Two federal judges lay
smackdown on IRS over ‘lost’ emails
Freedom Outpost – Lily Dane –
7/13/2014
From The Daily
Signal:
In the Judicial Watch case,
Judge Sullivan ordered the IRS and the watchdog group to work cooperatively
with another federal judge to recover Lerner’s emails, which IRS officials have
said were destroyed when a computer hard drive crashed.
Judicial Watch President Tom
Fitton called
the decision “a victory for public accountability.” Fitton expressed
optimism about eventual recovery of emails, calling Judge John Facciola “an
expert in e-discovery.”
On Friday, in a hearing
examining a lawsuit brought by True the
Vote, Judge Reggie Walton gave the IRS until July 18 to find out what
happened to the crashed hard drive responsible for erasing two years worth of
Lerner’s emails. He also wants to know if the hard drive is traceable through a
serial number.
If the information is gone, Walton
said he wants an affidavit written under penalty of perjury by an IRS IT
professional with “firsthand knowledge” of the situation, reports Politico.
The revelation adds to
lawmakers’ concerns about the agency’s handling of documents related to their
current inquiry into the agency’s alleged targeting of conservative tea-party
groups for burdensome scrutiny as they sought tax-exempt status. Republicans already
have criticized the IRS for losing about two years’ worth of emails that could
be important to the probe, largely because a computer hard drive belonging to a
former top IRS official, Lois Lerner, crashed in mid-2011. Backup tapes also
were routinely reused after six months.
The latest emails suggest
that IRS officials had a separate instant-messaging system that also wasn’t
preserved. (source)
On Thursday, Texas
Republican Rep. Steve Stockman filed a resolution demanding that the House use
a little-exercised power to arrest Lerner.
From his press
release:
“Asking the Justice
Department to prosecute Lois Lerner for admittedly illegal activity is a joke.
The Obama administration will not prosecute the Obama administration. How much
longer will the House allow itself to be mocked? It is up to this House to
uphold the rule of law and hold accountable those who illegally targeted
American citizens for simply having different ideas than the President.
Democrats have openly stated
the House has the powers to arrest those in contempt of Congress and imprison
them in the Capitol. I don’t want to go as far as Democrats in exercising the
House’s powers to arrest. Ms. Lerner will be held in the D.C. jail.
Under the resolution Lerner
would be held in the D.C. jail and would have full legal rights and access to
an attorney.
It’s time to for House to
stop tacitly endorsing this administration’s illegal activity by refusing to
hold him accountable. I expect Democrats to defend and even praise criminal
activity. The question is whether Republican leadership will join them in
mocking the House and breaking the law.”
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