IRS Employee Looking for Lois Lerner Emails Was Blind, Literally!

[Glocktogo]

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

IRS Employee Looking for Lois Lerner Emails Was Blind, Literally!

http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/...g-for-lois-lerner-emails-was-blind-literally/

An IRS employee tasked with trying to restore and obtain emails on Lois Lerner’s IRS computer’s hard drive was legally blind. Stephen Manning, the deputy chief information officer for strategy and modernization at the IRS, submitted an affidavit in the True the Vote vs. IRS litigation regarding the persons and procedures used to attempt to recover Lois Lerner’s hard drive containing emails pertaining to Tea Party targeting.

The affidavit can be read here. Paragraph 14 describes the educational background of the person searching for data on Lois Lerner’s hard drive:

“According to the Specialist, prior to joining the Internal Revenue Service … training was completed through Lions World Services for the Blind.”

Sources familiar with the litigation confirm to me that the government confirmed that the IRS employee searching for the lost data was legally blind.

It was also revealed today that backup tapes of Lois Lerner’s emails were discovered in an off-site storage facility in West Virginia. The inspector general of the Treasury Department learned that the tapes existed and drove to West Virginia to retrieve them. Lawyers for the Justice Department as well as IRS officials have stated under oath or to the federal courts that no such backup tapes existed. They were “recycled,” DOJ lawyers told the court.

Haven’t we seen this movie before?

Government officials working with leftist organizations decided to target the president’s political opponents just before the president faced reelection. When the bad behavior is discovered, top officials in the administration and at the Justice Department use their power to hide the truth about the targeting of political opponents. Officials at the Justice Department fight disclosure of information about the administration’s wrongdoing. They even deny that tapes exist documenting communications about the wrongdoing by top government officials. We then learn the stunning news that tapes with all of the information detailing who knew what and when, actually do exist.

Next we’ll hear that the backup tapes in West Virginia have a 17-minute gap.

 

[Commander Keen]

I still don't understand why they would be looking at her hard drive. There should be a snap shot on the SAN, a backup on a dedicated backup server, or even a tape archive somewhere.

 

[Glocktogo]

I still don't understand why they would be looking at her hard drive. There should be a snap shot on the SAN, a backup on a dedicated backup server, or even a tape archive somewhere.

Read the story. The IG found a tape backup in WV, and literally drove there to get it. Koskinen was lying out his butt when he said there was no backup tape!

 

[Dale00]

It is a bit early to celebrate. There needs to be confirmation that the backup tapes have been found.

I am eager to hear what Issa and other congressional investigators have to say on this.

 

[TerryMiller]

I was thinking that I heard the new chairman of the committee, Jason Chaffetz, on FOX News the last couple of days confirm that the tapes were discovered. According to two Inspectors General, the IT personnel involved hadn't even been asked for the back-up tapes. According to the story below from FOX News, 78,000 e-mails had already been released, and the IG's didn't know whether these newer discoveries were different from the ones found earlier and released.

32,000 E-mails Recovered

As for legally blind, my vision before my cataract surgery was somewhere around 20-400, and I was told that made me "legally blind." However, I really had no issues with seeing with corrective lenses. However, from what the story described about the training the federal employee had, his must have been a lot worse than mine.

 

[LightningCrash]

I still don't understand why they would be looking at her hard drive. There should be a snap shot on the SAN, a backup on a dedicated backup server, or even a tape archive somewhere.

The risk of loss is too high on a laptop.

Archiving isn't a hard problem to solve. This happens to the Feds so often that it sounds like they prefer it to be that way.

 

[Glocktogo]

Another source on the issue:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertw...mails/?utm_campaign=yahootix&partner=yahootix

Finally, Suing IRS Over All Those Emails

Whatever your political views, it is worth reading the press release by Judicial Watch about its latest lawsuit against the IRS. You have to be a kind of Energizer Bunny to keep after the dog-ate-my-homework targeting scandal. Like President Obama, some insist there was not a smidgen of corruption at the IRS. Others aren’t so sure.

The latest Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeks “any and all records related to the destruction of damaged hard drives from IRS employee computers from January 1, 2010, to the present.” The suit was filed in federal court, Judicial Watch v Internal Revenue Service. Interestingly, the lawsuit was filed even before the latest Hearings of the Committee on Oversight & Government Reform. On February 26, 2015, the Treasury Inspector General said he is investigating possible criminal activity at the IRS. The most disturbing revelation was that the IRS had not even asked for the backup tapes when the ‘hard drive crash’ excuse was first used. If true, that sounds like a game-changer.

After all, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified that recovery efforts had been thorough, and the tapes and emails couldn’t be found. Remember all the millions and millions in taxpayer money spent looking? One report said over 250 IRS employees spend 100,000 hours, costing taxpayers at least $14 million. Mr. Koskinen has been characterized as a political fixer who, unlike most IRS Commissioners, has not had a career in the tax industry.

He may want to explain all the multi-million dollar recovery efforts, particularly if somehow they did not include some simple questions! In the meantime, the IRS statements in briefs in the Judicial Watch case showcase what is hard to see as anything but obstruction. The IRS has said repeatedly that “records that pertain to the destruction of damaged hard drives are not maintained in a searchable manner.” The IRS has denied multiple requests, leading to multiple suits.

In fact, the new Judicial Watch lawsuit focuses on the explanations of allegedly destroyed computer records in another Judicial Watch lawsuit (Judicial Watch v Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:13-cv-01559)). On July 10, 2014, the judge granted a request for a status hearing to discuss allegedly missing emails from Lerner and other IRS officials. The hearing resulted in two orders (dated July 10 and August 14). The IRS was ordered to detail under oath how some of the emails of former agency official Lois Lerner went missing or became destroyed, where they might be located, and what steps were being taken to retrieve them.

IRS attorneys said the back-up system would be too onerous to search. Yet in recent testimony, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said IRS tech employees told them that IRS management never asked for the tapes. The latest lawsuit says the IRS has referred to “standard Internal Revenue Procedure disposal procedures for any equipment with data storage capability.” Another IRS declaration referenced Lerner, yet Judicial Watch was never provided any detail. The new lawsuit seeks it. Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch hasn’t minced words:

“
“The Obama IRS, aided and abetted by the Department of Justice, continues to engage in a pattern of deception, delays, and clear violations of federal law. In this latest game, the IRS first denies there are records about the destruction of Lois Lerner’s hard drive and then suggests that there may be records, but it would too difficult to look for them. Try that one during your next IRS audit. The IRS scandal isn’t going away, and it is beginning to look like the IRS destroyed evidence about its abuse of Obama’s enemies list of Tea Party groups and conservatives.”

For alerts to future tax articles, follow me on Forbes. You can reach me at [email protected]. This discussion is not intended as legal advice, and cannot be relied upon for any purpose without the services of a qualified professional.

 

[dennishoddy]

If I heard right, the IRS still has possession of the back up tapes, and won't release them?

Lots of editing going on right now I'll bet.

 

[RugersGR8]

http://patriotpost.us/posts/33520
Lerner's Email Cover-Up 'Potential Criminal Activity'
Feb. 27, 2015



From the article above:
http://dailycaller.com/2015/02/26/lerner-email-search-is-on-hold-over-software-problems-there-is-potential-criminal-activity/
Lerner Email Search Is On Hold Over Software Problems: ‘There Is Potential Criminal Activity’
10:57 PM 02/26/2015
Patrick Howley
Political Reporter

 

[tharper]

I have a good friend who is legally blind and is one of the best graphic artists and Web designers I've ever known. He just has glasses that could set large fires.