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IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails

I can't believe anybody would think that ordinary folks are so credulous that we'll buy this.

Where is Abby Schiuto when you need her?
 
MaggieD said:
Since when aren't emails stored on hard drives? In any case, the IRS, who demands that we keep records for a minimum of seven years, and can even require proof long before THAT, has an obligation to keep every single email. That, in my opinion, is a piss-poor excuse. Six thousand emails?? That's merely 28 emails a day for a year. I don't even believe it.
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The IRS does not have a legal obligation to retain every single e-mail regardless of content for any length of time let alone seven years. It is only required to retain e-mails with a certain content for x length of time. If that is the bone you wish to pick then advocate for a change in the law.
 
Napoleon said:
The IRS does not have a legal obligation to retain every single e-mail regardless of content for any length of time let alone seven years. It is only required to retain e-mails with a certain content for x length of time. If that is the bone you wish to pick then advocate for a change in the law.
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I think you need to check the archiving law on that.
 
I just wonder how the IRS would act if I was being audited and I told them my computer crashed with all my financial records.

Think they would have any mercy and just take me at my word?

I would be in a world of hurt.
 
Napoleon said:
The IRS does not have a legal obligation to retain every single e-mail regardless of content for any length of time let alone seven years. It is only required to retain e-mails with a certain content for x length of time. If that is the bone you wish to pick then advocate for a change in the law.
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And where are you getting your information, Napoleon?

“The [Federal Records Act] requires agencies to make and preserve records of agency decisions, policies, and essential transactions, and to take steps to safeguard against the loss of agency records,” said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, who subpoenaed IRS Commissioner John Koskinen Monday.

The IRS’s own definition of the Federal Records Act makes clear that emails must be saved and documented, according to an instructional page for employees on the IRS website.

“The Federal Records Act applies to email records just as it does to records you create using other media,” according to the IRS. “Emails are records when they are: Created or received in the transaction of agency business; Appropriate for preservation as evidence of the government’s function and activities; or Valuable because of the information they contain.”

Read more: IRS required by law to print out emails for record-keeping | The Daily Caller
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MaggieD said:
And where are you getting your information, Napoleon?
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What evidence do you have that any of the e-mails lost meet that requirement? Thats right, NONE. For all you know they could have been itemizing Lois Lerner's recipe for chicken soup.
 
pbrauer said:
Wrong, Trey Gowdy is a grandstanding asshole. He doesn't want answers, he wants to show off.
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like issa, gowdy came up empty
yes, they are both frustrated, and they have yet to generate any information which is detrimental to the irs or the white house regarding the emails ... or the purported targeting of teabagging organizations
dumbasses
 
American said:
Trey Gowdy tears Koskinen a new asshole.
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Maybe, but Gowdy needs to go back and hit the law books. He'd have to know what the content of the e-mails were and establish that it was material to the case before even thinking about claiming spoliation of evidence. Even if he managed to do that, it still isn't spoliation because they were lost prior to the investigation.
 
Napoleon said:
What evidence do you have that any of the e-mails lost meet that requirement? Thats right, NONE. For all you know they could have been itemizing Lois Lerner's recipe for chicken soup.
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So long as they are on a government email exchang, they are still required to be archived. I have worked on government systems for about a decade now, and that is the rule regardless of whether or not the email was intended as a personal message. Chicken soup is still legally required to be stored.


That is why, for example, the White House staff started creating extra gmail accounts to handle official business that they did not want exposed on.
 
Napoleon said:
What evidence do you have that any of the e-mails lost meet that requirement? Thats right, NONE. For all you know they could have been itemizing Lois Lerner's recipe for chicken soup.
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Haven't seen a corporation yet that can't provide emails for at least 5 years. Are you saying that the federal government is so incompetent they can't keep the same records?

I mean are you really hitching your trailer to that excuse? This is 2014 not 1990.
 
TheNextEra said:
Haven't seen a corporation yet that can't provide emails for at least 5 years. Are you saying that the federal government is so incompetent they can't keep the same records? I mean are you really hitching your trailer to that excuse? This is 2014 not 1990.
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Consider for a moment that this is what the IRS still uses to store your tax returns:

TapeDrive.jpg

You're right, it isn't 1990, but it isn't 2014 for the IRS either. Their computers are from the 1960s. In fact, they're the same ones featured in this video:

 
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cpwill said:
So long as they are on a government email exchang, they are still required to be archived. I have worked on government systems for about a decade now, and that is the rule regardless of whether or not the email was intended as a personal message. Chicken soup is still legally required to be stored.


That is why, for example, the White House staff started creating extra gmail accounts to handle official business that they did not want exposed on.
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are you referring to the rnc.com email accounts of the dicknbush regime?
 
Napoleon said:
Consider for a moment that this is what the IRS still uses to store your tax returns:

View attachment 67168760

You're right, it isn't 1990, but it isn't 2014 for the IRS either. Their computers are from the 1960s. In fact, they're the same ones featured in this video:

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Sorry but can you please cite for us where this same equipment is used to store tax returns from 2013? I find that difficult to believe.
 
***Bring our emails back***
 
Napoleon said:
Maybe, but Gowdy needs to go back and hit the law books. He'd have to know what the content of the e-mails were and establish that it was material to the case before even thinking about claiming spoliation of evidence. Even if he managed to do that, it still isn't spoliation because they were lost prior to the investigation.
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It's all irrelevant since the emails cannot be lost. Every email system is backed up.
 
pbrauer said:
Wrong, Trey Gowdy is a grandstanding asshole. He doesn't want answers, he wants to show off.
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Koskinen is a condescending dickhead.
 
Napoleon said:
What evidence do you have that any of the e-mails lost meet that requirement? Thats right, NONE. For all you know they could have been itemizing Lois Lerner's recipe for chicken soup.
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That's a violation of computer use regulations.
 
American said:
Koskinen is a condescending dickhead.
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yes, but it is hard not to be condescending when responding to ignorant assholes pretending to exercise authority
 
Paperview said:
Holy crap. I thought you were joking. They actually do used those computer systems from the 1960's??????
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it's a clown show.

Most large companies and government agencies still use mainframes and reel to reel magnetic tape. That doesn't exempt them from having to retain records they are legally required to maintain.
 
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