Posted on 06/16/2014 8:29:36 PM PDT by smoothsailing
The precision of the “lost” emails is the give away.
And OTOH I’m sure the NSA has her crap on some black server somewhere.
You’re totally correct. But they don’t care whether anyone believes them or not. They will just say “We told you, the emails are gone, now shut up about it”.
In other words, “Move on!”
Rules are different for “us” than for “them”. Try using “My records were lost when my hard disk crashed” excuse to the IRS and they will say “F### you, you must pay the penalty PLUS interest anyway”.
Issa needs to hit them hard and stop belly aching.
You’re not wrong at all. They’re just lying their butts off.
NSA anyone?
The claim is that (1) tape backups of mail stores are only stored for six months, (2) that when a user's mailbox reaches a critical size, the excess is downloaded to the local workstation and stored (likely in OST files), and (3) that when that happens it is no longer present on the servers and hence vulnerable to loss if the workstation experiences a hard drive crash.
For a small to medium size operation this is actually quite believable, assuming that it is unlikely that the email will ever need to be retrieved for purposes of, say, intellectual property rights or legal discovery. For an operation the size of the IRS, given its job and the sensitivity of data that are likely to be present in those emails, it is absolutely unprofessional, derelict in duty, and quite possibly actionable.
Understand that the system as described is deliberately designed to discard evidence. This is not some small company that can't afford tape storage. These are not people dealing with electric bills or Ebay sales. These are people who can put citizens in prison for lengthy terms based on the evidence they have before them.
This opens up a rather interesting can of worms for anyone convicted recently of tax evasion, among other violations. They subpoena the records including the email transactions. If those are unavailable, the case is seriously compromised.
Which is why I don't believe a word of this. If the IRS really were this incredibly careless or cavalier about the data they exchange then the firings should begin with the IT director and continue down to the most junior operator. But it's a pretty solid story if you're willing to throw your entire IT staff under the bus. And they're more than willing.
The email may, in fact, be recovered from the recipients if it is possible to determine who they are and subpoena their records individually. That is a daunting but not impossible task. But in all this one thing is very clear: this is a criminal operation run by criminal conspirators. The corruption is that deep. And it is nearly untouchable.
The citizen must not be held to a higher standard of compliance with the law than the regulating agency is willing to observe itself. A government that will give itself a pass without informing anyone else is a government that has an insufficient fear of the seriousness of the power we have delegated to it.
Well, in my book, what can be delegated can be undelegated. And that is exactly what I hope an Article V Convention of the States to amend the Constitution does.
The practice of archiving presumably is the result of an Act of Congress, since the whole apparatus would require funding.
And, presumably, this Act of Congress sets some standards for maintenance of records and their recovery.
Is the IRS in violation of this Act? If so, shouldn't Congress immediately prepare for discovery leading to prosecutions?
I have to keep records of real estate transactions. I have emails back to 2007. How can the IRS not keep these vital email trails current?
All businesses are required by the IRS to keep six years worth of records.
Bookmark
and then states here assistant get to her email also?
I say we should go back to using carbon paper. The only way something could be “lost” would be with a shredder.
.”They really think we’re stupid.”
No.
They really think we are cowards.
That’s what they must be doing again. (A fishing expedition in Alaska, outside of cell phone and internet coverage, etc.)
So when we e-file unless they print it out the IRS does not have a copy of our tax return after a year? If all their files are backed up like email...........
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