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IRS Email Jeopardy: The agency had a legal obligation to retain the records it lost
The Wall Street Journal ^ | June 24, 2014 | Wall Street Journal Editorial Page

Posted on 06/24/2014 6:36:48 PM PDT by JOHN ADAMS

The IRS is spinning a tale of bureaucratic incompetence to explain the vanishing emails from former Tax Exempt Organizations doyenne Lois Lerner and six other IRS employees. We have less faith by the minute that there is an innocent explanation for this failure to cooperate with Congress, but even if true it doesn't matter. The IRS was under a legal obligation to retain the information because of a litigation hold.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: email; irs
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To: mcenedo
hate the WSJ firewall

Do a Google search for:

legal obligation to retain the information because of a litigation hold

21 posted on 06/24/2014 7:42:44 PM PDT by TChad (The Obamacare motto: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.)
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To: JOHN ADAMS

The IRS scandal seems to be an ongoing consequence-free crime.


22 posted on 06/24/2014 7:54:03 PM PDT by TChad (The Obamacare motto: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.)
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To: mcenedo; TChad
TChad posted the solution:

You have to trick the WSJ computers into thinking you're just doing a Google or Bing search.

If their computer (or most other paywall computers) sees an incoming link from Free Republic or another site, the paywall automatically goes up.

Frustration sets in.

Fortunately, our site requires the correct title. So, I merely copied the title and Googled it (IRS Email Jeopardy: The agency had a legal obligation to retain the records it lost). HOWEVER! The REAL correct title is only "IRS Email Jeopardy". When I clicked on the link in my Google search the first time, the WSJ paywall computerknew that the search had come from a link title, and threw up the paywall.

I looked at the Google search results, and ascertained that the true title was "IRS Email Jeopardy", and did a search on that.

Bingo.

I checked a Google search on "Taranto's Best of the Web" for you. Works like a champ.

In some browsers (like Firefox), you can actually highlight to copy a title, right click, and on the context menu is that beautiful little line Search Google for "..." whatever you highlighted.

Time saver deluxe.

23 posted on 06/24/2014 8:00:32 PM PDT by kiryandil (turning Americans into felons, one obnoxious drunk at a time (Zero Tolerance!!!))
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To: lepton
You are confusing the local desktop copy with the actual destination, which is on a remote server. A copy of your sent items is kept and archived under your control; that is what you are talking about. The IRS wants people to believe this is the only copy, and therefore a hard drive crash on a single machine -- Lois Lerner's -- could delete all the emails.

This is false.

In addition to the local copy, received emails are also retained and archived on your incoming email server, and sent emails are retained and archived on the email servers of the recipients. There are almost certainly local email copies of the various correspondents as well.

Unless deleted from all desktops, all servers, and all archives these mails still exist. The IRS is simply lying.

24 posted on 06/24/2014 8:05:26 PM PDT by FredZarguna (Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!)
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To: FunkyZero
As both a Unix and VM system programmer, processing center manager, and system administrator for many years, I can tell you that it does not depend on how they "configure" the archives.

Under normal circumstances, these emails would exist in the following places: 1) The local desktop of the sender. This is where the [supposedly] crashed hard drive lives, and where the IRS wants you to believe the emails have been lost. 2) The email server serving the recipient clients. 3) The email server serving the sending clients [these are distinct machines if the senders and receivers are in different organizations.] 4) Multiple local desktop copies of senders and recipients involved in these threads. 5) By Federal law, nearline storage of the server archives -- both source and destination and/or digital tape storage of the source and destination servers. 6) By Federal law, paper backups of correspondence involving taxpayers or litigants. 7) The NSA.

The IRS wants you to believe that destruction of a single hard drive and failure to maintain archives according to Federal law (oh, well...) accounts for all of the copies of these emails. It does not. The IRS is thumbing its nose at Congress, the American People, and the law.

25 posted on 06/24/2014 8:14:01 PM PDT by FredZarguna (Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!)
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To: FredZarguna

Huh? Both sent and received emails are stored on email servers.


26 posted on 06/24/2014 8:17:34 PM PDT by Durus (You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. Ayn Rand)
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To: FredZarguna

Well said and ignore my last.


27 posted on 06/24/2014 8:21:25 PM PDT by Durus (You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. Ayn Rand)
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To: Durus

So what? The destination servers are not under IRS control, unless the recipient is at the IRS. That is one of the many, many, many reasons which I have dealt with in numerous posts, why this whole thing is a flimsy, outrageous lie. [See the posts two or three above this one.]


28 posted on 06/24/2014 8:23:04 PM PDT by FredZarguna (Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!)
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To: Durus

Heh. Ignore mine, too.


29 posted on 06/24/2014 8:24:14 PM PDT by FredZarguna (Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!)
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To: kiryandil

Why only keep backups for 6 months? Tape is cheap.


30 posted on 06/24/2014 8:32:03 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie (The media must be defeated any way it can be done.)
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To: JOHN ADAMS

What really dismays me is that there is no one in the irs with enough integrity to step forward and tell what happened. We can survive obama, what we can’t survive is the weight of those who support and cover for him. If we go under, that will be what drags us under.


31 posted on 06/24/2014 8:33:59 PM PDT by RobinOfKingston (Democrats--the party of Evil. Republicans--the party of Stupid.)
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To: FredZarguna

the archiving software commonly used is a client application that is installed or exists on either an MTA routing server or an MX gateway. This intercepts every message passing through it and decides whether to archive it or not based on the administrators selections. I’ve configured the software in the past, I know how it works and it does indeed matter what is selected as well as how long the archives are stored before they are purged. You can create policies for global use or smaller groups of individuals and have customized archiving rules applied to the given groups or even individual users. There may be lower-end applications out there that do not give you these options, but I don’t know who would use something like that.


32 posted on 06/24/2014 8:50:46 PM PDT by FunkyZero (... I've got a Grand Piano to prop up my mortal remains)
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To: FunkyZero

That is another level which has nothing to do with whether the servers themselves are backed up.


33 posted on 06/24/2014 8:53:26 PM PDT by FredZarguna (Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!)
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To: kiryandil

-—’It’s actually a disaster recovery system,’

If the IRS had proper leadership and respect for the people, they would have considered this sorry crapalooza a disaster to recover from.


34 posted on 06/24/2014 9:02:47 PM PDT by sgtyork (Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy)
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To: FredZarguna
Of course it is a different level. This is not a backup mechanism, it is document retention. There are entire software package suites that are purpose build for this. If you type a message and click send, the message router copies the email to the archives. It is completely out of the control of the user and in an environment this large. 99% of the admins can't even access it because it's a legal issue...

The options are limited, but quite granular. You can even choose to strip or keep file attachments, set storage limits, archive length, which user folders to ignore or include, etc...

Server backups are another facet of this whole lie. I can believe that their rotations overwrote the backups from 2 years ago, that is completely feasible... but not the archive system.

35 posted on 06/24/2014 9:09:54 PM PDT by FunkyZero (... I've got a Grand Piano to prop up my mortal remains)
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To: FunkyZero
I can believe that their rotations overwrote the backups from 2 years ago, that is completely feasible...

It really isn't.

36 posted on 06/24/2014 9:22:39 PM PDT by FredZarguna (Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!)
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To: The_Media_never_lie
Why only keep backups for 6 months? Tape is cheap.

Because they're lying?

Tape was cheap 15 years ago, when we were archiving our files.

They're lying like rugs. Tyrannical rugs.

37 posted on 06/24/2014 9:23:02 PM PDT by kiryandil (turning Americans into felons, one obnoxious drunk at a time (Zero Tolerance!!!))
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To: FredZarguna

She apparently had a lap top in addition to her office computer that “broke”

Yesterday I went to the local library signed in my email account and brought up emails from two years ago in the sent folder.

Even needed help with password

We need a hacker that’s smarter than a fifth grader


38 posted on 06/25/2014 12:35:48 AM PDT by hoosiermama (Obama: "Born in Kenya" Lying now or then or now)
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To: Fester Chugabrew
Those emails were hosted on an RNC server, not an official US Gov’t server.

That server was used, as intended, for political emails, so that WH appointees would not violate the Hatch Act.

Emails were found to have been sent to/from a .gov server but no additional info was made public.

The RNC did not keep any emails from 51 officials that used the email system, which did not violate any laws.

It was never 5 million emails nor 22 million emails - those numbers came from DNC operatives.

Obama’s executive branch is accused of willfully violating numerous laws regarding preservation of emails on official gov’t servers, of violating the Hatch Act by ignoring it and passing privileged personal info illegally to outside political sources.

Different world entirely.

39 posted on 06/25/2014 1:53:22 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: Fester Chugabrew
For fun and games, read this WaPo ever-so-balanced article on all of those political “crimes”.

Then compare it to current reporting and this administration's actions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/17/AR2007041701984.html?nav=rss_politics

40 posted on 06/25/2014 1:57:54 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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