From an earlier thread:
I am an I.T. professional and have been for 30 years. I will GUARANTEE those emails are recoverable.
The IRS uses what is called an Exchange server. EVERYTHING that uses Outlook is stored in an .OST file on a SERVER. In the case of the IRS it is almost with certainty that server is located within a data center. That server and probably hundreds of others are backed up with multiple backups AND in other locations.
If the hard drive in a users PC crashes, burns, stolen or whatever, you simply plug in a new one, reconfigure Outlook to grab the .OST file from the server and magically all of your email, folders, contact list, calendar, etc,etc,etc, come back to life on the PC.
Now, these servers are configured with RAID drives that mirror each other. If one goes bad the others keep running. All you do is plug in a new drive and it mirrors again. Plus the servers are mirrored as well. It’s called FAULT TOLERANT.
Even if somebody destroyed the actual .OST files and the backups from the servers. The RECIPIENTS still have those emails and...they are on servers as well.
I would have EVERY computer, tablet, smart phone and any other devices seized from Lerner and EVERYBODY in her contact list as a start. Then I would seize the servers and subpoena EVERY person involved in the administration of those servers. Answers would come swiftly if facing jail time.
The IRS is a criminal organization so you have to think like a criminal. Thing is, they always screw up somewhere.
...none of which prevents a user from DELETING a message from their mailbox.
It may take a while to percolate through all of the various redundancies, but eventually it WILL be irrecoverable, unless there happens to be a backup set from the time in question, or if the messages were also dumped into an archive someplace.
Everyone please repeat after me:
RAID is NOT backup.
Backup is NOT archiving.
Backups will eventually be overwritten, unless there is a specific policy in place to preserve them for archival purposes. Otherwise you need to be creating a separate archive and preserving that someplace.
There's where you break down. It will never happen while Holder is AG and they all know it.
If the GOP are really serious their first move should be to stop waiting for the zero chance that Holder's Justice Department will do anything beyond throwing parties for anyone the House holds in Contempt and to exert their only real threat. The House can on its own authority imprison those it holds in Contempt. It can and should start with Holder and should throw Lerner in right after him. I don't recall anyone else being held in Contempt by this House, but if they're are, throw them in too. Obama has no power to pardon them out of there, and precedent says the Judicial system also has minimal jurisdiction. Judicial prison standards also don't apply so they don't have to be kept under Club Fed standards. I'd advise subcontracting with Sheriff Joe to 'House' them once Obama predictably forbids any executive branch run institutions from doing so. They can hold them until the end of this Congress at which time the next House can repeat it. THEN ask the little people whether they think Pelosi will take back the Speakership and come to their rescue or whether they want to tell all the truth.
Admittedly the chances of this happening under Speaker Boehner is similar to the chances of Majority Leader Cantor losing his primary. But a Tea Party rip tide in November might bring in bolder leadership.