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THE TWO-YEAR GAP (Poor Nixon, his gap was only 18.5 minutes)
Powerlineblog ^ | 6-13-2014 | Scott Johnson

Posted on 06/13/2014 3:00:12 PM PDT by smoothsailing

June 13, 2014

THE TWO-YEAR GAP

Scott Johnson

The IRS has informed the House Ways and Means Committee that it has lost Lois Lerner email messages from January 2009–April 2011. Harkening back to the allegedly accidental erasure of 18 1/2 minutes of critical Oval Office recordings that contributed to Richard Nixon’s resignation from office, the IRS attributes the loss of Lerner email to a computer crash.

Some email survives: the agency retains Lerner email to and from other IRS employees during this period. The IRS claims it cannot produce email written only to or from Lerner and outside agencies or groups, such as the White House, Treasury, Department of Justice, FEC, or offices of Democrat congressmen. Funny how that works.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp has issued the following statement, which seems to me short of the harsher indictment that is warranted at this point:

The fact that I am just learning about this, over a year into the investigation, is completely unacceptable and now calls into question the credibility of the IRS’s response to Congressional inquiries. There needs to be an immediate investigation and forensic audit by Department of Justice as well as the Inspector General.

Just a short time ago, Commissioner Koskinen promised to produce all Lerner documents. It appears now that was an empty promise. Frankly, these are the critical years of the targeting of conservative groups that could explain who knew what when, and what, if any, coordination there was between agencies. Instead, because of this loss of documents, we are conveniently left to believe that Lois Lerner acted alone.

This failure of the IRS requires the White House, which promised to get to the bottom of this, to do an Administration-wide search and production of any emails to or from Lois Lerner. The Administration has repeatedly referred us back to the IRS for production of materials. It is clear that is wholly insufficient when it comes to determining the full scope of the violation of taxpayer rights.

Reminder: The charge that Richard Nixon “endeavored” to misuse the IRS made its way into the second of the three articles of impeachment voted against him by the House Judiciary Committee. Nixon’s efforts to misuse the IRS were futile. They went nowhere. Nixon and his henchmen desired the IRS to “screw” their political opponents, but their efforts were a pathetic failure.

Nixon henchman Jack Caulfield astutely complained that the IRS was a “monstrous bureaucracy…dominated and controlled by Democrats.” As we have come to see, Caulfield was on to something. By contrast with Nixon’s failures to misuse the IRS, the IRS has very effectively “screwed” Obama’s political opponents, and we have yet to learn what the president knew and when he knew it.


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; Politics; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: gettherope; impeachnow; irs; loislerner
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To: smoothsailing

Nothing is lost. I assure you there is a backup copy around. I worked in the business long enough to not fall for this BS.


41 posted on 06/13/2014 4:10:03 PM PDT by Wavy_Wally
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To: LongWayHome

The fact that they’re throwing out such an obvious lie shows you their contempt for us - AND CONGRESS.


42 posted on 06/13/2014 4:11:11 PM PDT by Ray76 (True change requires true change - A Second Party ...or else it's more of the same...)
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To: smoothsailing

Hard drive crashed = the dog ate my homework.


43 posted on 06/13/2014 4:22:54 PM PDT by aquila48
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To: smoothsailing
they lost two years of BACKUPS TOO???
44 posted on 06/13/2014 4:24:00 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -vvv- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: Chode

2 yrs of data lost means the crash/deletion was recent. So there definitely are backups for most if not almost all of that data. Also, the hardware failure would have generated a trail documenting the failure and replacement of the hardware, and likely data restore to the failed disk.

This is a very obvious and transparent lie.

Congress must imprison these Lerner.


45 posted on 06/13/2014 4:28:27 PM PDT by Ray76 (True change requires true change - A Second Party ...or else it's more of the same...)
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To: smoothsailing
Do we know that they are really "lost," or are they just saying that they're lost?

This is an administration of liars. They were able to produce other Lerner emails before, and the hard drives are not segregated by person, so who else's emails are lost?

I bet that none are really lost. I bet that the Obama administration is lying even now, and that the emails are still there, or at worst are recoverable from back-ups.

-PJ

46 posted on 06/13/2014 4:29:13 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: Ray76

I would like to know who did this, too. It would take a SysAdmin for sure. There’s no way Lerner had access or the knowledge of how to do this.


47 posted on 06/13/2014 4:29:58 PM PDT by Future Snake Eater (CrossFit.com)
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To: aquila48

48 posted on 06/13/2014 4:32:37 PM PDT by smoothsailing
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To: Uncle Chip
The IRS has informed the House Ways and Means Committee that it has lost Lois Lerner email messages from January 2009–April 2011

Fox? ABC? Reuters? AP? NBC? CBS? NY Times? Washington Post? Buehler? Buehler? Buehler?

49 posted on 06/13/2014 4:33:18 PM PDT by Starstruck (If my reply offends, you probably don't understand sarcasm or criticism...or do.)
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To: Future Snake Eater

They need to prove that this ‘crash’ occurred. Absent that, the messages were deleted.

This is destruction of evidence. Evidence which Congress subpoenaed. Congress has imprisoned people for exactly this crime.


50 posted on 06/13/2014 4:36:24 PM PDT by Ray76 (True change requires true change - A Second Party ...or else it's more of the same...)
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To: Wavy_Wally

Their lies are so bold that I don’t think they even care if they are believed. They say it so it is fact and Congress has shown that it is unwilling to make them tell the truth and comply with subpoenas. The DOJ is corrupt, so any muscle like the FBI will be neutered or used to further the cover-up. If Congress does not confront the growing Imperial Presidency, they will soon discover they are no longer needed except for ceremonial purposes.


51 posted on 06/13/2014 4:41:39 PM PDT by Truth29
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To: Ray76

I imagine a systems auditor who was even halfway competent could find out exactly what happened.


52 posted on 06/13/2014 4:46:14 PM PDT by Future Snake Eater (CrossFit.com)
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To: Truth29; kcvl
H/T kcvl

   
To: Celtic Conservative

The Freedom of Information Act allows anyone to compel the government to turn over copies of federal agency records. Exceptions include records that if made public would damage national security, violate personal privacy or expose business secrets or confidential decision-making in certain areas.

44 U.S. Code § 3101 - Records management by agency heads; general duties

The head of each Federal agency shall establish safeguards against the removal or loss of records he determines to be necessary and required by regulations of the Archivist. Safeguards shall include making it known to officials and employees of the agency—

(1) that records in the custody of the agency are not to be alienated or destroyed except in accordance with sections 3301-3314 of this title, and

(2) the penalties provided by law for the unlawful removal or destruction of records.

119 posted on 06/13/2014 2:49:49 PM PDT by kcvl



53 posted on 06/13/2014 4:49:54 PM PDT by Ray76 (True change requires true change - A Second Party ...or else it's more of the same...)
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To: smoothsailing

They can trace this back....if they want to. There are so many severs & backup systems that the chance of these emails being lost is almost impossible.


54 posted on 06/13/2014 4:53:28 PM PDT by LongWayHome
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To: smoothsailing

all the agencies I worked with had email servers routing the data. those servers were all backed up. nothing was lost. IT contracts supporting the systems are very lucrative ... they can’t expect us to believe none of those systems were backed up

let’s get the name of the IT support company. let’s give them a chance to cough up the backups or be banished from govt contracting indefinitely

I know, it’ll never happen. dems don’t follow the law and no one cares.

which begs the question, why do the rest of us follow their laws if they don’t?


55 posted on 06/13/2014 4:56:27 PM PDT by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style)
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To: smoothsailing

Oh, this is a good point.


56 posted on 06/13/2014 4:57:20 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: VTenigma

“I’d be outraged, but my outrager is plum tuckered out.”

Ha. Mine too.


57 posted on 06/13/2014 5:07:42 PM PDT by Rennes Templar (If Obama hated America and wanted to destroy her, what would he do differently?)
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To: smoothsailing
Democrats tried this excuse before.

Paul Sperry of WorldNetDaily reported on missing White House emails of Al Gore and how the entire email archive process was tainted during the Clinton-Gore campaign financing scandal investigations.

The Democrat party was always a criminal and corrupt organization.

-PJ

58 posted on 06/13/2014 5:22:19 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: Ray76

Yup.....this is a middle finger to congress. Let’s see if they respond.


59 posted on 06/13/2014 5:25:10 PM PDT by LongWayHome
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To: sten

Wouldn’t the IT company have to be a public record since taxpayer dollars are paying them?

Since spending and funding originate in the House, it sure seems like Republicans have the upper hand and the dems lack the votes to stop them. If the Republicans don’t get to the bottom of this then they’re part of a coverup and a crime.


60 posted on 06/13/2014 5:35:00 PM PDT by smoothsailing
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