If a high level executive does have a computer problem, the first thing that IT would do is arrive at her work place with a substitute, and the exec would be up and running with no one having any need to know that a computer problem ever existed. I call bullshit.
I’m not even a high-level exec, but I can get someone from IT to come fix my laptop or bring me a new one or loaner within a few hours. In the interim, if it looks like it’s going to be a while, I borrow a colleague’s computer, sign on as myself put my oof on (having computer issues, my responses will be delayed - please call me at xxx if you need immediate assistance). I’ve been able to do this with various versions of Windows OS and Outlook, but I’ve only had to do this a few times (once when I was putting in a lot of hours and my poor HD got over-heated and needed a rest).
I can only remember 1 colleague that actually had a bad crash and that was at least a few years ago. Our very capable IT guys couldn’t recover the data, so they sent it out to a company that specializes in recovery (IIRC cost about $400) and they were able to recover her data. Meanwhile, most of her email were on the server (it was only the docs she saved on her HD that she didn’t have immediate access to).
Exactly.
I’m the CEO of a mid-sized business. If my hard drive crashed in the morning, our IT people would have me on a new computer before lunch. I wouldn’t lose an e-mail. It is true that I could do very little work, since most of what I do is read and write e-mails....so I’d just take a walk while the IT guys were working in my office, sit outside in the pleasant summer air, and send and receive e-mails on my smartphone. My managers would never know I was out of the office for a few hours.
Lois Lerner had a high position. On top of all this, I guarantee you she had the ability to delegate her e-mail account to some other individual. In the real world, she’d either shift to her Blackberry, or just have her assistant watch her e-mails for a few hours and go for a long lunch while it was all being fixed.
This e-mail is explicit tradecraft of a cover-up.