Posted on 06/24/2014 5:34:23 AM PDT by 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
........ The IRS chief admitted they had a Lerner’s data on a tape but that it was “too complicated” and too "costly" to retrieve it.
Yet they then supposedly spend years and millions of dollars in man hours trying to retrieve it by piece meal. Totally contradictory. To retrieve by tape would not have cost over a million dollars and taken over a year - any IT (or lay person) can attest to this. It's called disaster recovery for a reason. Which doesn't mean you will be up and running, oh, in a year or two. It means it gets enterprise (or user) "recovered" in a short period of time. An IT pro well versed in backup restoration could have had her data restored in hours.
This is total BS. They need to find out the vendor of the DR backup software and subpoena executives. Then lay out the scenario and ask them to determine the time it should take to restore Lerner's data. Pretty simple.
The corrupt, lying Commissioner was the one
who made a FORTUNE for his friends
.... by being the Y2K Commissar.
He is “Mr. Computer” and KNEW there were backup tapes
where he destroyed, and helped coverup.
I work for the government and we are supposed to archive data for a decade. The IRS isn’t telling the truth. Those emails should be on an Exchange-type server and there should be archives of the contents.
And no, I am not at work. Day at the doctor
This man should be in prison doing hard time.
In this case, I’m somewhat sympathetic to what he’s saying, because DR tapes are usually for system-wide crashes, and not just individual email accounts. However, personal email accounts should be stored on network and not an individual hard drive to prevent this very thing from happening.
I’ve recovered full hard drives in a matter of hours. Even if the hard drive is faulty you can often repair them and you would certainly think the WH would have access to top notch people that could do ths. I guarantee if it were a hard drive from one of RNC headquarter’s computers that they thought had damning evidence on it that drive would be repaired and up and running in a matter of hours. That hard drive must contain some really damning emails from BHO ordering Lerner to do a full court press on conservative groups.
I think Sonasoft is a red herring. It's an Obama loving company that will give whatever answers the IRS needs. The IRS could have gotten the email off the backup tapes. The committee needs to get the IT IRS techs in and then representatives of the storage companies that the IRS uses.
Nixon is owed an apology BIG time.
It seems the revelation from last evening’s hearing was an admission that back-ups do exist, but the IRS doesn’t have funds to pay for retrieval.
They went to “great lengths” to recover the emails. Well. except that we didn’t actually do anything.
Smug, condescending bureaucrat.
Put him on a plane, and airdrop him into Al Queda territory.
They will ask him one question, bring out the sword, and he will babble out
the truth.....
Do they really expect anyone to believe this horse hockey?
Gowdy is artful in getting the rat to the trap:
Crumb. Crumb. Crumb. Crumb. ZAP!
If not, those 'pubs are just playin' the game, acting their roles.
He lost the emails explaining how they lost the emails. We've gotten into recursive absurdity.
Nixon is owed an apology BIG time.
Nixon is like a kid stealing from the cookie jar compared to this group and King Barry.
Problem is those of us who lived through Nixons time, and saw the witch hunt are becoming fewer and fewer.
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.
Even if it was truly “too costly” to retrieve, the tape should have been preserved as evidence rather than re-used or destroyed.
To summarize: They have the backup tapes for disaster recovery. There was a disaster. They didn’t do the recovery because it would have been costly.
Gowdy is artful in getting the rat to the trap:
Everyone else should yield their time to Trey, and let him grill the rats....
People like this are so arrogant that they will not babble, or in your example gurgle, out the truth until it is too late.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.