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2014/08/26 18:54:58
Subject: Re:IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
d-usa wrote: I work for the VA. I have it in good authority that everything gets put on a secret paper that gets shredded.
Now you have a federal employee telling you that no records exist. I'm fairly certain that I know exactly as much about the case as the DOJ guy. So we probably cancel out.
I know what I'm talking about.
With that last posting, few things stood out to me...
This report, supposedly, confirms that all of Lois Lerner's emails actually are saved on a backup system. My reaction? DUH! How could you not? Business/Governmental continuity demands it.
Not to mention... IT'S. THE. LAW.
Also, the fact that the IRS says it would be too hard to retrieve them and so it's not going to trouble itself,... you can now begin to have doubts about the IRS' commitment to finding these emails.
It's just going to be a slow process to get the IRS to fething comply because, If you’re working in the judicial system (rather than politically)... I would think methodically working the investigation and NOT telling the opposition what you know is to be expected.
In addition, there's actually an industry term to *search* from archived data... It’s called eDiscovery Software, and one of it’s primary purposes is to find e-mails for a legal dispute. No magic needed.
It’s always good to go back and remember how this started. Lerner planted a question at the end of an unrelated teleconference. A “woopsie” to deflect from the IG report that was about to be released. Lerner spoke of a few low-level rogue agents working out of Ohio. Now after several iterations of “the truth,” Lerner pleading the 5th, destruction of evidence, and stonewalling we are no closer to the truth than we were when Lerner blamed those eight workers out of the Ohio office.
The law says "records must be kept". It doesn't say what actually constitutes "records" and leaves that determination to individual departments to decide.
2014/08/27 00:01:17
Subject: IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
The law says "records must be kept". It doesn't say what actually constitutes "records" and leaves that determination to individual departments to decide.
That and the archival methods as well.
Live Ork, Be Ork. or D'Ork!
2014/08/27 00:22:21
Subject: IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
With that last posting, few things stood out to me...
This report, supposedly, confirms that all of Lois Lerner's emails actually are saved on a backup system. My reaction? DUH! How could you not? Business/Governmental continuity demands it.
Not to mention... IT'S. THE. LAW.
Also, the fact that the IRS says it would be too hard to retrieve them and so it's not going to trouble itself,... you can now begin to have doubts about the IRS' commitment to finding these emails. :
You know what you're talking about, so surely you know someone (paraphrasing someone else) from the legal department talking about how the backups work at your company might be bad info further confused by a game of telephone.
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
2014/08/27 00:36:44
Subject: IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
With that last posting, few things stood out to me...
This report, supposedly, confirms that all of Lois Lerner's emails actually are saved on a backup system. My reaction? DUH! How could you not? Business/Governmental continuity demands it.
Not to mention... IT'S. THE. LAW.
Also, the fact that the IRS says it would be too hard to retrieve them and so it's not going to trouble itself,... you can now begin to have doubts about the IRS' commitment to finding these emails. :
You know what you're talking about, so surely you know someone (paraphrasing someone else) from the legal department talking about how the backups work at your company might be bad info further confused by a game of telephone.
Except you're missing something here my good friend...
It's all stated under oath.
Live Ork, Be Ork. or D'Ork!
2014/08/27 08:17:50
Subject: IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
whembly wrote: And, yes, by necessity. Any correspondence done in her line of work is consider permanent records.
Er... no. Unless a subpoena is put in place, I'm free to delete all my work related email as I please. (I don't, but that's more to cover my ass if someone tries to pin a frell up on me...) When we get subpoena requests (which we just got because apparently Issa doesn't like us working against a company he has stock in...), we are required to submit email to a particular holding account.
Now, usual disclaimer about different offices having different policies, but it at least shows that there is no law saying "FEDERAL EMPLOYEES CAN'T DELETE WORK EMAIL!!"
2014/08/27 14:41:09
Subject: IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
whembly wrote: And, yes, by necessity. Any correspondence done in her line of work is consider permanent records.
Er... no. Unless a subpoena is put in place, I'm free to delete all my work related email as I please. (I don't, but that's more to cover my ass if someone tries to pin a frell up on me...) When we get subpoena requests (which we just got because apparently Issa doesn't like us working against a company he has stock in...), we are required to submit email to a particular holding account.
Now, usual disclaimer about different offices having different policies, but it at least shows that there is no law saying "FEDERAL EMPLOYEES CAN'T DELETE WORK EMAIL!!"
Lerner was subpoena'ed at least before the dingle berry incident.
However, i was referring to the fact thateven the National Archives boss stated that IRS ‘did not follow the law’ on lost Lerner emails (and others) based on the Federal Records Act.
Live Ork, Be Ork. or D'Ork!
2014/08/28 06:56:30
Subject: IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
However, i was referring to the fact thateven the National Archives boss stated that IRS ‘did not follow the law’ on lost Lerner emails (and others) based on the Federal Records Act.
No, that isn't what you stated. Moreover, the extent to which the IRS may have failed to follow the law extends only to their possible failure to notify NARA of their loss of records. A claim that is entirely distinct from the one you are making.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2014/08/28 07:04:17
Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
2014/09/05 20:13:58
Subject: Re:IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
Documents also reveal that 75% of targeted non-profit groups were conservative, just 5% were liberal
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released a new batch of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) email documents revealing that under former IRS official Lois Lerner, the agency seems to acknowledge having needlessly solicited donor lists from non-profit political groups. According to a May 21, 2012, memo from the IRS Deputy Associate Chief Counsel: “such information was not needed across-the-board and not used in making the agency’s determination on exempt status.” Later, in her May 10, 2013, remarks in which Lerner first revealed in response to question she planted about the IRS targeting of conservative groups, she conceded that the requests for donor names was “not appropriate, not usual.” The new documents obtained by Judicial Watch also reveal that 75% of the groups from whom the lists were solicited were apparently conservative, with only 5% being liberal.
The documents came in response to an October 2013 Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:13-cv-01559)) filed against the IRS after the agency refused to respond to four FOIA requests dating back to May, 2013. The emails are contained in the sixth batch of documents the IRS has been forced to produce in response to the Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit.
Contained in the newly released IRS documents is an email from Deputy Associate Chief Counsel Margo L. Stevens that was sent in response to a question from Lerner concerning attempts to return donor lists the IRS had controversially obtained. In Stevens’ May 21, 2012, email to Lerner, she wrote:
Lois, I wanted to get back with you with respect to your question whether TEGE [Tax Exempt & Government Entities] could return to those organizations from whom donor names were solicited in questionnaires following their submission of applications for recognition of their tax exempt status (under 501(c)(4)), now that TEGE has reviewed those files and determined that such information was not needed across-the-board and not used in making the agency’s determination on exempt status.
Key parts of this email and other documents the IRS produced to Judicial Watch have been blacked out. (Many of the documents are completely blacked out (or partially redacted) seemingly because they are allegedly “pre-decisional” or “deliberative,” information that might be exempt from disclosure under FOIA. The Obama administration’s decision to withhold this information is completely discretionary and is not required by law.)
A subsequent IRS email thread on June 27, 2012, revealed that inappropriately obtained donor lists were being used for a “secret research project” and that a top official wanted then-Acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller to decide how to handle the issue. The email exchange, with the Subject line “donor names,” included the following:
June 27, 2012: 8:59 AM — David L. Fish, IRS acting director of Exempt Organizations Rulings and Agreements, to Holly Paz:
Joseph Urban [IRS Technical Advisor, Tax Exempt and Government Entities] had actually started a secret research project on whether we could, consistent with 6104, argue that [REDACTED] Joe was quite agitated yesterday when I told him what we were doing. (He was involved when the initial question was raised, but we didn’t continue reading him in). At one point he started saying that this was a decision for Steve Miller–I told him we were already doing it, and that I didn’t know whether Lois had already talked to Nikole [former IRS Chief of Staff to IRS Commissioner Steve Miller] about this. Would not be surprised if he already started working on Lois.
June 27, 2012 9:02 AM — Holly Paz to David L. Fish:
Thanks for the heads up. The decision was made by Steve, based on advice from P and A. [Procedure and Administration]
Lerner’s and other IRS officials’ concerns about how to handle these donor lists came on the heels of an advisory from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) to her and other IRS officials in late March 2012 of “an audit we plan to conduct of the IRS’s process for reviewing applications for tax exemption by potential section 501(c)(4), 501(c)(5), and 501(c)(6) organizations.” The documents produced do not detail the “secret research project” nor disclose how the IRS used the donor names the agency improperly obtained.
Then-IRS Commissioner Miller initially testified to Congress on May 17, 2013 that “instructions had been given to destroy any donor lists,” but donor lists were actually produced to the House Ways and Means Committee four months later. The House Ways and Means Committee also announced at May 7, 2014 hearing that, after scores of conservative groups provided donor information “to the IRS, nearly one in ten donors were subject to audit.” In 2011, as many as five donors to one conservative (c)(4) organization were audited, according to the Wall Street Journal. And this past June, the IRS admitted wrongdoing in releasing the conservative National Organization for Marriage’s (NOM) confidential tax return and donor list, which were published in March 2012 by the Human Rights Campaign. The Human Rights Campaign is the chief political rival to NOM; its outgoing president had been named a national co-chair of the Obama Reelection Campaign. The IRS reportedly agreed to pay NOM $50,000 to settle the lawsuit.
The documents obtained by Judicial Watch also include a July 18, 2012, email to Lerner from Judith Kindell, senior technical adviser to Lois Lerner, showing that 75% of the nearly 200 non-profit 501 (c)(4) political activist groups targeted by the IRS were conservative, and only 5% were liberal:
Of the 199 (c)(4) cases, approximately 3/4 appear to be conservative leaning while fewer than 10 appear to be liberal/progressive leaning groups based solely on the name. The remainder do not obviously lean to either side of the political spectrum.
Shortly after this email exchange, another email chain on June 28 between Lerner and Holly Paz, the former director of the Office of Rulings and Agreements,shows that Lerner believed that the TIGTA and congressional inquiries into the IRS’s practices were “dangerous”:
June 28, 2012 8:57 AM — Paz to Lerner: “Now TIGTA wants to talk to me. I am guessing they read this morning’s paper. [Apparent reference to Wall Street Journal article concerning IRS scrutiny of Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS tax exempt status]Will keep you posted.”
June 28, 2012 9:13 AM — Lerner to Paz: “Not alone. Wait til I am there.”
June 28, 2012 09:17 AM — Paz to Lerner: “Sorry. Too late. He already called me. It was not about WSJ. Just him trying to get better understanding of the scope of the [House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave] Camp [R-MI] request.”
June 28, 2012 8:22 AM — Lerner to Paz: “Just as dangerous. I’ll talk to you soon. Be there in half hour.”
The “dangerous” Camp request to which Paz and Lerner referred was apparently a reference to a letter sent in Mayby Republican Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, David Camp, to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman requesting copies of all 501(c)(4) applications from 2010 and 2011. Despite the consternation expressed about the “dangerous” Camp applications request, an August 14, 2012, email from Lerner to Paz revealed that as of that date, “…no one from the Hill has shown up to look at them.”
The new documents also include emails further contradicting President Obama’s February 2014 excuse that the IRS targeting was entirely the fault of “bonehead decisions in local offices.” Obama was parroting Lois Lerner’s May 2013 claim that the targeting of conservative groups was the fault of “low-level” employees in Cincinnati for the targeting of conservative groups. In the months leading up to the 2012 presidential election, Lerner and other top IRS officials made it clear that no “advocacy” applications should be approved or denied without express approval from Lerner’s office in Washington, DC:
June 20, 2012: — Email from IRS attorney Michael C. Seton to managers in Exempt Organizations division defining targeted groups’ approval procedures:
Please inform the reviewers and staff in your groups that before issuing any favorable or initial denial rulings on any cases with advocacy issues, the reviewers must notify me and you [Lerner and other senior IRS staffers] via e -mail and get our approval. No favorable or initial denial rulings can be issued without your and my approval. The e-mail notification includes the name of the case, and a synopsis of facts and denial rationale. I may require a short briefing depending on the facts and circumstances of the particular case.
June 29, 2012: – Email from Lois Lerner to Nikole Flax apparently criticizing the IRS Exempt Organizations Determinations Unit for taking too long to categorize non-profits as political and directing that top Washington IRS official Holly Paz would settle disputes over who was to be targeted:
Although Quality was on board and involved with the training, we are seeing some tendency for Determs staff to continue to over -develop political activity issue. When asked why, they say they are concerned that if they don’t, Quality will ding them. If can’t reach agreement, it comes to Holly.
June 26, 2012: — Email from Lerner to Holly Paz and Cindy Thomas in which Lerner notes that TIGTA asked for files directly from the Federal Records Center and warns that this makes sense in “context of a really sensitive investigation alleging political bias by the IRS.” The Federal Records Act (FRA) requires the preservation of official e-mails at the National Archives Federal Record Center. This email from Lerner was dated during the same time period during which the IRS claims her emails were lost and her Blackberry was “wiped clean” and “removed as scrap for disposal …” In violation of Section 3106 of the FRA, the IRS failed to notify the Archives that Lerner’s emails were missing.
The IRS also produced an email exchange in which Lerner takes issue with IRS spokesman Dean Patterson, who had revealed March 8, 2012, Roll Call article the existence of a “companion process” for administering applications for tax-exempt status. After Lerner received an advisory from TIGTA asking to discuss the Roll Call article, the following email exchange occurred:
April 2, 2012: 7:00 PM — Lerner to Patterson:
Importance: High. As you can see below [email from TIGTA Audit Manager Thomas Seidell], we are meeting with TIGTA later this week. They have given us a list of topics they want to discuss. I am not familiar with the Roll Call article he sites –can you shoot us a copy please? Thanks
April 3, 2012: 8:59 AM — IRS Public Affairs Specialist Burke Anthony to Lerner :
Lois, per your request, here is the Roll Call article. I put Dean’s quote in bold; it’s about 17 graphs into the story:
“Dean Patterson, a spokesman for the IRS, denied the existence of a special committee but said the IRS has a “companion process that administers the same provisions of the tax law in the context of new applications for tax-exempt status. The legal issues and the information that will inform our discussions will be similar in both contexts.”
April 3, 2012: 9:26 AM — Lerner to Anthony:
Thanks–sorry, but I really have no clue what he means by a companion process that “administers the same provisions of the tax law in the context of new applications for tax -exempt status. The legal issues and the information that will inform our discussions will be similar in both contexts.” As I will need to talk to TIGTA about this on Thursday, perhaps you can give me a better sense of what he is referring to? I could guess, but don’t want to be guessing in this context.
On October 9, 2013, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit against the IRS asking the District Court for the District of Columbia to compel the agency to produce records of all communications relating to the review process for organizations seeking 501(c)(4) non-profit status since January 1, 2010. The lawsuit also asked the court to order the IRS to provide records of communications by former IRS official Lois Lerner concerning the controversial review and approval process. The IRS failed to respond to the four FOIA requests at issues in this lawsuit dating back to May 2013.
The communications sought by Judicial Watch covered portions of the same period for which the IRS on June 13, 2014, notified the Senate Finance Committee that Lerner’s emails had been lost or destroyed but did not notify the Court or Judicial Watch about these missing emails. In response to our request for more information, U.S. District Court Judge Emmett Sullivan held a July 10 hearing and order the IRS to produce sworn declarations about its efforts to find and restore Lerner’s allegedly missing emails.
And then on August 25, Department of Justice attorneys for the IRS conceded to Judicial Watch that Lerner’s “missing emails” (and all government records) had been backed in case of catastrophe but that it would be too “onerous” to search this backup system for Lerner’s emails. The Justice Department has since put out anonymous statements alleging Judicial Watch “misheard” what its lawyers said and that the agency did not disclose “new” information about a back-up system.
It is not in dispute that the existence of any back-up system was withheld from the court despite two orders (order 1, order 2) demanding specifically sworn declarations about where Lerner’s emails may be residing and effort to obtain them. The Obama administration has refused Judicial Watch’s requests to amend the sworn declarations and finally inform Judge Sullivan directly about this back-up system. Administration lawyers have steadfastly refused and subsequently submitted a “status report” to the Court on August 29 that, again, makes no mention of any back-up system.
Judicial Watch lawyers are preparing now to ask the Court for relief in light of the Obama administration’s continuing obstruction and contempt for Judge Sullivan’s orders.
“Again, Judicial Watch has uncovered more shocking emails from the IRS, forced out by a lawsuit and a federal court,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Now we learn the stunning news that Obama’s IRS had a ‘secret research program’ using illicitly-obtained confidential donor lists of conservative and Tea Party organizations that opposed President Obama’s agenda or reelection. With all this IRS abuse, it is no wonder Lois Lerner said that questions by Congress and others were ‘dangerous.’ And it is well past time that President Obama should be held to account about his repeated and recent falsehoods about his IRS scandal. Next up: Judicial Watch will ask Judge Sullivan for help in requiring the Obama IRS to stop its obstruction and disclose the no-longer-missing emails of Lois Lerner and other IRS officials.”
The hot seat is getting warming...
Live Ork, Be Ork. or D'Ork!
2014/09/05 22:10:16
Subject: Re:IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
Lois, I wanted to get back with you with respect to your question whether TEGE [Tax Exempt & Government Entities] could return to those organizations from whom donor names were solicited in questionnaires following their submission of applications for recognition of their tax exempt status (under 501(c)(4)), now that TEGE has reviewed those files and determined that such information was not needed across-the-board and not used in making the agency’s determination on exempt status.
And? TEGE only made that determination after reviewing the files. Files that are eventually found irrelevant to a review or audit are requested by the IRS all the time; just ask anyone who has been through an individual audit.
Also, what does this...
...such information was not needed across-the-board and not used in making the agency’s determination on exempt status.
...phrase mean? Was not needed across-the-board in the sense that such information was never needed, or in the sense that not all organizations should have been forced to supply it?
Moreover, the following are necessarily contradictory.
A subsequent IRS email thread on June 27, 2012, revealed that inappropriately obtained donor lists were being used for a “secret research project” and that a top official wanted then-Acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller to decide how to handle the issue.
The documents produced do not detail the “secret research project” nor disclose how the IRS used the donor names the agency improperly obtained.
So, no information regarding donor lists was revealed, but you're willing to state it was obtained inappropriately? That's journalistic integrity right there.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2014/09/06 08:02:50
Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
2014/09/05 22:34:48
Subject: Re:IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service has lost emails from five more employees who are part of congressional probes into the treatment of conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status, the tax service disclosed Friday.
The tax agency said in June that it could not locate an untold number of emails to and from Lois Lerner, who headed the IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status. The revelation set off a new round of investigations and congressional hearings.
On Friday, the IRS issued a report to Congress saying the agency also lost emails from five other employees related to the probe, including two agents who worked in a Cincinnati office processing applications for tax-exempt status.
The disclosure came on the same day the Senate's subcommittee on investigations released competing reports on how the IRS handled applications from political groups during the 2010 and 2012 elections.
The Democratic report, released by Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, said both liberal and conservative groups were mistreated, revealing no political bias by the IRS. The Republican report, issued by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said conservative groups were clearly treated worse.
The IRS inspector general set off a firestorm last year with an audit that said IRS agents singled out tea party and other conservative groups for inappropriate scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.
Lerner's lost emails prompted a new round of scrutiny by Congress, the Justice Department, the inspector general and at least two federal judges.
The IRS blamed computer crashes for all the lost emails. In a statement, the IRS said all the crashes happened well before Congress launched the investigations.
"Throughout this review, the IRS has found no evidence that any IRS personnel deliberately destroyed any evidence," said the IRS statement. "To the contrary, the computer issues identified appear to be the same sorts of issues routinely experienced by employees within the IRS, in other government agencies and in the private sector."
When Congress started investigating the IRS last year, the agency identified 82 employees who might have documents related to the inquiries. The IRS said 18 of those people had computer problems between September 2009 and February 2014. Of those employees, five probably lost emails -- in addition to Lerner -- the agency said Friday.
Lerner, who was placed on leave and has since retired, has emerged as a central figure in congressional investigations. The other five employees appear to be more junior than she.
In addition to the Cincinnati workers, they include a technical adviser to Lerner, a tax law specialist and a group manager in the tax-exempt division.
In general, the IRS said the workers archived emails on their computer hard drives when their email accounts became too full. When those computers crashed, the emails were lost.
"By all accounts, in each instance the user contacted IT staff and attempted to recover his or her data," said the IRS statement.
The IRS has said it stored emails on backup tapes but those tapes were re-used every six months. The inspector general's office is reviewing those tapes to see if any old emails can be retrieved.
Friday's reports by the Senate subcommittee on investigations mark the conclusion of just one investigation. The Justice Department and three other congressional committees are continuing their probes.
Levin is chairman of the investigations subcommittee and McCain is the ranking Republican. Their staffs routinely work together on investigations, and while they don't always agree on the results, it is highly unusual for them to issue such diverging reports.
"The investigation found that the IRS used inappropriate selection criteria, burdensome questions and lengthy delays in processing applications for 501(c)(4) tax exempt status from both conservative and liberal groups," Levin said in a statement.
The Democratic report slams last year's audit by the IRS inspector general. It says the IG report was incomplete because it focused only on the treatment of conservative groups. The IG's report "produced distorted audit results that continue to be misinterpreted," the Democratic report said.
The inspector general's office declined to comment Friday. A spokeswoman said they were reviewing the report.
The Republican report says far more conservative groups were singled out for extra scrutiny. They were also asked more questions and were more likely to have their applications rejected or withdrawn.
"The IRS selected conservative groups out of normal processing, placed them on a separate list, stopped work on their applications completely, forced them to answer intrusive questions about their behavior and demeanor at meetings and delayed their applications for multiple years," the Republican report said. "Our investigation has uncovered no evidence that liberal groups received the same expansive inappropriate treatment that conservative groups received."
The Democratic report said investigators reviewed 800,000 pages of documents and conducted 22 interviews with current and former workers at the IRS and the inspector general's office. The investigators, however, were not allowed to see confidential taxpayer information, so many of the documents were blacked out.
Only two committees in Congress have the authority to see confidential taxpayer information: the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee. Those two committees are continuing their probes.
I keep seeing this:
Republicans:
Democrats:
Frankly... the IRS is trying to run the clock out so that the voters will get board and move on...
Live Ork, Be Ork. or D'Ork!
2014/09/05 22:50:12
Subject: IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
The IRS blamed computer crashes for all the lost emails. In a statement, the IRS said all the crashes happened well before Congress launched the investigations.
Why did FOX not publish the statement?
Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
2014/09/09 15:10:10
Subject: Re:IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
With five more Computer Crashes, a “pattern of racketeering activity” may be emerging
By Sidney Powell | 09/08/14 11:05am
NATIONAL POLITICS
Will Orange Be the New Black for IRS Chief Lois Lerner?
With five more Computer Crashes, a “pattern of racketeering activity” may be emerging
By Sidney Powell | 09/08/14 11:05am
Lois Lerner (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
The IRS claims that more computers belonging to Lois Lerner’s colleagues crashed. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
Late last Friday afternoon, in a blatant “late news dump” to avoid making headlines about the Internal Revenue’s witch hunt against conservative non-profits, the IRS disclosed to Congress that five more of the IRS computers containing relevant records had mysteriously crashed. Those computers belonged to colleagues of Lois Lerner, whose conduct is at the center of the investigation.
Perhaps there is some strange computer virus that selectively trashes records inconvenient to incumbents, like the “glitch” that erased part of Nixon’s tapes. How else to explain the fact that this is the fourth announcement of an ever-expanding computer calamity connected to Lois Lerner to emerge from the IRS? First it was just Lerner’s computer that was affected, then those of her closest co-conspirators, then “no more than twenty” computers, and now an ever larger batch of burned out workstations.
Even more interesting, the IRS has apparently not yet shared this newest tidbit with Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, the distinguished and courageous jurist presiding over Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Judge Sullivan has made the most progress so far in uncovering the conspiracy among Lerner and friends to target, harass and illegally obtain information from conservative non-profit organizations to benefit Mr. Obama’s reelection campaign—for which the law firm of Ms. Lerner’s husband, Michael Miles, also hosted a voter registration event.
Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, told the Observer: “The belated admission of more supposed missing IRS evidence shows this Obama administration is absolutely contemptuous of Judge Sullivan. Judicial Watch lawyers are preparing to ask the court this week for relief in light of the Obama administration’s continuing efforts to thwart Judge Sullivan’s orders. In the least, we plan to request discovery to get past this Nixonian obstruction.”
Some of the IRS emails, which miraculously survived long enough to be produced, expose that Ms. Lerner and her comrades also corruptly requested donor information from conservative charities for a “secret research project.” The IRS has also admitted illegally using and disclosing that information.
We broke the news last week that Lerner and the IRS wiped and destroyed her Blackberry and all its content even after the congressional investigation began. The IRS reluctantly disclosed that information only because Judge Emmet G. Sullivan didn’t accept the carefully crafted declarations in the agency’s first response. As we predicted—and thankfully for the American public—he pushed for more information. He required the IRS to submit additional declarations, answering even more specific questions. Had he not done so, we wouldn’t know Lerner and the IRS also destroyed her Blackberry. The IRS did not make any mention of her Blackberry in any of its many prior filings—much less in its initial sworn declarations.
We have no report yet from the Treasury Inspector General, and at the rate the IRS officials keep proving it’s own prior testimony perjurious or wrong, it’s an ever moving target. Indeed, according to the AP, “J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, said his investigation is ongoing, with facts ‘still coming to light.’”
While the agency continues to blame “computer crashes” for the now more than 20 people whose emails are “missing,” no IRS official has yet to identify when or how each computer crashed—much less why. We know Lois Lerner’s hard drive, which was “scratched” only a matter of days after receiving a letter from Congress requesting her emails. The IRS then destroyed it. The IRS followed a year later with the destruction of her unimpaired Blackberry containing emails for the same period. As we reported first, it made no effort whatsoever to obtain information from the Blackberry—despite being well into the Congressional inquiry. That is obstruction of justice and destruction of evidence—worse than the conduct for which Leslie Caldwell, now head of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, destroyed Arthur Andersen LLP and its 85,000 jobs.
Any number of federal criminal statutes might apply to these facts, including Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 1343—Wire Fraud; Section 1503—Influencing officer generally; 1505—Obstruction of proceedings before department, agencies and committees; and Section 1519—Destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations. Sections 1343 and 1503 are also predicate offenses for the federal Racketeering Statute, Section 1961, which provides that a “pattern of racketeering activity” can be proved by committing two predicate acts. These statutes are punishable by terms of imprisonment varying from five to twenty years.
While Lois Lerner and her husband vacationed in Nantucket, Judge Sullivan gave Magistrate Judge Facciola until September 20 to “assist the parties” in finding the emails from other sources. The IRS has admitted there is a massive back-up of all federal emails, but prefers to continue to obstruct justice rather than go to the trouble of finding the emails. I wouldn’t want to be the Department of Justice lawyer making that argument to Judge Emmet Sullivan.
When Judicial Watch asks for more discovery, Judge Sullivan could order the IRS to go to the back-up data immediately. He could also have a third party retrieve the information from the servers. The IRS has no credibility.
So yet again, the IRS simply creates more questions and at least five more reasons for Judge Sullivan to name a special prosecutor. When did each of the now more than 20 computer crashes occur—by date and time? How could that possibly happen? Why did the IRS prematurely cancel its longstanding contract for backup? Why did it take this long to find out that 5 more had “crashed?” Where is the Blackberry or other device for each of the persons whose computer crashed? What servers are implicated? Whose resignations are forthcoming? Why is Koskinen still there? Who is on Emmet Sullivan’s short list to be the special prosecutor?
Evidence is mounting by the day that Lois Lerner and her co-conspirators abused the power of the sovereign, violated the trust of the people, lied to Congress, destroyed documents and evidence of their wrongdoing, and violated multiple criminal statutes.
With the revelations of this last week, Lois Lerner and the IRS might as well be sitting on a ticking bomb . . . and it’s about to explode.
Live Ork, Be Ork. or D'Ork!
2014/09/10 14:24:19
Subject: Re:IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
A lead House Republican is accusing the Justice Department Office of Public Affairs of improperly trying to coordinate with House Democrats on the release of subpoenaed documents in the IRS investigation.
Justice Department Director of Public Affairs Brian Fallon called the House Oversight Committee Friday evening and mistakenly spoke to Republican staff thinking he was speaking to Democrats, according to a spokesman for Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).
In that call, Fallon said his agency was about to turn over some IRS documents. He stated that he was not being allowed to release the material directly to the media, but that he wanted to get it into the hands of certain reporters “before the [Republican] Majority” had the chance to share it. That’s according to a letter Issa sent yesterday to Attorney General Eric Holder.
“The [Justice Department's Fallon] then asked the [Republican] Committee employee if the Committee would agree to release the material to selected reporters and thereby allow the [Justice] Department to comment publicly on it.”–Issa to Holder
As the telephone conversation continued, Issa’s staff says Fallon realized he was speaking to committee Republicans instead of Democrats and “walked back” the conversation.
Issa called the incident a “deliberate attempt to influence the course of a congressional investigation.”
A staffer for the lead Democrat on the Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) responded by saying,
“If Chairman Issa’s account is accurate, this sounds like a dumb request from a Justice Department press staffer that Democrats never received. If Democrats believe disclosing documents will better inform the public, they will make those decisions on the merits, and there is no restriction on them doing so, just as there is no restriction on the Chairman doing so.”
The Justice Department’s Fallon today issued a statement saying, “There is nothing inappropriate about department staff having conversations with both the [Republican] majority and [Democratic] minority staff as they prepare responses to formal inquiries. That includes conversations between the spokespeople for the [Justice] Department and the [Oversight ] committee.”
The Justice Department is simultaneously investigating the IRS while defending the IRS in private litigation. Republicans have raised questions about alleged conflicts of interest in the Justice Department’s roles. They have asked to interview former Justice Department attorney Andrew Strelka who worked for IRS manager Lois Lerner during the time period in which she and her office are accused of improperly targeting conservatives. The Justice Department has balked saying that Strelka has nothing relevant to offer. Holder has also said his agency is conducting a fair and independent investigation of the IRS.
A spokesman for Oversight Democrats today said that Issa is the one who controls information, “routinely excluding Democratic staff from calls and meetings with federal officials… and routinely leaking documents – or portions of them – out of context and without any committee vote or debate.”
When asked what was in the documents the Justice Department turned over to Congress Friday night after the phone call, an Oversight spokesman would only say they were relevant to the investigation but wouldn’t comment further.
Man... it's a fine line they're pushing here.
This is actually direct evidence of collusion between members of Congress and the Executive branch. I would have to think this may even represent an ethics violation.
Now you see we'd need a special prosecutor?
Live Ork, Be Ork. or D'Ork!
2014/09/10 14:39:42
Subject: IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
Call the republicans and tell them to appoint one instead of playing political football with it.
It's interesting how many of us dirty liberals have been saying that for quite a while: if they were interested in the truth they would have had a special prosecutor a long time ago. But this is not about the truth, it's about holding hearings for sound bites and clips to show for campaign commercials.
2014/09/10 15:05:20
Subject: IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
d-usa wrote: Call the republicans and tell them to appoint one instead of playing political football with it.
They can't... they either need AG Holder to appoint one, or both the House & Senate agree to appoint one.
It's interesting how many of us dirty liberals have been saying that for quite a while: if they were interested in the truth they would have had a special prosecutor a long time ago. But this is not about the truth, it's about holding hearings for sound bites and clips to show for campaign commercials.
Que?
Explain how the Republicans can convince Holder or Reid to agree on a special prosecutor?
Live Ork, Be Ork. or D'Ork!
2014/09/10 17:07:27
Subject: IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
-"Wait a minute.....who is that Frazz is talking to in the gallery? Hmmm something is going on here.....Oh.... it seems there is some dispute over video taping of some sort......Frazz is really upset now..........wait a minute......whats he go there.......is it? Can it be?....Frazz has just unleashed his hidden weiner dog from his mini bag, while quoting shakespeares "Let slip the dogs the war!!" GG
-"Don't mind Frazzled. He's just Dakka's crazy old dude locked in the attic. He's harmless. Mostly."
-TBone the Magnificent 1999-2014, Long Live the King!
2014/09/10 21:16:13
Subject: IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
Dreadclaw69 wrote: How common is it for the DoJ to call a politician to ask them to spin something like this?
Why is DoJ involving themselves in a investigation where they think no investigation is needed
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2014/09/10 23:31:52
Subject: Re:IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
