New evidence about the actions of the IRS official at the center of the investigation into the agency’s systematic targeting of President Obama’s political adversaries is intensifying the firestorm over the alleged corruption. IRS executive Lois Lernerapparently pushed for an audit of one of the administration’s most outspoken critics in the Senate. In emails with a colleague, Lerner claims to have mistakenly received an invitation to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to give a speech to a non-profit group in 2012. Lerner wrote that the group offered to pay for Grassley’s wife to attend. Lerner wanted to sic investigators on Grassley, even though, as her colleague observed, the offer was not improper. How did Lerner, a then-unknown IRS division manager, end up with a speaking invitation to an Iowa Republican Senator? We can’t know because Lerner refuses to testify. What other notable Republican did she suggest be targeted? We can’t find out because the agency “recycled” the hard drives that the IRS says include her sent items from the key period of the targeting. But what we do know is: Pushing for the selective prosecution of a high-profile administration adversary in the Senate is a big deal and will change the way this case moves forward.
“We don’t want her in jail, we want the truth. We want the truth more than anything else...” – House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. on “The Kelly File” making his first-ever demand for a special prosecutor into the targeting of the president’s political enemies. Watch the full interview here.
Game changer - The good news for the administration is that this revelation makes it easier to sell the narrative that Lerner was the source of the corruption and that her removal was curative. This is fuel for the bus the White House is trying to throw Lerner under. The bad news for the administration is that the revelation of a rank, partisan abuse like this one, especially aimed at the legislative branch, may break the dam of resistance to an outside investigation. Coming on the heels of the admission that the agency had trashed evidence in the case, Democrats will feel increasing pressure to demand more than the apparently stalled internal investigation in the administration. Remember, outrage in the Senate over domestic spying didn’t get really hot until it was revealed that lawmakers themselves were targets. A special prosecutor is the only way out.
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5 comments:
And don't forget that Rep. Cummings has been caught in a bald face lie about his improper if not unlawful role in this cesspool.
Not that I think Learner is not guilty here, I do think some things need to be taken in context. His wife can not travel unless there is a 1099 and he declares it income. That is true. She has a responsibility as does and federal employee to report any appearance of misappropriation. It might be argued that the fact she did not report it and have it reviewed might be worse than if she did...
I work in IT and I have been stunned that no one has asked one basic yet extremely relevant question.
"When Ms. Lerner's hard drive failed how did they fix her PC ?"
Its a simple question and here is why it's relevant....Please bear with me as I am a Geek and will try to explain in a way that non geeks can best understand.
Basically the IRS is saying that her hard drive failed and after 6 months or so the backup taps were destroyed.
Now consider this..
Ms. Lerner's hard drive failed and it would have been replaced. Once they replaced the drive they would have then restored her drive from the most recent backup that would of been available.
Most often backups are done on a daily basis but some places backup once a week.
So when IT installed her hard drive they would have then restored her PC from the most recent backup. After that her PC would have had all data she lost restored back on it to at least one week of the time the hard drive failed.
After her PC was repaired and the data restored the PC would have been back on the backup schedule every day or week.
It's not like Lois' PC failed and then from that point on she never had it fixed or never had her data restored.
Bottom line even if they threw the tapes away her PC would of still had the data on it after it was fixed and would have continued to be backed up. Which means current tapes should have still had her data.
Even if they gave her a whole new PC they would not have just installed the PC on the network and walked away. IT would have certainly restored her data once the PC was back online.
The IRS wants us to believe that her drive failed and her data was on backup tapes and after 6 months those tapes were recycled. This scenario would only happen if her PC failed and then they never bothered to fix/replace her PC and not restored her data which would not make any sense.
Anyone who has repaired a PC that had a failed hard drive will tell you that the first thing the person ask when the PC is fixed is if their data is in tact. I cannot for a second imagine Lois getting her PC fixed and then using it without any of her data restored. No one would do that.
Lastly I want to point out that when the Space Shuttle Columbia burned up on re-entry in 2003, a hard drive from the shuttle was recovered on the ground months later. A company called Kroll Ontract who specializes in Data Recovery was able to retrieve data off of that drive. We are talking about a hard drive that was involved in an explosion moving 17,000 miles per hour and then falling to the earth at several thousand feet and still was able to have the data retrieved. I find it hard to imagine that could not recover lost data from her simple drive failure.
"...her removal was curative."
BS, her removal is only the tip of this titanic iceberg.
Ask the question: did she get a new hard drive or computer right after the alleged crash? Let's see the purchase order, or is that lost, too?
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