Posted on 02/27/2015 7:23:56 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Remember when Barack Obama insisted that there wasn’t a “smidgen of corruption” in his administration related to the IRS scandal? Good times, good times. The discovery of tens of thousands of e-mails from Lois Lerner, the central figure in the IRS targeting of conservative non-profits, may rewrite the scandal — and may end up with criminal charges for Lerner:
Federal investigators are looking for possible criminal activity in connection with the missing emails of a central figure in the Internal Revenue service’s targeting scandal.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration testified at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Thursday that it tracked down nearly 33,000 emails from ex-IRS official Lois Lerner. …
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified before Congress last year that the backups were no help in recovering Lerner’s lost emails, in part because the IRS overwrites them every six months.
Camus said the IRS’s technology specialists told investigators that no one from the agency asked for the tapes, raising doubts about whether the agency did its due diligence in trying to locate Lerner’s emails, or possibly greater troubles.
“There is potential criminal activity,” Camus said.
Patrick Howley reports that the IG’s investigation is having technical problems of its own, but that it’s clear that Koskinen didn’t tell Congress the truth last year about the records:
Why is the investigation on hold?
Camus said that he is currently battling it out over licensing issues with a software company that makes some kind of software that Camus needs to “match” the emails he has with the emails that have already been turned over to Congress – so that he can give Congress only the ones that Congress doesn’t have yet. Camus called the software vendor a “renowned company.” …
Under questioning from chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Camus confirmed that the inspector general found Lerner’s backup email tapes at a storage facility in West Virginia and that the IT professionals who had the tapes were never asked — by the IRS or anyone else — for the tapes. Camus said that he found what he believes are Lerner’s 2011 tapes just two weeks ago.
Camus also said that “the facts as we understand them can and have changed on a daily basis.”
In fact, Camus stated, Lerner’s e-mail records were “right where you would expect them to be.” A year ago, the IRS claimed after two months of looking that the e-mail records were irretrievably lost; it took TIGTA just two weeks to find them in the usual backup records. The rather obvious conclusion is that the IRS didn’t want to find those records, and hoped that announcing them as destroyed would end the probe into Lerner’s records. If that’s the case, then it raises the question about just how much IRS leadership knows about Lerner’s communications, and how much they might be involved in them (worth noting: Koskinen came in afterward).
Koskinen may have set himself up for a contempt charge with Congress; at the very least, he’s going to have to explain how he gave them false information about IRS records last year. Did he know about a cover-up, or did his aides pull a fast one on him too? To sell that, he’ll need to dispense with his arrogance this time around. He may well discover that Lois Lerner’s strategy of taking the Fifth may be his best path moving forward.
Jail for the shriveled up old hag.
The criminal acts sealed America’s fate in the 2012 election. The cover-up was a success.
The main reason the IG will find “potential criminal activity” now is if they have a need for her to take the fall for higher-ups. A deflection is needed.
She didn’t act unilaterally. She received her marching orders directly from the White House.
Move along, nothing to see here......
Ya Think!?! More then anything, I HATE the way BigGov jerks are unaccountable. If you or I step out of line there is hell to pay. This country is corrupt at it's core!
Boehner, McConnell etc..will get right to the bottom of this!!
Yeah right. These are the Obama years. The media suckups won’t touch this. If an article is published, it will be about how the Republicans are just as bad or worse. And then the McConnells and Boners will apologize.
Check out the email she sent before email “crashed”.
JAIL!! nothing less
In my wildest dreams...
Unquestionably.
mightn’t a potential criminal investigation prevent most other investigations from going forward (for about 22 months).
These “new found” tapes have probably already been doctored IMHO. They will find nothing incriminating on them. This evil Administration can’t be that stupid. We already know they are not law abiding, so breaking the law and altering them would not be a problem.
Good. Many Freepers pointed out that this smarmy jerk was a crook.
What amazing new fangled technology is this that nobody has EVER heard of and didn't know to ask for? What will they think of next? /S
Yeah, Boner and Bitch McConnell will get to the bottom of this about the same time my rectum starts to siphon buttermilk.
And Lerner received an additional $129,330 in bonus payments during her time as head of the IRS `Exempt Organizations’ unit ... so someone thought she was doing a bang-up job! Koskinen AND Obama vis a vis Jarrett I suspect.
Lucky for all of them they will never see a jail cell with the GOP-e’s Inspector Cleuseaus on their cases.
NSS....the cover-up is proving the rule
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