What the IRS Commissioner Said About Those Lois Lerner Emails Back in March

Sharyl Attkisson.com ^ | Sharyl Attkisson

[Hojczyk]

Friday’s revelation that the IRS “lost” Lois Lerner’s emails in a computer crash came ten months after Congress first requested them and seven months after they were first subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee. But what IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified about the emails at a hearing in March appears to be at odds with his agency’s newer reported claims that the emails are irretrievable.

Under questioning by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) on the House Oversight Committee, Koskinen said IRS emails “get taken off and stored in servers.” That was part of the reason, he said, it was so difficult to provide them in a timely fashion.

As of March, the IRS had reportedly given Congress more than 400,000 pages of documents: just not the ones at issue. Friday’s revelation that the IRS “lost” Lois Lerner’s emails in a computer crash came ten months after Congress first requested them and seven months after they were first subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee. But what IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified about the emails at a hearing in March appears to be at odds with his agency’s newer reported claims that the emails are irretrievable.

Under questioning by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) on the House Oversight Committee, Koskinen said IRS emails “get taken off and stored in servers.” That was part of the reason, he said, it was so difficult to provide them in a timely fashion.

As of March, the IRS had reportedly given Congress more than 400,000 pages of documents: just not the ones at issue.

[petitfour]

They sure do take a long time to ask questions and to give answers in the DC.

In corporate America, people would be fired in rapid fashion over this sort of thing.

[DB]

Lets face it. It took this long to make sure every backup was cleansed before they could make this claim. Incompetence is not a crime is what they’ll say. Looking like a moron is much better than being a convicted criminal.

[Steely Tom]

What would happen if a private corporation (such as one owned by the Koch family) were under federal investigation in a matter that might expose it to criminal penalties, and the senior management of that company revealed that all e-mails that traveled within the company during the time period of the suspected criminal activity had been “lost due to a computer crash?”

[rdcbn]

And they supplied the emails that included traceable cc’d copies to other IRS employees and officials
That could not be deleted

[Travis McGee]

[Senator_Blutarski]

Lets face it. It took this long to make sure every backup was cleansed before they could make this claim. Incompetence is not a crime is what they’ll say. Looking like a moron is much better than being a convicted criminal.

"plausible deniability"

[GOPJ]

But what IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified about the emails at a hearing in March appears to be at odds with his agency’s newer reported claims that the emails are irretrievable.

Isn't intentional destruction of evidence a crime?

[El Cid]

In corporate America, people would be fired in rapid fashion over this sort of thing.

In corporate America people would be going to jail over these kind of actions. Email records are always part of the investigation process. This would cover IP lawsuits, insider trading investigations, etc. If the emails were 'lost' - people would go to jail.

[dgbrown]

Why is the IRS retrieving this info— congress should get full access to get these themselves. This is all government information that congress should have full access too. If they are worried about sensitive tax info then have the people cleared in a way where that isn't an issue. We let the hacks that work in the IRS look at the stuff I am sure there are others that have much more integrity.

The IRS works for the government and they are treating them like they have rights-they do not.

[MeganC]

The IRS would have ZERO TOLERANCE if any of us did not IMMEDIATELY provide them with whatever they demanded! The words I really want to use in respect to these bastards would get me kicked off of FR. But suffice it to say that it’s clear the IRS is now a rogue agency that not only commits crimes it covers them up.

[The Toll]

Laws are for us only.

[butterdezillion]

Can the House get a search warrant? Take their own IT guys and find out where the emails are stored, etc? These files do NOT belong to the people in these offices. The people they should be asking are the IT people, and the IT people should be the ones who get and respond to the subpoena.

[WMarshal]

Bullshit. Any competent email administrator could turn around a request like this in a couple of days. It could be done in minutes except for all the segregation of duties security admin hoops to go through.

Are the republican leadership so old and stupid that they cannot understand this.

[molson209]

The emails between Reid and Lerner went POOF

The emails between Obama and Lerner went POOF

[4Liberty]

[UnwashedPeasant]

"What would happen if a private corporation (such as one owned by the Koch family) were under federal investigation in a matter that might expose it to criminal penalties, and the senior management of that company revealed that all e-mails that traveled within the company during the time period of the suspected criminal activity had been “lost due to a computer crash?”"

Earlier this week, Ways and Means Republicans said as many as six IRS employees involved in the scandal also lost email in computer crashes, including the former chief of staff for the acting IRS commissioner. (source: politico.com)