WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS said Friday that Lois Lerner’s computer hard drive was destroyed three years ago, ending any chance of retrieving her lost emails.
In court papers, the IRS said the hard drive was destroyed after two sets of trained technicians tried to retrieve the data. The tax agency said it was standard procedure to destroy old data storage equipment that may have contained confidential taxpayer information.
The IRS says Lerner’s computer crashed in 2011, destroying an untold number of emails. At the time, Lerner headed the division that handles applications for tax-exempt status.
Lerner is a central figure in congressional investigations into the handling of applications by tea party and other conservative groups.
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen had told Congress that Lerner’s hard drive was recycled and presumably destroyed. Friday’s court filings confirmed it.
As part of a lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ordered the IRS last week to explain what happened to the hard drive.
Walton also wanted information about an inspector general’s investigation into the lost emails. Walton wanted to know the qualifications of computer experts conducting the investigation, and he wanted a projection on when the investigation will be complete.
Timothy Camus, a deputy inspector general for investigations, said in court papers that 11 special agents are on the case. However, he added, “It is not possible to give an estimated date of completion.”
A Justice Department lawyer told Walton last week that there was no evidence Lerner intentionally destroyed her hard drive.
On Thursday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole told Congress that the Justice Department is investigating the lost emails as part of a larger probe into the way agents handled applications for tax-exempt status.
Walton’s order came in a lawsuit filed by a group called True the Vote, which says it advocates for the integrity of elections. The group sued the IRS over delays in its application for tax-exempt status.
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HA – this is going to drive those idiots wild. Love it.
It sure will. It is indeed SOP to destroy a hard drive when it is no longer usable, in order to preclude any possibility that confidential data will be compromised. But I don’t expect people like Daryl Issa to accept that.
And I would seriously doubt that Lerner would have any idea how to destroy a drive so badly that trained technicians were unable to retrieve the data from it. I don’t expect people like Issa to accept that, either.
Can’t a tea party psychic try and contact the hard drive on the other side?
The NSA keeps header information on all emails. IF the GOTP wanted to recover the emails, they would subpoena that information from the NSA, and then subpoena the emails from the recipients. But they think they are better served by ginning this up as a scandal.
The desire for the truth is weak in these folks.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they honestly thought that Lerner herself took a hammer and just smashed it because she knew that hard drive would become an issue 3 years after she smashed it.
I’m expecting Issa to issue a new subpoena demanding every single paper Lerner has ever handled in her life. He already demanded every single email she has written since the late 80s, so demanding every paper she has ever handled isn’t out of the question for that creep.