So, what’s the penalty? My guess is nothing other than the agency gets a minor hand slap at this morning’s hearings. The failure to inform occurred under the current leadership, the destruction and poor systems under prior IRS leadership. Let’s start with the penalty for failure to inform the Archivists. Of course even if it were criminal DOJ would do nothing so does the National Archives have its own ability to impose a penalty? If they don’t penalize the current leadership at the IRS the message is there is no harm no foul if you lose documents and don’t report.
There will be no penalties until the Republicans can take the Senate. The Dems can block, stall, and destroy evidence with impunity without fear of oversight. Once there is a real threat of impeachment then we will see if they have the guts to do anything.