Emails Point to IRS Officials Using Instant Messages

◼ What Lois Lerner told her IRS colleagues not to say in emails - Mark Tapscott/Washington Examiner

◼ Messages Weren't Routinely Archived, Adding to Lawmaker Concerns About Document Handling - Wall St. Journal

The latest emails suggest that IRS officials used a separate instant-messaging system whose contents also weren't preserved.

The emails raised new questions for some lawmakers about Ms. Lerner, the now-retired head of the IRS tax-exempt-organizations division who has become a focus of the inquiry.She wrote the emails to an IRS information technology official and the head of her division's audit unit.

"I was cautioning folks about email and how we have had several occasions where Congress has asked for emails and there has been an electronic search for responsive emails—so we need to be cautious about what we say in emails," Ms. Lerner wrote. "Someone asked if [instant messaging] conversations were also searchable—I don't know, but told them I would get back to them. Do you know?"

"[Instant] messages are not set to automatically save as the standard; however the functionality exists within the software," the IRS official wrote back. "My general recommendation is to treat the conversation as if it could/is being saved somewhere, as it is possible for either party of the conversation to retain the information and have it turn up as part of an electronic search."

"Perfect," Ms. Lerner replied.