Delete-gate

What We Know So Far For Sure

1. Starting in 2010, the most powerful leaders of the Democratic Party — President Obama, Senators Durbin, Schumer and Levin, Representative Elijah Cummings — ran a ceaseless campaign pressuring the IRS to silence Conservative groups.
2. Lois Lerner, the former head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS doing the actual targeting, was at the epicenter of the effort. When questioned by Congress, Lois Lerner refused to answer questions, claiming she had a Fifth Amendment right to silence. The IRS then claimed they suspended Lerner when, in fact, they had put her on a leave at full pay. Lerner has since taken retirement with a $50,000+ annual pension.
3. Ten days after receiving the first inquiry from Congress in June 2011, the hard drives of Lois Lerner and a host of people she’d emailed during the previous two years abruptly “crashed” and were quickly destroyed. (Since when does any government agency get around to doing anything quickly, much less something as inane as destroying dead hard drives?)
4. When Congress demanded all of the internal emails Lerner’s office staff sent between 2009 and 2011, the IRS dragged its feet for three years, then admitted the hard drives had crashed and been destroyed in June 2011 and that, oopsie, their internal backup tapes are toast also, because those get recycled every six months.
5. According to FedSpending.org, the IRS had a contract with Sonasoft, an email backup service vendor, starting back in 2005. Sonasoft’s motto is “email archiving done right,” and the company lists the IRS as a customer.
6. The current IRS Commissioner — John Koskinen — told Congress he does not owe the public an apology over the targeting of Conservative groups or the agency’s failure to provide internal emails. He confidently stated that he is “willing to stand on [the agency’s] record.” Before moving to the IRS in 2011, Koskinen was a chairman at Freddie Mac.

Sources:

• Fun fact: Guess where the current IRS commissioner used to work
  http://teapartyorg.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=4301673%3ATopic%3A2877757&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_topic
• About Those Missing Emails: The fact that they are “lost” at all suggests Congress is looking in the right direction.
  http://online.wsj.com/articles/kim-strassel-about-those-missing-emails-1403220814
• Tea Party Targeter Lois Lerner Retires From IRS; Rewarded 50k Pension
  http://www.ijreview.com/2013/09/81230-tea-party-targeter-lois-lerner-retires-from-irs-rewardsed-50k-pension/
• Sonasoft connection and IRS contract details first noted on Morgenr’s Twitter account.
  http://reason.com/blog/2014/06/20/the-irs-had-a-contract-with-an-email-bac