Anyone who does IT and is a bit older (ahem!) remembers how the old drives would have catastrophic head crashes, but even then there would be at least a few sectors retrievable. Those problems had pretty much disappeared by 2000, so unless Lerner took her hard drive on her off roading and bungee jumping trips, the idea that nothing was recoverable is a laugh.
That’s before we even get to the question of server backups, which must still be scattered throughout the system. Email isn’t that data intensive (unless you are downloading porn videos). Then you have six more crashes?
Even if she *did* take the drive on such a trip, someone like DriveSavers can probably get some if not all of the data back.
I and a CE had our heads next to a 3340 when It disintegrated.
Don’t forget that one of the problems Lerner has is that she did some of her company work on her personal computer. That by itself might get her prosecuted unless she has a permission letter to do that. The confidentiality nature of gummint records pretty much precludes “taking work home”. If the beeeitch did any mouth-shooting on her laptop she will be dead meat for that alone. And since it’s started she can’t outlive the statute of limitations by waiting for a friendly administration. Some eagerbeaver US Attorney is going to eat her lunch.