The IRS's inspector general confirmed Thursday it is conducting a criminal investigation into how Lois G. Lerner's emails disappeared, saying it took only two weeks for investigators to find hundreds of tapes the agency's chief had told Congress were irretrievably destroyed.

Investigators have already scoured 744 backup tapes and gleaned 32,774 unique emails, but just two weeks ago they found an additional 424 tapes that could contain even more Lerner emails, Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told the House Oversight Committee in a rare late-night hearing meant to look into the status of the investigation.

"There is potential criminal activity," Mr. Camus said.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/26/irs-watchdog-reveals-lois-lerner-missing-emails-no/

Quote from: Solar on February 27, 2015, 10:19:17 AM
"There is potential criminal activity," Mr. Camus said.

Duh....there is a potential?  This was obvious from the beginning.

Quote from: Solar on February 27, 2015, 10:19:17 AM
The IRS's inspector general confirmed Thursday it is conducting a criminal investigation into how Lois G. Lerner's emails disappeared, saying it took only two weeks for investigators to find hundreds of tapes the agency's chief had told Congress were irretrievably destroyed.

Investigators have already scoured 744 backup tapes and gleaned 32,774 unique emails, but just two weeks ago they found an additional 424 tapes that could contain even more Lerner emails, Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told the House Oversight Committee in a rare late-night hearing meant to look into the status of the investigation.

"There is potential criminal activity," Mr. Camus said.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/26/irs-watchdog-reveals-lois-lerner-missing-emails-no/

I recall when the issue of Lois Lerner's contempt of Congress and Perjury first became an issue, Trey Gowdy said that he really doesn't know all that much about politics, but he does now the law and about criminal prosecution.  He stated he would not give her or any witness immunity in return for testimony; he'd prosecute her!  When(if) she was found guilty; just before sentencing is the time to offer any sort of deal (for a lighter sentence) in exchange for her cooperation (testimony and any physical evidence she might be able to provide) that led to the proseceution of others.

I personally believe that the way this Chicago style goverment has been working, for the last half dozen plus years, leads one to believe ther might be cause for a RICO investigation, to unravel the whole criminal conspiracy; link by link...Just like any other organized crime investigation or an ongoing criminal conspiracy!

A lot of very "Audacious" criminals are dong time in our prisons!

Quote from: Solar on February 27, 2015, 10:19:17 AM
The IRS's inspector general confirmed Thursday it is conducting a criminal investigation into how Lois G. Lerner's emails disappeared, saying it took only two weeks for investigators to find hundreds of tapes the agency's chief had told Congress were irretrievably destroyed.

Investigators have already scoured 744 backup tapes and gleaned 32,774 unique emails, but just two weeks ago they found an additional 424 tapes that could contain even more Lerner emails, Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told the House Oversight Committee in a rare late-night hearing meant to look into the status of the investigation.

"There is potential criminal activity," Mr. Camus said.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/26/irs-watchdog-reveals-lois-lerner-missing-emails-no/

I frankly don't give a shit whether Lois Lerner ever spends a minute behind bars. (I can't help thinking she ought to forgo that pension, though.) What I want from her is testimony. I want her to spill the beans. She didn't call the shots, but she damn sure knows who did, and she knows at least the first few steps up the ladder from her perch. Actually, Lerner has had two perches -- one in the FEC before her more recent "service" in the IRS. She knows a LOT that could be pried out of her with a promise of immunity.

I absolutely, positively guarantee you that the IRS targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups was specifically and explicitly directed by the White House. When the facts finally see the light of day, the Kenyan will find his slot in the history of modern American presidents just below the one labeled "Nixon," a fellow who is often excoriated for merely attempting (and failing) to do exactly what the Kenyan did.

Quote from: Solar on February 27, 2015, 10:19:17 AM
The IRS's inspector general confirmed Thursday it is conducting a criminal investigation into how Lois G. Lerner's emails disappeared, saying it took only two weeks for investigators to find hundreds of tapes the agency's chief had told Congress were irretrievably destroyed.

Investigators have already scoured 744 backup tapes and gleaned 32,774 unique emails, but just two weeks ago they found an additional 424 tapes that could contain even more Lerner emails, Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told the House Oversight Committee in a rare late-night hearing meant to look into the status of the investigation.

"There is potential criminal activity," Mr. Camus said.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/26/irs-watchdog-reveals-lois-lerner-missing-emails-no/

Listening to Rush today he mentioned the IRS says they can't be read because of some kind of system change. That is so weak it is laughable. We all know there thousand tech guys who could retrieve those old e-mails if they have the tapes. The question is who would be responsible for prosecution? The DOJ? We all know how that would turn out.

Quote from: supsalemgr on February 27, 2015, 11:29:11 AM
Listening to Rush today he mentioned the IRS says they can't be read because of some kind of system change. That is so weak it is laughable. We all know there thousand tech guys who could retrieve those old e-mails if they have the tapes. The question is who would be responsible for prosecution? The DOJ? We all know how that would turn out.

Right now the investigation is where it's been from the beginning -- in the hands of the IRS's own Inspector General. I think we have a fair idea by this time of how that's gonna turn out.

Quote from: supsalemgr on February 27, 2015, 11:29:11 AMThe question is who would be responsible for prosecution? The DOJ? We all know how that would turn out.

Trey Gowdy said there should be a "select committee" for the IRS fiasco.

I don't know, but maybe a select committee has prosecutorial powers.  There is no way this DOJ is going to do anything.

Quote from: Dori on February 27, 2015, 11:50:58 AM
Trey Gowdy said there should be a "select committee" for the IRS fiasco.

I don't know, but maybe a select committee has prosecutorial powers.  There is no way this DOJ is going to do anything.

Select committees have two inescapable handicaps: they are committees, and, in this case, they would have to include members of the Democrat party.

As I recall, the final Watergate investigations, the ones that led to the resignation of Richard Nixon, were conducted by special prosecutors. Even that was a mess, because the prosecutors, while not actually part of the administration, were appointed by the Attorney General, and the first one (Archibald Cox) was fired on orders from the president.

Well, at least the missing emails weren't found on that table in the upstairs hallway in the White House.

Quote from: wally on February 27, 2015, 11:10:40 AM
I recall when the issue of Lois Lerner's contempt of Congress and Perjury first became an issue, Trey Gowdy said that he really doesn't know all that much about politics, but he does now the law and about criminal prosecution.  He stated he would not give her or any witness immunity in return for testimony; he'd prosecute her!  When(if) she was found guilty; just before sentencing is the time to offer any sort of deal (for a lighter sentence) in exchange for her cooperation (testimony and any physical evidence she might be able to provide) that led to the proseceution of others.

I personally believe that the way this Chicago style goverment has been working, for the last half dozen plus years, leads one to believe ther might be cause for a RICO investigation, to unravel the whole criminal conspiracy; link by link...Just like any other organized crime investigation or an ongoing criminal conspiracy!

A lot of very "Audacious" criminals are dong time in our prisons!

Wally in order to have that, we would have to see folks like the FCC and FTC chairmen being told that they DO NOT have executive privilege and that they must abide by a Congressional Subpoena.

Quote from: Solar on February 27, 2015, 10:19:17 AM
The IRS's inspector general confirmed Thursday it is conducting a criminal investigation into how Lois G. Lerner's emails disappeared, saying it took only two weeks for investigators to find hundreds of tapes the agency's chief had told Congress were irretrievably destroyed.

Investigators have already scoured 744 backup tapes and gleaned 32,774 unique emails, but just two weeks ago they found an additional 424 tapes that could contain even more Lerner emails, Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told the House Oversight Committee in a rare late-night hearing meant to look into the status of the investigation.

"There is potential criminal activity," Mr. Camus said.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/26/irs-watchdog-reveals-lois-lerner-missing-emails-no/

"Not even mass corruption. Not even a smidgeon of corruption"

Quote from: PeterR on February 27, 2015, 12:44:23 PM
Well, at least the missing emails weren't found on that table in the upstairs hallway in the White House.

  Our patience is being solicited to accept that the people who're reviewing the emails have no Deep Leak aspirations.

Good or bad for both parties, someone should be leaking the emails.  I'm really effing tired of the phoney secrecy surrounding them.   

Quote from: kit saginaw on February 27, 2015, 03:11:38 PM
  Our patience is being solicited to accept that the people who're reviewing the emails have no Deep Leak aspirations.

Good or bad for both parties, someone should be leaking the emails.  I'm really effing tired of the phoney secrecy surrounding them.

They will be released! Remember the House oversight committee Has subpoenaed them so hasn't the federal court in the Judicial watch FOI lawsuit. They won't be able to buck the court for long!!

Quote from: redbeard on February 27, 2015, 03:38:23 PM
They will be released! Remember the House oversight committee Has subpoenaed them so hasn't the federal court in the Judicial watch FOI lawsuit. They won't be able to buck the court for long!!

QuoteWashington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that on February 18, 2015, it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seeking "any and all records related to the destruction of damaged hard drives from IRS employee computers from January 1, 2010, to the present." The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Judicial Watch v Internal Revenue Service (No 1:15-cv-00237)). The lawsuit is part of an investigation into the Obama IRS' claim that the emails of Lois Lerner and other IRS officials, who are being investigated for abuses of Obama's political opponents, were contained on hard drives that were subsequently damaged and destroyed.

The suit was filed after the IRS responded to a July 18, 2014, FOIA request for records, saying that it did not find "documents specifically responsive" to the Judicial Watch request. In the same letter, dated October 14, 2014, the IRS contradicted this claim, asserting that "records that pertain to the destruction of damaged hard drives are not maintained in a searchable manner."

On November 18, 2014, Judicial Watch appealed the IRS decision, and requested another search of records and full access to all responsive documents. In its letter of appeal, Judicial Watch argued that it was "extremely unlikely" that no searchable records existed, given the extensive media coverage of the "lost" records.  On December 10, the IRS denied the Judicial Watch appeal.

The subsequent February 18, 2005, Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit is related to the obstruction and the misleading explanations of allegedly destroyed computer records in another Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit (Judicial Watch v Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:13-cv-01559)). On July 10, 2014, Judge Emmet Sullivan granted a Judicial Watch request for a status hearing to discuss allegedly missing emails from Lerner and other IRS officials.  The hearing resulted in Judge Sullivan issuing two orders (dated July 10 and August 14).  The IRS was ordered to detail under oath how some of the emails of former agency official Lois Lerner went missing or became destroyed, where they might be located, and what steps were being taken to retrieve them.

As a result of a court-ordered investigation, it was disclosed to Judicial Watch by Department of Justice attorneys for the IRS that Lois Lerner's emails, indeed all government computer records, are backed-up by the federal government in case of a government-wide catastrophe. The Obama administration attorneys said that this back-up system would be too onerous to search. In an October 2014 federal court filing, the IRS did not deny that the government-wide back-up system exists, and, moreover, acknowledges to the court that 760 other email "servers" have been discovered but had not been searched.  Citing critical comments by citizens on blogs that it was monitoring, the IRS also refuses to disclose the names of the IRS officials who may have information about the IRS scandal and the missing emails.  The IRS has only searched a "database" that it knows does not contain the missing records being sought by a federal court, Judicial Watch, and Congress. In fact, Politico reports that in recent testimony "Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said IRS tech employees told them that IRS management never asked for the tapes."

In its February 18 FOIA lawsuit, Judicial Watch points out that the IRS has already admitted to this federal court that documents about the destruction of hard drives exist:


In a related FOIA lawsuit filed by [Judicial Watch], Defendant [IRS] submitted a sworn declaration on August 11, 2014 that describes, in part, the process for the destruction of damaged hard drives, and specifically the damaged hard drive of former IRS employee Lois Lerner ...

The declaration specifically references "standard Internal Revenue Procedure disposal procedures for any equipment with data storage capability." Defendant later submitted another declaration, which referenced and attached IRS FORM 1933 and IRS Standard Form 120 Rev. Both forms refer to and concern the removal and disposal of equipment with data storage capability in June 2012, including a Blackberry device issued to Lois Lerner ...

At a minimum, IRS Form 1933, IRS Standard Form 120 Rev., "the standard Internal Revenue Procedure disposal procedures" and any other records describing or related to the destruction of damaged hard drives during the time frame of Plaintiff's FOIA request are responsive to Plaintiff's request in this case.

"The Obama IRS, aided and abetted by the Department of Justice, continues to engage in a pattern of deception, delays, and clear violations of federal law," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "In this latest game, the IRS first denies there are records about the destruction of Lois Lerner's hard drive and then suggests that there may be records, but it would too difficult to look for them. Try that one during your next IRS audit.  The IRS scandal isn't going away, and it is beginning to look like the IRS destroyed evidence about its abuse of Obama's enemies list of Tea Party groups and conservatives."
http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-sues-irs-records-destroyed-hard-drives-lois-lerner-irs-officials/

This judicial watch news release is relevant to this story.

Is there a government program or arm that this administration has not corrupted?