A week is much more reasonable than the full month given by the previous federal judge. The IRS has been mucking around with the supposed lost emails for more than two years now and they should be able to provide the information in a half-day.
I agree. In a federal agency, they are ALWAYS supposed to be prepared for an Inspector General to check their files and their procedures. That doesn't mean everything is always done perfectly, but it does mean:
1) You can within minutes locate all the procedures for what you are supposed to do in certain circumstances.
2) Within hours locate the specific records (such as they are) for what you did or did not do in a particular case.
The idea that you need an entire month to concoct some BS story to "explain away" the difficulty is ludicrous. The judge is reasonable to set a 1 week deadline.
considering how this case has gone, with all the obfuscation from the IRS since the beginning, the Judge should have Held The IRS representative in JAIL until the order is complied with, and lock up every last IRS representative that shows up, until we get some Answers.