The last company I worked for had a written policy that emails would be automatically, permanently deleted after 30 days. They could not be retrieved no matter how important they were. This was instituted after the Microsoft lawsuit where relatively minor and some major players wrote incredibly stupid and lawsuit supporting statements.
Even if the gov had a policy like that, they likely have a backup tape somewhere that could be pulled.
I’ll bet they were referring to emails deleted from email files available on individual workstations, and the emails were still available in some databank if need be.
The US Government has a general policy that certain “business” emails cannot be deleted and must be saved in the “electronic archives” for future preservation at the National Archives.
I cannot delete work-related emails eventhough mine are work-product protected. However, we are backed up (in theory every night).
The IRS coverup is the break ISSA and others needed to hold the IRS as an unit in contempt of Congress, if not in Criminal Contempt re destroying government documents under a presentation order.
Time for a federal grand jury to investigate. Only problem is that it would come under the Holder/Cole Dept. of Justice jurisdiction, and they cannot be trusted to wipe their ass properly.
They would comprise the most honest District Attorney and his investigation.
Congress needs to establish a Select Committee on the IRS with every subpoena and punishment power the law allows.
Then make Joe McCarthy look like an amateur.
Do a Sam Ervin/Welch job on the IRS. Down and dirty!