◼ Despite IRS officials’ sworn testimony and affidavits to the contrary, a DOJ attorney has learned there is a backup system where Lois Lerner’s emails are stored. - IJReview
So why haven’t they been produced, pursuant to subpoena and court order?◼ Judicial Watch: DOJ Admits Lois Lerner’s Emails Do Exist on Gov’t Backup System - CNS
A Department of Justice attorney admitted that “lost” emails from Lois Lerner’s hard drive do exist on an emergency backup system, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said today.
Fitton made the bombshell declaration during an appearance on Fox News:
"The Department of Justice attorney told the Judicial Watch attorney on Friday that it turns out the federal government backs up all computer records in case something terrible happens in Washington and there is a catastrophe. So the government can continue operating. They say it would be too hard to go get Lois Lerner's e-mails from that back-up system.◼ Group Claims IRS Lawyer Said Lerner’s Emails Were Backed Up - The Daily Signal
"Everything we've been hearing about scratched hard drives, missing e-mails of Lois Lerner, other IRS officials, other officials in the Obama administration, it's all been a pack of malarkey. They could get these records but they don't want to and they haven't told anyone about it, frankly, until we were able to get it out of them on Friday. There's no such thing as Lois Lerner's missing e-mails. It's all been a big lie. They've been lying to the courts, to the American people and to Congress."
“There’s no such thing as Lois Lerner’s missing emails. It’s all been a big lie. They’ve been lying to the courts, to the American people, and to Congress. It’s really outrageous.”◼ IRS now claims Lois Lerner’s emails not really missing, just really hard to find - HotAir
The indications of criminal conduct out of the IRS did not stop there. On Monday, court filings revealed that the tax agency destroyed Lerner’s blackberry on which the suspect emails were contained after the agency learned that her computer had crashed and a congressional inquiry was already underway.
◼ IRS Shocker: Filing Reveals Lerner Blackberry Destroyed - The device was wiped AFTER Congressional inquiry began - New York Obaerver
Judge Sullivan has had to pry information from the IRS to learn anything about Ms. Lerner’s Blackberry. Now, with these latest revelations, I’m confident he’s not finished.
In two elusive and nebulous sworn declarations, we can glean that Ms. Lerner had two Blackberries. One was issued to her on November 12, 2009. According to a sworn declaration, this is the Blackberry that contained all the emails (both sent and received) that would have been in her “Outlook” and drafts that never were sent from her Blackberry during the relevant time.
...Aside from the fact the IRS was required to keep hard copies, we now know they should exist on Blackberry servers as well as Google and perhaps others. Indeed, the Department of Justice has disclosed that they all should be on a government server—as we suspected.
Judge Sullivan has already appointed federal Magistrate Judge John Facciola to assist the parties in finding the emails on other devices. Between the two of them, they can demand production of the emails from the servers, and there are still more questions to answer.
What are all the servers the emails went through? Blackberry is touted as the most secure, so surely the emails should be found there. All of the data on her current Blackberry should be provided immediately to Judge Sullivan, for whatever insight it might provide. There’s no reason for the IRS to hold out on that. It should be given to Darrell Issa and Congress also. Nothing required in the production of the emails through the Blackberry could possibly hamper the Inspector General’s investigation.
And what about “ghost” email accounts? The IRS should be able to determine, or Judge Sullivan can, whether any of the officials whose emails are missing used personal accounts or other names for business emails they didn’t want going through the federal system even though they were required to do so.
