Replies

If she was using a laptop she might have pulled the files to her hard drive, but it still doesn't relieve the agency's obligation to archive that kind of work.

The IT issues in government are massive. Look at Bradley Manning. Who would give a SPC 4 access to diplomatic traffic that has nothing to do with his/her job? Setting limits to access is one of the principals of IT security. I am getting ready to transfer and the IT loser in my office want to burn all my stuff to a CD. All my stuff is on a server and evidently he can't migrate it for me. Insane.

I can see the underlying concept here. My email admin is always screaming at me to archive me emails, since I get a few thousand a month relating to operations. I archive them to a network drive but also have the option to archive to my local drive, which I don't do because that is not backed up. So Lerner COULD have been archiving older emails to her hard drive. However, she should have still had about six months worth on the server. Which is why, IMO, the IRS got rid of their email archival software and delayed coming forward - to give time for those emails to age off the server. And wiping a hard drive that you know has content that is under subpeona? The person who drove that decision should be dragged into jail for contempt - but probably will not be.

The House investigators HAVE to start putting heat on people so they will start turning on each other. Right now, they have no incentive because Holder sure as heck isn't going to prosecute.

If she was using a laptop she might have pulled the files to her hard drive, but it still doesn't relieve the agency's obligation to archive that kind of work.

What you wrote is true. I'd like to add one thing. I have the ability to VPN to my office computer from my company-issued laptop. When I do, I am only using the laptop as an interface device to my office desktop. If I save files, I'm really saving them to my office desktop, not the laptop I'm using. If I lose my laptop, I lose nothing work-related. It's all on the company server (or, if I'm reckless, on the C: drive of my office desktop).

Saving sensitive files to a laptop is stupid. Laptops get stolen or lost.

Congress and the Courts need to get Lerner's desktop -- assuming its hard drive didn't crash like all the other hard drives at the IRS.