Commissioner Admits No Evidence IRS Made Any Effort to Recover Lerner Emails from Backup Tapes

House Oversight Commitee ^ | 06/23/14 | House Oversight Commitee

[nhwingut]

In Q and A with Rep. Chaffetz, Koskinen says agency did not pursue recovery because it was ‘costly’

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., today convened a hearing with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen on the loss of former IRS official Lois Lerner’s email over a two year period. Under questioning from Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), Koskinen said that the IRS made no effort to recover Lerner’s email archive from the six month backups after her initial computer problems in June of 2011.

Question & Answer with Rep. Chaffetz:

Chaffetz: Thank you Chairman, my understanding is that the backup of emails only lasted for six months, that’s correct?

Koskinen: Yes, it’s actually a disaster recovery system and it backs up for six months in case the entire system goes down.

C: And that was in place in 2011?

K: That was the rule in 2011. Policy.

C: So when Lois Lerner figured out on June 13th that her computer crashed, and there have been emails showing that she was going to great lengths to try to get that recovered, why didn’t they just go to that six month tape?

K: Because that six month tape is a disaster recovery tape that has all of the emails on it and is a very complicated tape to actually extract emails for, but I have not seen any emails to explain why they didn’t do it, so it would be difficult, but I don’t know why.

C: But you said the IRS was going to extraordinary lengths to give it to the recovery team, correct?

K: That’s correct.

C: But it’s backed up on tape.

K: For six months, yes.

C: And that was within the six month window, so why didn’t you get them off the backup?

K: All I know about that is that the backup tapes are disaster recovery tapes that put everything in one lump and extracting individual emails out of that is very costly and difficult. And that was not the policy at the time.

C: Did anybody try?

K: I have no idea or indication that they did.

C: So you have multiple emails showing she was trying to recover this, it’s the testimony of the IRS that they were trying desperately, in fact you got a forensic team to try to extract this, you went to great lengths, you made a big point over the last week about all the efforts you’re going through, but they were backed up on tape, and you didn’t do it?

K: As far as I know they did not, but they did have, as I noted, the emails, she had three months worth of emails at that time.

Youtube Video here

[kevslisababy]

In the mean time, obamacare is taking root.

[A CA Guy]

Right, there are five or six backups elsewhere.

[kevslisababy]

I can’t believe that a few of the higher ups involved are saving this stuff on their own to protect their own butts if things get to hot.

[drpix]

CHRONOLOGY FOR A PERP-WALK (If we were not living under a neo-Bolshevik government-media regime)

June 3, 2011 	- first time the IRS learned Congress was looking into the targeting of conservatives. * 
June 13, 2011	- Lerner’s reported her hard drive failed. * 
August 2011 	- IRS cancels email offsite-backup storage contract. **  
Dec 13, 2011	- 6-month tape email onsite-backup recovery-period expires with no effort made to recover "lost" emails. * 
March 26, 2014 	- IRS Comm Koskinen testimony about Lerner's emails ("every single email"):  
		   (Question)“Will you commit to provide all those emails?”
		   (Answer) “Yes, we will do that,” answered Koskinen, adding, “We never said we would not provide all the emails.”  *

LINKS:
*   "IRS chief scorched as 'liar'"
** "Lois Lerner’s Hard Drive Crashed, Then Her Hard Drive was Thrown Out, Then the IRS Cancelled its Email Archiving"

[demshateGod]

Yes. There is no way these emails were stored on a single hard drive. Furthermore, they’re all recoverable. That this doesn’t bother any Democrat, at any level, whether elected or rank and file, illustrates that we’re heading for Civil War.

[GOPJ]

I’ll bet the commissioner kisses the butt of every liberal in the press and anyone close to the New York Times or Washington Post.... and they all think he’s wonderful.

Joseph Goebbels was charming with ‘his kind’ too... the ‘oh so superior ones’... they all loved him. But Goebbels was a real sh*t with people he saw as ‘inferior’...

John Koskinen appears to have that type of personality. I think he’s dangerous.

[blackdog]

Cut off the head of the collective loathsome beast that is our government. It's become dishonest and is acting contrary to it's constitutional rules. The constitution limited government for just this reason.

[GOPJ]

I’ll bet the commissioner kisses the butt of every liberal in the press and anyone close to the New York Times or Washington Post.... and they all think he’s wonderful.

Joseph Goebbels was charming with ‘his kind’ too... the ‘oh so superior ones’... they all loved him. But Goebbels was a real sh*t with people he saw as ‘inferior’...

John Koskinen appears to have that type of personality. I think he’s dangerous.

It’s the contempt thing he does with people he doesn’t see as his equal. That’s a red flag within the human condition - and usually a sign of evil.

[Fresh Wind]

A lying sack of **** hired to protect another lying sack of ****.

[TheCipher]

Because that six month tape is a disaster recovery tape that has all of the emails on it and is a very complicated tape to actually extract emails for, but I have not seen any emails to explain why they didn’t do it, so it would be difficult, but I don’t know why.

Yes, the 6 month tape could be a disaster recovery tape - used for sytem wide recovery, but that DOES NOT mean that is the only backup available.Sure the disaster recovery tape has the emails on it ( if such tape ever existed). That is a backup of everything. There are backups made on the exchange sever just for emails that are used to recover emails. I wish these boneheaded congressmen will get the IT guys in to testify, and have an IT guy on their side supplying the questions.

[bigtoona]

Multiple criminal acts have obviously taken place or at least there is enough circumstantial evidence to justify congress sending a team of investigators into the IRS and start hauling out boxes of evidence!

The fact that they are still asking the same questions over and over tells me that this is simply a stall tactic that both sides have agreed to.

It will go nowhere and this IRS scumbag doesn’t give a crap, he looks like the cat that ate the canary.

[blackdog]

Only conservatives are guilty of lying. Liberals can’t be guilty of what they are so proud of. They think lying is an appropriate tool for daily use. Why feel guilty about it? That’s progress.

[blackdog]

Put Lois Lerner in jail with a cell mate named Butchy Birtha.

Just see how fast she finds those emails.

[Linda Frances]

Maybe Issa is stringing this out for an October surprise. We know most democrats are either too ignorance to see they are following a cult or they want free stuff. I bet there are people out there who knew what was going on and how valuable the evidence would be and kept important copies. Real evidence would be worth millions. Call the Koch bros if need be. Democrat voters would turn on there own if they were paid. I just can’t believe it’s all gone.

[nhwingut]

Exactly. The idea that the IRS had no backups at all, except a system wide disaster recovery tape is not believable. If so, they would be the only Microsoft enterprise data center in America without this ability. It’s illegal.

[bigtoona]

[celmak]

So when do the perp-walks begin ???

[goodnesswins]

Like Linda Frances above said....hopefully about October 15th

[Kit cat]

True the Vote group has put up a million dollar reward for information
from the inside, I can’t believe SOMEONE out of that BEAST of a department will not come forward!!!!!!

[jsanders2001]

> The Woodwards & Bernsteins who made their name of getting the dirt don’t exist in todays MSM or they just don’t want to admit that they had a big role in getting this type of corruption put into office.

I think many of the journalist cheerleaders are going to feel the pain personally later though.