My $2 is on deliberate obstruction.
Can’t we bet on both choices?
If this is an IT “expert” why are they still talking about *A* hardrive instead of servers and backup?
Aside from the multitude of general Government and IRS specific regulations on data preservation, the data was given special status for both collection of potentially responsive information , as well as that informations preservation and secure storage to prevent evidence tampering because of lawsuit filed in 2010 for obstruction of a view point advocacy, tax exempt non profit.
In late 2010, IRS was being sued by an organization called Z- Street, a pro Israel group, and that suit was filed in 2010, well before the momentous crash of 20 or so high level Obama Administration and IRS operatives.
Lerner's computer and her information regarding obstruction and biased treatment of organizations opposed by the Obama Admin was subject to this special handling of litigation responsive information.
Even if her drive (and all the others that “crashed” ) had been considered damaged beyond repair and unrecoverable, they should have been preserved in secure storage pending trial., not destroyed .
Furthermore, there would have been a flurry of reports notifying responsible parties in the court system and the IRS that litigation hold data was compromised and asking for direction on how to proceed with chain of custody, documentation and data preservation procedures.
This should have been reported to the presiding Judge immediately to inform both him and the litigants as well as to get his direction on how to proceed.
The fact that there was no correspondence on this at the very implies that there was no loss of data because full back ups were available and the data storage devices were restored with a verified no loss of information.
At any rate, this whole sequence of events,if they actually happened, should have been reported to the Federal Judge presiding over the Z- Street case as soon the crashes occurred.
This is really serious stuff and the only explanation is that the IRS is stalling in order to give them time to evaluate what is on the back ups and to doctor and sanitize the backed up data to remove any damaging evidence.
Or that one or more of the IRS IT people involved kept their own private clean copies of the back ups as insurance to make sure that they would not go to jail if the IRS scandal heated up.
Of course you’re right. The odds on a hard drive failing in the manner described is VERY low. The odds of a hard drive being the EXACT one needed to prove the Administration’s wrongdoing failing? Unbelievably small. Like getting struck by lightning small.
Once is coincidence. Twice is enemy action.
Also - wasn’t it seven different people whose hard drives all “failed” in the same manner?
Why not obstruct?
There's NO PENALTY whether professional, organizational or personal.
And you can destroy anyone who asks the wrong question.
NO PENALTY.