WASHINGTON, D.C. – Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen came before a Congressional oversight committee on Friday to explain how tens of thousands of emails from IRS officials tied to the political targeting of conservative groups wound up lost or destroyed.
More than one year ago, Lois Lerner, the highest ranking IRS official implicated in the scheme to date, staged a press conference in order to admit that the tax agency improperly targeted conservative non-profit groups for unusual scrutiny and harassment.
The admission spawned a full-scale congressional investigation into the abuse of power at the IRS.
On Monday and Tuesday, IRS officials made additional shocking admissions: two years’ worth of emails from Lerner and 6 other officials connected to the plot were destroyed.
The “lost” emails, which allegedly span from April of 2009 to January of 2011, originate during the time period in which the harassment of conservative groups occurred. Moreover, the emails include only the IRS employees’ communications with outside agencies, such as the Department of Justice and the White House.
The purportedly unrecoverable emails could include evidence connecting White House officials to the targeting.
Audience members gasp as Koskinen tells Congress Lerner’s hard-drive was thrown away (H/t TheGatewayPundit.com)
U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) tells Koskinen: “I don’t believe you!” (H/t Washington Free Beacon)
6 Comments
Why must we be honest with them, when they don’t have to be honest to begin with?
When carpenter ants infest the sills of your home, a new coat of paint on the outside to make it look good, does not fix the problem. The ants have infested the IRS and the Department of Education. It is time to tear out the old sills and replace them.
So how many other hard drives where throw away at the IRS? And how many other Emails have been lost? Coincidentally most of these losses only associated with the people involved? i had a relative that used to tell me that when more than two people were involved a secret is no longer a secret. Lets hope that is true. I guess they think a FOIA violation is better than the alternative.
Why are these people not in prison? If we were to pull this crap we, the people, would be behind bars! I am so sick of this! The American People want justice!!!
This man is trying so hard to be so cool under investigation, it is OBVIOUS he has lied, is lying, he is preparing to lie. THE PERSONAL HARD DRIVE IS ONLY THE LOCAL RECORD!!!!! EVERY KEYSTROKE ON A NETWORKED COMPUTER, IS STORED ON THE SERVER, AND A BACKUP SERVER!!!!!!!!! THERE ARE AT LEAST TWO OTHER COPIES OF EVERY HARD DRIVE ON A NETWORK!!!!!!!!
When Americans are apprehended in the suspicion of a crime, they are arrested, charged, brought before a judge, and bail and indictment decisions are made. A crime has occurred. ALL these “suspects”, should be immediately arrested, and charged with ever applicable violation. They should be fingerprinted, and brought before a judge. The judge can set bail and release them, or release them on their own recognizance, or deny bail and put them in jail! This “process” would also stop them from hiding or destroying evidence, until a grand jury can indict ALL THE PEOPLE possibly involved in this massive felony against the American people! At first they lied that only the emails during the time in question, were missing. That spanned a two-year period. Now they are saying that the hard drive crashed. That means that Ms. Lerner did without a computer for two years, if two years of (emails only) are missing! Well, RIP desktop, but what about her laptop, that is a mirror image of her desktop, AND her home computer, since top executive ALWAYS have access to their desktop, in case of emergencies where they might have to work from home, or retrieve information from home, to do their job. Also, emails to the President are not missing, and so the destination and origination of the associated emails are not missing or ALL the “reply” or “original” emails are not missing, because THEY are not on her “missing” hard drive. They are too ignorant to know that IT Security Professionals can backtrack your email activity, and find the head or the tail of every email that is in your computer. So let them continue to LIE! If someone is smart enough to call for this “backtrack” process, ALL the emails will be retrieved from someone else’s computer, and they will be cold-busted anyway! Seize Ms. Lerner address book. On the computer of everyone in her address book is a copy of a received or sent email from Ms. Lerner. WE DON’T NEED YOUR COMPUTER, TO RETRIEVE YOUR EMAILS MS. LERNER! BTW, show us the work order for the IT person. We all know how this goes; your computer crashes, you call IT (phone log record), they receive a ticket from their dispatch (one paper record), they come take a look and discover your computer is dead in the water, they call supply (two e-records) and order you a replacement (two paper records), supply makes a ticket and IT signs the new computer out (three paper records, four, sends a copy to their supervisor). The new computer is installed, and the users signs the ticket that the computer was delivered, received, and working (IT has to boot the computer, configure it, and copy the backup from the server, restoring the computer to the EXACT SAME CONDITION as the first computer before it crashed) when IT left (fifth paper record, and forth e-record). IT takes the computer to the shop to see if function can be restored. ALL information on the hard drive can be recovered. This is not a question. To say that the information could not be recovered, is simply a bald-faced LIE! Data is recovered from computers from the Amazon River, building fires, crashed airplanes, snow banks, rooms destroyed by islamic bombs. A simple crash is a children’s job for the many companies that specialize in recovering data from a damage computer or hard drive. So where is the ticket for the “attempt” to recover the information? Where is the record of the “destruction” of the hard drive? Why are these people not subject to the AMERICA judicial process? Are they not Americans? Are they above the law and the Constitution? Were are the Police? Whose job is it to arrest these “suspects”? Whose job is it to arrest the Police if they do not do their job? The jewel thieves are at the scene of the burglary, with the stolen jewels in their hands!!! Why won’t somebody arrest them?????? This administration cannot protect us from islam, and now it seems they cannot protect us from our own government!!!!