If you suspected all along that Lois Lerner’s “lost” emails—important in ferreting out the truth behind the IRS targeting of conservative groups—were hanging around somewhere, a statement earlier this week by Judicial Watch is a pretty good backup to that position. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said:
Department of Justice attorneys for the Internal Revenue Service told Judicial Watch on Friday that Lois Lerner’s emails, indeed all government computer records, are backed up by the federal government in case of a government-wide catastrophe. The Obama administration attorneys said that this back-up system would be too onerous to search. The DOJ attorneys also acknowledged that the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) is investigating this back-up system.
We obviously disagree that disclosing the emails as required would be onerous, and plan to raise this new development with Judge Sullivan.
This is a jaw-dropping revelation. The Obama administration had been lying to the American people about Lois Lerner’s missing emails. There are no “missing” Lois Lerner emails – nor missing emails of any of the other top IRS or other government officials whose emails seem to be disappearing at increasingly alarming rate. All the focus on missing hard drives has been a diversion. The Obama administration has known all along where the email records could be – but dishonestly withheld this information. You can bet we are going to ask the court for immediate assistance in cutting through this massive obstruction of justice.
Judicial Watch provides a link to a sworn statement by an employee in the IRS' Information Technology business unit. According to this employee, there is “no record of any attempt by any IRS IT employee” to recover the information (the emails) requested by Congress. This is not conclusive but it looks bad for the administration.
Hot Air comments:
Increasingly, those who continue to insist that there was no cover-up at the IRS after it was revealed that administrators consciously targeted conservative groups with undue scrutiny are finding that the burden of proof is on them to substantiate this outlandish claim. The undeniable evidence of malfeasance and criminality at the nation’s tax collection agency is mounting.
Apparently, Lois Lerner’s blackberry was destroyed—highly unusual and it looks like somebody really, really doesn’t want us to know what was on it.
The Obama administration’s style with every scandal has always been to stall in hopes that the public will forget.
News that the Lerner emails may still be gettable comes in a week when we are busy adjusting to the new reality that ISIS poses an unprecedented threat to the U.S., and when we are also absorbing the beheading of American journalist James Foley and trying to make sense of Ferguson. But we can’t afford to forget about the “lost” emails.
The IRS targeting of the tea party may have had a deep effect on the political events of 2012. What if the IRS had not targeted the tea party? What if the tea party had made its case to the American public unimpeded? Is it just possible that at least in a few instances elections on the state level might have had different results? Mightn’t different people in some instances be the ones who as members of Congress will make decisions that affect our future?