Posted on 06/24/2014 9:52:31 AM PDT by raptor22
Scandal: The IRS canceled a contract with an email storage contractor weeks after Lois Lerner reported lost personal files and before other IRS officials had their hard drives crash as Tea Party-targeting investigations began.
Timing is everything, the saying goes, and sometimes the timing of events is also very curious, as in the case of the lost emails of Lerner and at least six other officials at the very same time the IRS canceled its contract to back up and preserve those emails as required by federal law.
Lerner's computer supposedly crashed in June 2011, an alleged event the IRS concealed from the American public and congressional investigators for two years.
This event, which cannot be verified because her hard drive has since been destroyed and recycled, occurred just 10 days after House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp first wrote a letter asking if the IRS was engaging in targeting of nonprofit groups.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
After todays testimony, it is pretty clear the IRS archiving procedures were in violation of Federal archiving procedures. IRS commissioner confirmed the Sonasoft contract didn’t cover Lerner’s dept.
Why were the missing emails only an issue for just six key people? There is something nefarious going on, far more sinister than just a matter of limitations of “bare bones” systems. The timing is also highly suspect.
If these emails documented collusion between conspiring agency apparatchicks and were ever exposed to the light of day it was probably over for Obama. The emails had to be destroyed. Not unlike the 18 minute gap on Nixon’s tape. Whatever was on that tape had to be erased.
Its easier to say I’m sorry for the loss of data than it is to be clearly exposed for guilt. Especially widespread guilt that could bring down an entire administration.
Where's ONE example of punishment in ANY of these scandals? Why did Boehner publicly announce that the House would not have Lerner arrested? WHY DID HE DO THAT? HE'S A FRIGGIN IDIOT FOR GIVING LERNER PEACE OF MIND, KNOWING SHE WOULD NOT BE ARRESTED.
Losing just THESE critical emails at this particular time reeks of a cover-up. Imagine how the IRS would treat any business under audit if they just “happened” to lose emails under such dubious circumstances. My bet would be that the IRS would be prosecuting the executives of that business for obstructing justice and be shutting down the business. Lerner’s emails lost emails would I believe be a direct link to the White House and were the reason she took the 5th during the hearings. If we had a DOJ that wasn’t corrupt to the core, Lerner and others at the IRS would be facing prosecution for obstructing justice, but with this crowd nothing will happen.
Yep.
Being in IT, I have several thoughts on this matter....
First, hard drives crash, usually at the most inconvient times. I hate it, but it's a fact of life in the business. This looks bad for the IRS, but it really could be completely innocuous.
Much is being made of the IRS's policy of only retaining emails for six months. I certainly don't agree with them on this, because they require every other American to retain documentation for seven years. However, my experience has been that - so long as the policy is applied equally, throughout the company - six months' retention is legal. Or a year. Or 10 years. So long as it is company policy, and is enforced evenly.
Now - as to her hard drive crashing... Everywhere else that I've worked has discouraged, or disallowed, mail to be saved locally on a hard drive. Specifically, for the reason that I listed above - either the company policy is to keep mail for six months, or it isn't. If you have someone - especially someone senior - maintaining their own Outlook files locally for longer than the company policy, then it opens *everything* up, legally. Opposing lawyers can subpeona everything and anything. Makes it a real PITA, especially if you're required to recover old stuff from tape (don't ask me how I know this....). Ergo - smart policy is to keep EMails on a server, not local. And, have a set retention policy, and adhere to it.
So, at the very minimum, Lerner and IRS's IT dept is guilty of poor IT policy (geez, I feel so good that they have my entire financial history on record) and destroying evidence.
That's my $0.02.
The blame fest that started with the IRS commissioner last night and parroted by committee democrats today is the lack of funding for governmental IT services. Anything bad that happened will be blamed on lack of money..
The problem with your conclusion is that you seem to be assuming that Congress can do anything to put someone in jail. They can't. They can hold their hearings, and they can ask the Justice Department to prosecute, but there is nothing they can do directly. They can't even enforce their own Contempt of Congress orders - they have to ask the Justice Department to do so.
They only power Congress has to impose their will is the Power of the Purse. In order to force cooperation and compliance, they could refuse to appropriate money to the the departments that are refusing to cooperate - in this case, the IRS and Justice. However, both Boehner and McConnell have made it abundantly clear that they will never "shut down the government" again. So all Reid has to do is refuse to vote on any appropriations bill that reduces money to these departments, and then wait for the House to cave when the government "runs out of money" because of the mean GOP "holding poor Americans hostage for partisan purposes."
The GOP has already surrendered the only weapon the Constitution gave them - so all of this is just for show, and you can tell by demeanor of the people testifying that they know there is nothing that Congress can or will do to them...
“Why were the missing emails only an issue for just six key people? There is something nefarious going on, far more sinister than just a matter of limitations of “bare bones” systems.”
This goes all the way up Valerie Jarrett and Owebama!
How easy would it be to get the IRS - Sonasoft contract?
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Courtesy of PJ-Comix. Looks like the contract is for software only, so how it was used (probably by another contractor) needs to be investigated. Who managed the archiving process? What servers were used? What was the data retention policy? What actions did the Disaster Recovery Plan (every agency has one) call for in the event of a data loss?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3170755/posts
It was cancelled through an email. We can't find it anymore. Silly hard drives dontcha know.
So there's only one thing the HOR could do, since they traitored us on using the power of the purse. That would be research....computer forensics to find those emails, anything from another source that includes the contents of the emails, detective work.
Otherwise, there's no point in the hearings. People don't respect talk. They would respect action.
This goes all the way up Valerie Jarrett and Owebama!
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Of course it does. The “get the Tea Party operation” was orchestrated by them. Bureaucrats in the federal government don’t go rogue; they would risk everything if they did. Feds just don’t do things on their own. They always seek approvals from levels above them. Job security is paramount and service to their masters is the best way to protect that.
Gentlemen, start your indictments!
Just who is going to bring indictments? Congress can't, and the (In)Justice Department won't.
There are requirements to archive official government documents and send them over to the national archive. According to the national archivist testimony today, the IRS prints them out on paper and eventually sends them to the Archives.
Losing emails before being able to print them out and not reporting it to the the National Archives would be a violation. There was never a report made about her unrecoverable HD.
An enterprise this size requires multiple servers.
It is quite likely multiple vendors serve various tentacles on this octopus.
Because of the size of the enterprise, and the importance of the data they deal with on a daily basis, almost all (if not all) of those servers must have rather large capacities (doubtless, terabytes would be the norm).
Even as those servers get filled up on occasion, off site back up and storage would seem prudent and commonsensical, not to mention being required by law!
If they're using a system that requires recycling and destruction every 6 months, they have a long out-of-date system, one that should not be employed by an enterprise of this scope and importance.
This being the case, among the other accusations being leveled at the IRS we can add dereliction of duty. Why? This serves neither the enterprise nor the taxpayers any good purpose, given the technology available today. They have not done proper justice to the society they purport to work for and represent, and have not done due diligence for the scope of work legally required of them, given market plce options readily available to them.
And realistically, they cannot plead poverty! This outfit is the source of every golden egg the government receives, and if they want or need updated systems, then, by God, they are going to get them!
CA....
But again, hasn't produced evidence yet that his characterization is correct. Didn't he specifically answer that he hasn't provided a copy of the contract to Congress yet?
CA....
I know that - I’m stressing the point that all of the “facts” we have in this whole affair amount to nothing more than hearsay and unsubstantiated characterizations by the very people suspected of malfeasance.
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