Posted on 06/16/2014 10:50:21 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Last Friday afternoon, the Internal Revenue Service claimed that Lois Lerner, a former executive tasked with overseeing tax-exemption applications, lost thousands of emails after her computer crashed. Many of those emails, the tax collection agency claimed, could not be recovered.
This convenient excuse for failing to comply with a request from House investigators is not sitting well with some in the journalistic community.
“Do you believe in the Easter Bunny?” CNN’s John King asked his panel of political reporters on Monday. “Do you believe in Santa Claus? Do you believe that Lois Lerner’s emails suddenly went ‘poof?’”
King added that he agreed with Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) who said that it was “unacceptable” that this information was just coming to light now, over a year after the investigation into allegations that the IRS targeted conservative political groups with undue scrutiny began.
“Waiting a year to tell the Congress makes me suspicious,” King said.
“It’s hard to believe in this era, where you have servers, and backup servers, and all kinds of technology that can recover all kinds of emails, that these emails simply don’t exist,” Associated Press reporter Julie Pace agreed. “If that is true, and they don’t exist, why wasn’t that one of the first things that was told to Congress?”
“I’m not sure what’s with this administration and computer problems, but it seems to be happening time and again,” Politico’s Manu Raju concurred.
It seems that even those predisposed to extend federal officials the benefit of the doubt are not accepting the claim that Lerner’s emails simply disappeared into thin air at face value.
In a sardonic segment on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Monday, hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough ruthlessly mocked the notion that a hardware crash could eliminate files stored on remote servers.
“Mika, even you have to admit this is pretty ridiculous,” Scarborough probed.
“Pretty ridiculous,” Brzezinski replied. “Those emails exist.”
Perhaps made uncomfortable by the implications surrounding this admission, Brzezinski quickly changed topics. It would, however, be shameful if the American political press did the same. The concession from these prominent political reporters and commentators serves as a mandate to pursue the story surrounding the IRS scandal with renewed vigor.
And those who are scratching the surface of this story are unsettled by what they are finding. In March, as Townhall’s Guy Benson noted on Monday, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified before Congress that all the relevant email communications are “stored somewhere” on severs.
This development in a controversy which President Barack Obama called a “phony scandal” at an agency were he insisted there was “not even a smidgeon of corruption” provides reporters with the clearest indication yet that the president was either not being truthful or had been misled.
So, which is it?
Issa is either completely incompetent, or he’s compromised.
He and his “committee” won’t get to the bottom of anything in my lifetime.
What a shame.
“There’s no way official emails weren’t backed up on a government server.”
You got that right! If we owed them a dollar 5 yrs. ago I’m sure THAT information would be right at hand.....
Yes, better that Lerner be the "fall guy" than those at the very top. Hell, she might even be pardoned, if it comes down to that.
I figure that the archiving of emails passes through a lot of hands. I also figure that the White House got to every person involved in the process.
Think about that.
Genoa...doubtful those emails are still on the email server. We back them up at my company to virtual server storage or physical tapes depending on they type of system. They are so dirty. Willfully done 100%.
He and his “committee” won’t get to the bottom of anything in my lifetime.
What a shame.
And that is what it really comes down to.
No one will do anything about it, and cover-ups become standard practice in the government.
That picture reminds me of my last beagle pup.
I got out of the shower to see she had swiped my wallet off the bed and was having a ball ripping the contents ( including $300-$400 in cash) into tiny pieces.
She was only about 6 months old at the time.
She only got dry dogfood for dinner that night!
Lost emails?
Have they checked where Hillary hid the Rose Law Firm billing records until the statute of limitations had passed?
It was somewhere in the White House residence.
RE: She only got dry dogfood for dinner that night!
Did that teach her NEVER to do it again?
For that matter how did you teach her to pee in a designated spot?
It taught me to never leave my wallet where she could get to it.
She was easy to house break because she always wanted outside. Paper training took about a day or two and she was housebroke in a week after that.
I assume the ‘oh so gullible’ ones at the New York Times believe her. There’s nothing they won’t believe if it falls from the mouth of a democrat.
Joe Wilson said it best when addressing the President, “You lie!”
It is clear that the Administration and the President lie at every opportunity. Whether it is you can keep your doctor, illegal aliens will not get free health care, Fast & Furious, Benghazi, ObamaCare enrollment numbers, “don't cross this red line or else”, or the IRS political targeting of “enemies.”
History is not going to treat this Administration very nicely.
They should just contact the NSA. I’m sure they have copies of everything.
What does it matter that people who are aware of it don’t believe it if it is simply not reported on the evening news? I saw an article by newsbusters (I think), earlier today that indicated that only 1 of the 3 major networks even bothered to report on the lie during today’s morning shows.
They need to start throwing all people who stonewall into jail right now. That will open up a few floodgates.
This excuse seemed more palatable for Barry this time opposed to the ‘Executive Privilege’ trick he did for Holder’s ‘Fast And Furious’ document request...
The congressional IRS committee has be screaming for these emails for over two years, and they just now got lost.
RE: Joe Wilson said it best when addressing the President, “You lie!”
Just to put it in context... that was when Obama claimed that his healthcare law will not include those who are here illegally.
But yes, even on that, he lied.
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