Posted on 08/15/2014 12:47:10 PM PDT by jazusamo
After listening to excuses from IRS officials about why they cannot produce "lost" emails requested through a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan has ordered the IRS to come up with a better explanation as to why the agency cannot produce valid documentation. He's also asking for details about IRS hard drive destruction policy and wants verification from an outside source that IRS hard drives in question were in fact destroyed as officials have claimed.
"In an extraordinary step, U. S. District Court Judge Emmett Sullivan has launched an independent inquiry into the issue of the missing emails associated with former IRS official Lois Lerner," President of Judicial Watch John Fitton said in a statement. "Previously, Judge Sullivan ordered the IRS to produce sworn declarations about the IRS email issue by August 11. Today’s order confirms Judicial Watch’s read of this week’s IRS’ filings that treated as a joke Judge Sullivan’s order."
From Judge Sullivan's order:
In light of [26] the Declarations filed by the IRS, the IRS is hereby ORDERED to file a sworn Declaration, by an official with the authority to speak under oath for the Agency, by no later than August 22, 2014. In this Declaration, the IRS must: (1) provide information about its efforts, if any, to recover missing Lois Lerner emails from alternate sources (i.e., Blackberry, iPhone, iPad); (2) provide additional information explaining the IRS's policy of tracking inventory through use of bar code property tags, including whether component parts, such as hard drives, receive a bar code tag when serviced. If individual components do not receive a bar code tag, provide information on how the IRS tracks component parts, such as hard drives, when being serviced; (3)
provide information about the IRS's policy to degauss hard drives, including whether the IRS records whose hard drive is degaussed, either by tracking the employee's name or the particular machine with which the hard drive was associated; and (4) provide information about the outside vendor who can verify the IRS's destruction policies concerning hard drives.
The IRS has one week to come up with some answers.
H/T Ed Morrissey
Next step is to rule that the missing emails would have proved the plaintiff’s case and find for the plaintiff.
You mean the dog ate the hard drive isn’t good enough? Why not? It works for the Rats in Congress.
I like that.
LOL! The irs response: “Owwwww. A judge scolded us. Owwww.”
Judges pay taxes too.
Obstruction of Justice & Perjury looming for many of Barack’s foot soldiers.
What can the judge do if the IRS continues to stonewall, using the “we lost the data” argument?
Bump
That would be sweet.
yeah! Some good news.
So sad we’ve come to this point.
Obama will not be ‘dirt broke’ after he sells his pardons.
“You mean the dog ate the hard drive isn’t good enough? “
Rats, beat me to it.
Dim-bulb-crat excuse 3: I accidentally hit the delete button (after marking the file and confirming I really wanted to delete it).
Dim-bulb-crat excuse 4: George W made me do it.
Following these, the Holder Clown show of felon/cretins will issue the standard “Nothing to see here, move along, move along.” response.
Really, does anyone actually think something will come of this?
Unless someone actually gets tossed in the klink, this amounts to nothing more than a kibuki slapfest between lawyers and politicians.
“And I’m not talking about hastily scribbled notes on the back of a cocktail napkin!”
;’)
He told them to come up with a better excuse?
I wish he had simply told them to produce the documentation or be jailed for contempt.
Yes, very sad we’ve come to this point.
The executive branch is blatantly lawless and arrogantly dares anyone to do something about it.
Looks like this judge is calling them.
Or maybe the fish slapping dance?
You captured this exactly right.
It’s as if the Judge was saying, “I don’t buy the excuse you just made up out of thin air... so, go back to the drawing board, and make up a more believable excuse out of thin air.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.