Lois Lerner's IRS E-mails- "The Dog Ate My Homework"

[Scout26]

Surprise, surprise, surprise !!! [/Gomer Pyle voice]

Due to a computer glitch, two years of Lois Lerner's e-mails to anyone outside the IRS, are gone due to her computer crashing.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/06/13/take-a-guess-at-the-excuse-the-irs-is-using-not-to-turn-over-lois-lerners-emails/

Do I really look that stupid?

Did no one not think to ask the NSA for copies?

If I had to guess this goes to places where the current administration (and those in the upper levels of the IRS) don't want to go.   Perhaps the should subpoena Obama's Blackberry.

[TommyGunn]

The talkingheads are already pouncing.   Reports are that any e-mail a govt office gets is "mirrored" (duplicated on a different drive) so if the drive gets .... "mysteriously lost" there's a duplicate available.

This story is so much bunk.
Is this administration EVER capable of telling the truth ---- or are they just THAT criminal...

[lupinus]

Oh bull *expletive deleted*ing horse *expletive deleted*it

[lee n. field]

Surprise, surprise, surprise !!!

Due to a computer glitch, two years of Lois Lerner's e-mails to anyone outside the IRS, due to the computer crashing.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/06/13/take-a-guess-at-the-excuse-the-irs-is-using-not-to-turn-over-lois-lerners-emails/ 

Do I really look that stupid?

Did no one not think to ask the NSA for copies?

If I had to guess this goes to places where the current administration (and those in the upper levels of the IRS) don't want to go.   Perhaps the should subpoena Obama's Blackberry.

So, they don't do email archiving?   Riiiight.

Yeah, ask the NSA.

[lee n. field]

The talkingheads are already pouncing.   Reports are that any e-mail a govt office gets is "mirrored" (duplicated on a different drive) so if the drive gets .... "mysteriously lost" there's a duplicate available.

I haven't seen the stories.  Depends what they mean by "mirrored".

[Ben]

Total BS. If the emails to others in the IRS domain are there, then the emails to those outside the IRS domain are there. Either both are there or both are missing. Missing is improbable. It would have to be missing from both the regular mail server, the backup mailserver (both RAIDed), and any local mail that may have been on her assigned machine (local mail is not a standard - it may or may not exist). There would have been a GC hold on all email regarding the scandal as soon as lawyers got involved, so she should also have been required to archive all relevant emails. Also if she has emails missing due to a "computer glitch", then at least dozens of other IRS employees should have missing emails.

[Perd Hapley]

Total BS.

You could have stopped right there.

[RoadKingLarry]

So what happens to a private citizen or business that "loses" their pertinent emails during and investigation?

[Tallpine]

So what happens to a private citizen or business that "loses" their pertinent emails during and investigation?

"Obstruction of Justice" 

[RoadKingLarry]

"Obstruction of Justice" 

So, in this case she likely gets some kind of award from the Obama admin.

[Ben]

I just read a Fox News article that said it was specifically her machine, so it looks like (if the article is accurate) they are trying to say local mail via an email client. Before we switched to Google govt, all my email was in Tbird, but via IMAP (a requirement). I could locally archive all the mail I wanted and remove it from the IMAP server to clear up space, but my deleted mail was still archived on backup servers somewhere in DC (I don't know for how long or if forever). I can't believe that the IRS wouldn't also require IMAP for email clients.

The "her computer" narrative does give them the option of throwing her under the bus and laying all the blame on her, saying that she maliciously deleted emails. At least that's what the IRS bureaucrats might be thinking, because it appears they didn't contact any of their IT folks for input before they threw the "dog ate my homework" line out there.

[Fitz]

I just read a Fox News article that said it was specifically her machine, so it looks like (if the article is accurate) they are trying to say local mail via an email client. Before we switched to Google govt, all my email was in Tbird, but via IMAP (a requirement). I could locally archive all the mail I wanted and remove it from the IMAP server to clear up space, but my deleted mail was still archived on backup servers somewhere in DC (I don't know for how long or if forever). I can't believe that the IRS wouldn't also require IMAP for email clients.

The "her computer" narrative does give them the option of throwing her under the bus and laying all the blame on her, saying that she maliciously deleted emails. At least that's what the IRS bureaucrats might be thinking, because it appears they didn't contact any of their IT folks for input before they threw the "dog ate my homework" line out there.

Having worked with the email side of things peripherally (policy, rather than actually touching the mail servers), i can say that each agency has a period of time where ALL incoming and outgoing mail has to be archived outside the mail servers the user touches. There are many ways to skin this cat, including dedicated arrays of appliances whose sole purpose is to hold onto email for a long time.

At DHS, it's 7 years. Every single email. RevDisk could probably tell you how the DoD does it.


A company i may or may not work for has some .gov clients. We keep their emails for 5 years, at their request per their policy. Not irs, though.

[zxcvbob]

Yeah, but the Republicans in charge of the investigation (I assume Darrell Issa) don't really want the emails because then they would have to actually do something, so they are probably relieved.  They will feign righteous indignation, but that's it.  Just like with the Fast and Furious investigation.

[Tallpine]

Having worked with the email side of things peripherally (policy, rather than actually touching the mail servers), i can say that each agency has a period of time where ALL incoming and outgoing mail has to be archived outside the mail servers the user touches. There are many ways to skin this cat, including dedicated arrays of appliances whose sole purpose is to hold onto email for a long time.

At DHS, it's 7 years. Every single email. RevDisk could probably tell you how the DoD does it.


A company i may or may not work for has some .gov clients. We keep their emails for 5 years, at their request per their policy. Not irs, though.

Including those long ~11am email threads discussing where to go to lunch ...?   

[charby]

Total BS. If the emails to others in the IRS domain are there, then the emails to those outside the IRS domain are there. Either both are there or both are missing. Missing is improbable. It would have to be missing from both the regular mail server, the backup mailserver (both RAIDed), and any local mail that may have been on her assigned machine (local mail is not a standard - it may or may not exist). There would have been a GC hold on all email regarding the scandal as soon as lawyers got involved, so she should also have been required to archive all relevant emails. Also if she has emails missing due to a "computer glitch", then at least dozens of other IRS employees should have missing emails.

Ditto, just need to do a server search and pull those emails down. Now if she was using a gmail/yahoo/Hotmail/whatever then those can be lost forever.

[HankB]

Yeah, but the Republicans in charge of the investigation (I assume Darrell Issa) don't really want the emails because then they would have to actually do something, so they are probably relieved.  They will feign righteous indignation, but that's it.  Just like with the Fast and Furious investigation.

Nonsense - look how fast Eric Holder was prosecuted and brought to trial after being cited for contempt, and how quickly others were criminally charged for obstruction by providing "redacted" documents in response to subpoenas issued by Issa's committee. [/sarcasm]

[Brad Johnson]

So, they don't do email archiving?   Riiiight.

Yeah, ask the NSA.

As you wish...

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2014/06/14/texas-congressman-outfoxes-irs-in-search-for-lost-incriminating-lois-lerner-emails-125382

Brad

[charby]

Anyone on this board can request a Freedom of Information Request and get a copy of Lois Lerner's emails if they want.

[Ben]

Anyone on this board can request a Freedom of Information Request and get a copy of Lois Lerner's emails if they want.

Eventually.

The other problem is that you can't just say, "Give me all her emails." The FOIA has to be directed to a specific reason, then, in the ones I was involved in, you do a keyword search (keywords are generated by .gov attorneys with input from technical staff) for those specific emails. Also, there is a lot of leeway built in to allow individuals to decide what emails to submit for the FOIA. It's supposed to be for parsing out irrelevant emails (e.g., keyword "gun" for firearms, but somebody was talking about their "guns" at the gym, so you would strip that one out), but I have certainly seen "irrelevant" stretched to the limit if it helped promote a specific employee's bias either for or against the reason for the FOIA.

[KD5NRH]

I can't believe that the IRS wouldn't also require IMAP for email clients.

On the server side, it's easy enough to archive POP accounts too.  Either by simply disallowing deletion, or having the POP server itself archive anything it's commanded to delete.

IIRC, the method at one place I worked was to archive everything for a year, then strip out attachments and continue holding the text.  The company hadn't been around long enough to run out of space for text emails.

[brimic]

This will all go away somethime this week when the next weekly scandal comes out.

[HankB]

This will all go away somethime this week when the next weekly scandal comes out.

Trading five terrorist kingpins for an alleged deserter sure seems to have driven the VA scandal off the front pages . . .

[RoadKingLarry]

This will all go away somethime this week when the next weekly scandal comes out.

My bet for the "next big news item" will be military action in Iraq.

[KD5NRH]

My bet for the "next big news item" will be military action in Iraq.

There's another problem; wasting money on overseas distractions when we have so many more ranchers, cheesemakers and raw milk producers right here in the US.

[brimic]

My bet for the "next big news item" will be military action in Iraq.

I miss the good old days when all it took was bombing some aspirin factory in some 3rd world *expletive deleted* hole.

What Obama et al are doing is political check kiting- eventually someone, somewhere is going to collect on him.