IRS e-mails not lost after all—just buried in offsite backups

[aGameOfThrones]

Former IRS official Lois Lerner giving testimony to a Congressional committee in 2013. The IRS says it can't find her e-mails from before 2011—but Justice Watch says they're in disaster recovery backups.

Unnamed Department of Justice attorneys admitted to an attorney from the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch that backups exist of the e-mail messages of former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner. In a press release on the organization’s website, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said that the DOJ official claimed that accessing the specific e-mails in response to a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch against the IRS would be too difficult, as they were retained in an offsite backup for disaster recovery.

Update: An unnamed White House official told The Hill that no new backups had been discovered. "The administration official said that the inspector general is examining whether any data can be recovered from the previously recycled back-up tapes and suggested that could be the cause of the confusion between the government and Judicial Watch," The Hill's Bernie Becker reported.

“Department of Justice attorneys for the Internal Revenue Service told Judicial Watch on Friday that Lois Lerner’s e-mails, indeed all government computer records, are backed up by the federal government in case of a government-wide catastrophe,” Fitton said in the statement. “The Obama administration attorneys said that this back-up system would be too onerous to search. The DOJ attorneys also acknowledged that the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) is investigating this back-up system. We obviously disagree that disclosing the emails as required would be onerous, and plan to raise this new development with Judge Sullivan.”

Disaster recovery backups of IRS systems are conducted in accordance with the agency’s Information System Contingency Plan. Those regulations require offsite storage of backup media to allow the continuity of operations of the IRS in the event of a major disaster, just as is required by all federal agencies. But it’s not clear what format those backups were in, or with what frequency they were retained. And there have been failures in backup testing in the past.


http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/08/irs-emails-not-lost-after-all-just-buried-in-offsite-backups/

[specsaregood]

Sounds like a giant waste of taxpayer money if we are spending money to make backups but they aren't accessible. Hell, if we can't get to them in a non-emergency everyday situation when everybody is at the peak of efficiency and has whatever tools they need what are the chances they will be of any use in the event of "a government-wide catastrophe"?

[CPUd]

I've never seen an enterprise-level backup service restore something that was actually lost. But they are good at re-imaging your system to a snapshot taken 3 months ago.

[PRB]

Justice Watch or Judicial Watch? LOL

[ZENemy]

Only every IT guy in the world already knew this.

[ctiger2]

So we're supposed to believe all the emails were lost and now we're supposed to believe the emails aren't lost but aren't accessible. lol

[osan]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/08/irs-emails-not-lost-after-all-just-buried-in-offsite-backups/

Oh come the hell on - are we serious? Has this notion only just come to open consideration? That was the first thing I thought of. Firstly, there would be copies from incremental backups as messages are deposited on servers. Then there are daily backups, weekly, often monthly. There should be multiple copies of each message floating about in space.

This whole circus is beyond ridiculous.

ETA: To the claim that searching IRS databases for the messages would be too difficult: bullshit. A single SQL statement of simple construction would do the trick in seconds. Something like:


SELECT header a body FROM email_msg_stash WHERE (a.Sender_ID = "BossLady@irs.gov" OR a.Recipient_ID in (ChiefCrook@irs.gov, HeadStooge@irs.gov, LyingTrash@irs.gov, childpornlover@gmail.com)


Even if it took a week, the machine is doing the search and not an analyst. The claim is idiotic and a prima facie lie.

[thoughtomator]

Lerner's Blackberry (which would have her emails, or a subset of them) destroyed not long after she was first hauled into Congress to answer for her behavior: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/27/lois-lerner-blackberry-deliberately-destroyed-after-start-congressional-probe/

[Philhelm]

If I were your King, Lerner would be hanged for violating the King's Peace, and a host of knights would burn every IRS building to the ground, salting the fields in order to prevent fertility.

[thoughtomator]

Long live the King!

[HOLLYWOOD]

Lerner's Blackberry (which would have her emails, or a subset of them) destroyed not long after she was first hauled into Congress to answer for her behavior: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/27/lois-lerner-blackberry-deliberately-destroyed-after-start-congressional-probe/Yeah, read that yesterday... Of course government is lawless, just look at the multiple felonies with Lois Lerner's Blackberry; Felony destruction of evidence, lying to Congress, obstruction(s) of law... on & on, more layers of the onion are peeled back and more crimes are revealed. Still waiting for Douglas Shulman's arrest for lying to investigators and Congress. I won't hold my breath. :rolleyes:

Remember this fact, the recent data of Blackberry crimes were committed(AGAIN) after the Congressional investigation commenced. Now think back to the ruling by Federal Judge to let the IRS to continue to destroy evidence in this The ruling (https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2013cv0734-97) by U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton is a blow to True the Vote and America on Thursday, 07 Aug 2014:

Federal Judge Rejects Plea to Block IRS From Destroying Evidence (http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/federal-judge-conservative-group/2014/08/07/id/587552/)



The PJ Tatler » The IRS Destroyed Lois Lerner's Blackberry ... (http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/08/26/the-irs-destroyed-lois-lerners-blackberry-too/)

IRS Destroyed Lois Lerner Blackberry After Congressional ... (http://conservativebyte.com/2014/08/irs-destroyed-lois-lerner-blackberry-after-congressional-inquiry-began-never-searched-it/)

IRS lawyer: Lois Lerner's Blackberry deliberately destroyed (http://www.debatepolitics.com/breaking-news-mainstream-media/203222-irs-lawyer-lois-lerners-blackberry-deliberately-destroyed.html)

CRIMINAL OUTRAGE: Lois Lerner's Blackberry Destroyed After ... (http://www.libertynews.com/2014/08/criminal-outrage-lois-lerners-blackberry-destroyed-after-congressional-inquiry-began/)

[Philhelm]

Long live the King!

What's funny is that I would argue that God-Emperor Obama I has more power than a medieval king. Not saying they were great people either, but at least there was a duty of reciprocation.

[brushfire]

“The Obama administration attorneys said that this back-up system would be too onerous to search.

Cough..cough..c-bullshit...

Says the man in charge of the NSA. Perhaps they can divert some prism resources into their DR strategy. After all, what good are backups if you don't have access to them?

[Brian4Liberty]

Sounds like a giant waste of taxpayer money if we are spending money to make backups but they aren't accessible. Hell, if we can't get to them in a non-emergency everyday situation when everybody is at the peak of efficiency and has whatever tools they need what are the chances they will be of any use in the event of "a government-wide catastrophe"?

Competing agendas...

Lerner and management: "Sorry, emails lost, can't recover them."

IT Contractor: "Everything is backed up, everything we do works, and you have to renew our contract to protect your data."

[PRB]

Competing agendas...

Lerner and management: "Sorry, emails lost, can't recover them."

IT Contractor: "Everything is backed up, everything we do works, and you have to renew our contract to protect your data."

it didn't work, but it's not our fault, our contract protects us from liability, so you still have to renew our contract!

[Brian4Liberty]

The Obama administration attorneys said that this back-up system would be too onerous to search.

Yeah, someone should try telling the IRS "we have the records, but it's just too hard to go get them. Sorry."

[HOLLYWOOD]

Cough..cough..c-bullshit...

Says the man in charge of the NSA. Perhaps they can divert some prism resources into their DR strategy. After all, what good are backups if you don't have access to them?
Then the NSA mouthpiece shoots of IRS Data Recovery impossibilities/improbability? Yeah, Right... former NSA department head and chief mathematician, Bill Biney, stated "the NSA is collecting ALL DATA, not just metadata", there's your backups! It was confirmed accidentally, Utah Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative (CNCI) Data Center, has the current capabilities to capture "Dozens of Yottabytes". So, where's the beef on the IRS?
Utah Data Center, code-named Bumblehive, Sites R, X, Y, Z, et al storage facilities, even the IRS has a completely mirrored SAN networking of all IRS data to underground location in the Midwest.Like many have said, Every IT professional in the country knows it all lies coming from government and complicit contractors are mum, so their wish of future .gov contract$ continue.

[osan]

Long live the King!

HEY! Cut it out - we'll have none of that kind of talk here.

[HOLLYWOOD]

More: http://observer.com/2014/08/irs-shocker-filing-reveals-lerner-blackberry-destroyed/




IRS Shocker: Filing Reveals Lerner Blackberry Destroyed

The device was wiped AFTER Congressional inquiry began

By Sidney Powell (http://observer.com/author/sidney-powell/) | 08/25/14 6:24pm
http://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/476780275.jpg?w=300&h=200 (http://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/476780275.jpg)
Lois Lerner, the IRS head whose Blackberry was destroyed along with her hard drives.
(BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)


The IRS filing in federal Judge Emmet Sullivan (http://observer.com/2014/06/breaking-meet-emmet-sullivan-irs-judge-who-once-sicced-a-special-prosecutor-on-doj/)’s court reveals shocking new information. The IRS destroyed Lerner’s Blackberry AFTER it knew her computer had crashed and after a Congressional inquiry was well underway. As an IRS official declared (http://licensedtolie.com/2014/08/25/irs-shenanigans/) under the penalty of perjury, the destroyed Blackberry would have contained the same emails (both sent and received) as Lois Lerner’s hard drive.
We all know by now that Lois Lerner’s hard drive crashed in June 2011 and was destroyed by IRS. The emails of up to twenty other related IRS officials were missing in remarkably similar “crashes,” leading many to speculate that Lois Lerner’s Blackberry (http://americanthinker.com/blog/2014/06/lois_lerners_blackberry_may_hold_smoking_gun.html) perhaps held the key. Now, the Observer can confirm that a year after the infamous hard drive crash, the IRS destroyed Ms. Lerner’s Blackberry—and without making any effort to retain the emails from it.
Judge Sullivan (http://observer.com/2014/08/deadline-judge-emmet-sullivan-lays-down-the-law/) has had to pry information from the IRS to learn anything about Ms. Lerner’s Blackberry. Now, with these latest revelations, I’m confident he’s not finished.

In two elusive and nebulous sworn declarations (http://licensedtolie.com/2014/08/25/irs-shenanigans/), we can glean that Ms. Lerner had two Blackberries. One was issued to her on November 12, 2009. According to a sworn declaration, this is the Blackberry that contained all the emails (both sent and received) that would have been in her “Outlook” and drafts that never were sent from her Blackberry during the relevant time.
With incredible disregard for the law and the Congressional inquiry, the IRS admits that this Blackberry “was removed or wiped clean of any sensitive or proprietary information and removed as scrap for disposal in June 2012.” This is a year after her hard drive “crash” and months after the Congressional inquiry began.

The IRS did not even attempt to retrieve that data. It cavalierly recites: “There is no record of any attempt by any IRS IT employee to recover data from any Blackberry device assigned to Lois Lerner in response to the Congressional investigations or this investigation,” according to Stephen Manning, Deputy Chief Information Officer for Strategy & Modernization.

http://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/1024px-blackberry_q10_home_screen.jpg?w=300&h=200 (https://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/1024px-blackberry_q10_home_screen.jpg)
A Blackberry Q10
(Kārlis Dambrāns – Flickr: Licensed under Creative Commons/Wikimedia Commons)

Lerner was issued another Blackberry for Valentine’s Day 2012—also after she came under fire for her targeting of conservative groups. The IRS still has that Blackberry. It’s now in the possession of the Inspector General of the Treasury, but the new device would not have the data from the prior three years. That was most likely the point of getting the new device.

According to Mr. Manning, however: “standard IRS practice and policy in the collection of electronic data does not include collecting data from Blackberry devices because the email of a Blackberry user is collected through the process of collecting the contents of the user’s Outlook mailbox files.” Notably, the affidavit does not explain IRS standard procedure for handling the technology of individuals who are the subject of Congressional oversight hearings or of retrieving data on a Blackberry after its owner’s computer has crashed. One would think that was a “no-brainer.”
This most recent revelation of destruction of evidence and refusal to retain data and documents despite a Congressional inquiry is beyond outrageous. It screams of guilt and creates a presumption in the law that the evidence would prove what those who were targeted and harassed claim. Judge Sullivan (http://observer.com/2014/07/noose-tightens-on-irs/), like most Americans, wants the “missing” emails that we all know are there somewhere.

Aside from the fact the IRS was required to keep hard copies, we now know they should exist on Blackberry servers as well as Google and perhaps others. Indeed, the Department of Justice has disclosed that they all should be on a government server—as we suspected.
Judge Sullivan (http://observer.com/2014/07/noose-tightens-on-irs/) has already appointed federal Magistrate Judge John Facciola to assist the parties in finding the emails on other devices. Between the two of them, they can demand production of the emails from the servers, and there are still more questions to answer.
What are all the servers the emails went through? Blackberry is touted as the most secure, so surely the emails should be found there. All of the data on her current Blackberry should be provided immediately to Judge Sullivan, for whatever insight it might provide. There’s no reason for the IRS to hold out on that. It should be given to Darrell Issa and Congress also. Nothing required in the production of the emails through the Blackberry could possibly hamper the Inspector General’s investigation.

And what about “ghost” email accounts? The IRS should be able to determine, or Judge Sullivan can, whether any of the officials whose emails are missing used personal accounts or other names for business emails they didn’t want going through the federal system even though they were required to do so.
One thing is clear: the IRS has no interest in recovering the emails. It has deliberately destroyed evidence and another direct source of the emails it claims were “lost.” It has been blatantly negligent if not criminal in faiing to preserve evidence and destroying it instead.