My nephew is a self-taught (and quite brilliant) computer guru that has parlayed his experience (no college) into a high dollar/powered job as VP of IT with an investment house.
I asked him the other day about these “emails”.
He grinned and chuckled, and said he could have all of them downloaded in a neat file within his lunch hour and still have 30 minutes leftover for dessert.
He further said that there had to be at least 7 critical failures in the process, most of which would have been 3rd-party contractor responsibility. In his words - “impossible”.
The longer they wait the more likely some tapes will get recycled. But they would have monthly and yearly tapes for a very long time. They can easily get these files. I have done it many times due to government requests. Funny how when the tables are turned, they pull they “it is too hard” bs.