, the IRS director testified they are all backed up on servers, so there is no way this story isn't a flat out lie.

 

 

Although Mr. Koskinen had indicated in congressional testimony that I.R.S. emails were stored on servers in the agency’s archives and could be recovered, the agency said Friday that was not the case.

The I.R.S. said that because of financial and computing constraints, some emails had been stored only on individuals’ computers and not on servers, and that “backup tapes” from 2011 “no longer exist because they have been recycled.”

 

 

Wouldn't the people the emails were sent to still have them or did her crash destroy their email servers too

 

The I.R.S. initially provided 11,000 of her emails that it deemed directly related to the applications for tax exemption filed by political groups. Under pressure from Republican leaders, Mr. Koskinen later agreed to provide all of Ms. Lerner’s emails but said that doing so might take years. Since then, the I.R.S. has provided roughly 32,000 more emails directly from Ms. Lerner’s account.

After the agency discovered that its initial search of Ms. Lerner’s emails was incomplete because of the computer crash, it recovered 24,000 of the missing messages from email accounts on the other end of Ms. Lerner’s correspondence, the I.R.S. said.

 

 

I.R.S. Commissioner to Testify on Ex-Official’s Lost Emails

[Googballz 39]

 

 

It wasn't a defense at all, so your pity is wasted. HTH.

Pity is never wasted on you, Sport.

[Googballz 39]

 

the agency said Friday

 

 

I.R.S. Commissioner to Testify on Ex-Official’s Lost Emails

Honcho is buying the story they cooked up and came out with Friday.

[drobeski 3,061]

Mike honcho buys the lost email story

 

Keep up the good work mike, the administration depends on complete retards like you

[drobeski 3,061]

Honcho is buying the story the cooked up and came out with Friday.

[Reality 2,710]

Honcho provides links...the hacks don't accept and laugh.

Pretty typical.

I know it's tough but, try to put politics aside for just this instance. The excuse they are trying to use is patently absurd.

[DankNuggs 305]

http://youtu.be/v73oB1DpDQk

[Mike Honcho 4,009]

Honcho is buying the story they cooked up and came out with Friday.

 

 

Mike honcho buys the lost email story

 

Keep up the good work mike, the administration depends on complete retards like you

 

Where did I say supported or believed anything in that story. I linked to a story that addressed both of your questions and statements.

 

Not surprising you both failed to comprehend my post, you seem to share a brain.

[drobeski 3,061]

He really buys it