Hide-and-seek: Lois Lerner’s emails
Who knew the IRS was so playful? And that hide-and-seek would be their favorite game?
After all—you just try playing it with them, and see how far it gets you.
Nevertheless, the revelations just keep coming:
We all know by now that Lois Lerner’s hard drive crashed in June 2011 and was destroyed by IRS. The emails of up to twenty other related IRS officials were missing in remarkably similar “crashes,” leading many to speculate that Lois Lerner’s Blackberry perhaps held the key. Now, the Observer can confirm that a year after the infamous hard drive crash, the IRS destroyed Ms. Lerner’s Blackberry””and without making any effort to retain the emails from it…
With incredible disregard for the law and the Congressional inquiry, the IRS admits that this Blackberry “was removed or wiped clean of any sensitive or proprietary information and removed as scrap for disposal in June 2012.” This is a year after her hard drive “crash” and months after the Congressional inquiry began.
The IRS did not even attempt to retrieve that data. It cavalierly recites: “There is no record of any attempt by any IRS IT employee to recover data from any Blackberry device assigned to Lois Lerner in response to the Congressional investigations or this investigation,” according to Stephen Manning, Deputy Chief Information Officer for Strategy & Modernization.
“This investigation” is the suit filed by Judicial Watch nearly a year ago against the IRS under the Freedom of Information Act:
…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 asks the court to order the IRS to provide records of communications by former IRS official Lois Lerner concerning the controversial review and approval process.
It’s this same suit that revealed that oh yes, all of Lerner’s emails probably exist on a back-up system, but it would be too “onerous” to retrieve them.
Try playing that game with the IRS, too.
By the way, Judge Sullivan of the DC District Court is the same Judge Sullivan who ruled that prosecutors in the Ted Stevens case were guilty of gross misconduct. Sullivan is an African-American, a graduate of Howard University and Howard Law School who was appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan, promoted to the DC Court of Appeals by Bush I, and to the DC District Court by Bill Clinton. It’s an interesting bipartisan history.
But never will he be appointed to anything higher by a Democrat in the White House.
Susanamantha:
Agreed.
“Judge Sullivan of the DC District Court is the same Judge Sullivan who ruled that prosecutors in the Ted Stevens case were guilty of gross misconduct.”
Another federal judge ruled in the Louisiana case, that prosecutors from the DOJ were guilty of gross misconduct. They’re still working for the DOJ. I doubt if they even got a reprimand from Holder.
The IRS with the collusion of congressional democrats and at the direction of the WH is thumbing its nose at the Constitution. It is, by any measure a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice.
If the left is able to keep this up, justice and redress of grievance becomes impossible… what then?
The DOJ and IRS lawyers behind this charade deserve significant personal fines.
He has the authority to do it.
Which reminds me of the old joke.
What’s the difference between God and a federal judge?
God doesn’t think he is a federal judge.
Sullivan is a black (small B) American and I am a white (small W) American. The title African-American, with its capitalized reference to a continent, is a subtle elevation of title. Unless, in equality, I am a Euro-American; but I don’t want to be Euro in any shape, form or word. A-As can cut their symbolic ties to the wretched continent if they want, by simply becoming black Americans, with the capitalization showing the correct emphasis….American first, skin color/ continent of origin a distant second. The old melting pot thing.
Color me overly optimistic, but imo the sanctioned from on high abuses of the IRS will eventually be exposed beyond the power of the msm to provide the golfer cover. The same goes for the extensive damage that will follow the border crash. And the enormous threat of ISIL. These are not the chickens Rev. Wright spoke of, but they will crap on the teleprompter messiah.
You may well be right parker. I just got back from briefly visiting my Dad and Mom and my 92 yr old Dad, a low-info, well indoctrinated, ‘solid liberal’ (but of the 40% who still take pride in their country) on his own, ventured the opinion that Obama is a ‘weak’ President.
Brother parker, why, I’ve not known you to be optimistic, much less “overly optimistic”. (Geoffrey Britain, I suspect you’ll know better when you come (back) to your senses.)
[ *** All in good fun, guys! *** ]
The fix is in. No matter how much the regime screws up, no matter how ridiculous Hillary’s gaffes and lies become, the voters will rise from the dead and from the roster of illegals (were there such an animal), and the left’s stranglehold on the country will continue.
Parker, the country is a lot more interested in what Kim Kardashian is (or isn’t) wearing today, than in stoopid old IRS shenanigans or our border leaking like a broken sieve.
Sir Geoffrey, will your dad [my mom just turned 92, by the way] vote for Mizz Hillary in 2016, or [s*h*u*d*d*e*r] a non-Democrat? [Confession: I have not had the pleasure of meeting Sir Britain, Sr., and my speculative question here may be wildly off base.]
Heavens, I dearly wish I could be optimistic, not to dream of “overly optimistic”. But that day has passed.
parker wrote:
Color me overly optimistic, but imo the sanctioned from on high abuses of the IRS will eventually be exposed beyond the power of the msm to provide the golfer cover.
I wish I could retain some optimism, but IMHO this case has already become so outrageous that I’m past the anger stage and have moved on to a sort of morbid curiosity about how much an administration can get away with if the MSM is totally in its corner and the DOJ will back it no matter how blatant the violations of law.
The IRS doesn’t even feel obliged to invent plausible lies and yet this story has generated little traction, even less outrage, and barely progresses at a snail’s pace. At this point, their explanation is about as credible as:
The dog ate my homework, Joe’s dog ate copy#1 of my homework and Bill’s dog ate copy#2. And then, after the teacher asked if there were any other copies, we decided to use copy#3 to light the fireplace.
While I can admit that a Kardashian derriere may be momentarily distracting, there are many issues that are coming to fruition that can not be ignored. All the kings horses and all the kings horses.
Everyone must decide what they should do when faced with what appears to be insurmountable odds. I choose to organize my extended family to assemble adequate food and ammo, and other supplies of survival at our 4th generation retreat on a lake iin northern minnesota. But those efforts do not stop me from trying to use the voting booth to change the course from the disaster I may see that is approaching. Each of us must decide what is the best course. I try to keep one foot planted in optimism and one in pessimism.
I agree with what you say almost to the T, parker. Sadly, I do not see how a family, regardless of size or how well armed and stocked with food and water, can protect a home or homestead.
Like you, I have seen what is beginning to happen, for a very long time. But what may come, must come now. There is no other way to stop it but for one side to destroy the other. I was a “hippie” type in the late 60’s, early 70’s. It makes me feel stupid now.
Parker…
Don’t forget to stash booze and nylons.
A massive humidor full of cannabis and tobacco also seems prudent.
Further, pile on the coffee beans — and tea leaves.
These ^^^^ are ALWAYS the currency of crisis.
I’d also lay on medical supplies: bandages, saline solutions, … etc.
PV powered refrigeration is also most valuable.
Etc.
You might even look into what modifications might be required to run your automobiles on highly distilled methyl and ethyl alcohols. With modern electronic fuel controls, it may require little more than a switch in the software. (EPROM?)
Just getting through a collapse in the currency/ local trade for the first ninety-days may suffice.
It’s not as if the nation would be nuked. just Barry’d.
Cheer up.
But those efforts do not stop me from trying to use the voting booth to change the course from the disaster I may see that is approaching. Each of us must decide what is the best course.
Agreed, parker. Regardless of how dismal it might look, it seems immoral not to vote at least, or not to use whatever other influence we might have.
It may make the difference in holding on long enough for circumstances to change in ways we cannot envision.
(I have a dream, for instance, that the bloc voting of black Americans will change.)
Part of what makes the present reality discouraging is that the Left never drops out, but all sorts of folks on the non-Left are understandably fed up and react by not participating.
We need a new Pendleton Act, along with a return to the original restrictions of the Hatch Act, to reform federal civil service. Not just the IRS. All federal agencies. Despite how obviously critical it is to get this done, it doesn’t appear to be an issue even on the radar of Repubs wanting to be president in 2016. There’s no talk of it by any that I know of.
blert,
Already been there and thought that. The propane tanks at the lake are kept full, there is always at least 10 cords of hard wood fire wood on site, med kits, 2 years of dehydrated food for 20 people, and night vision goggles. And plenty of gas for the boat and lots of fishing gear. We even have a green house. A country boy can survive.
Hey parker, you shouldn’t be giving out lists like that. They can track purchases you know.