IRS Admits it Has Not Looked for Lerner’s Missing Emails on IRS Computer Servers

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) attorneys have admitted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the IRS failed to search any of its standard computer systems for Lois Lerner’s missing emails, according to the government watchdog group Judicial Watch.

Lerner was the director of the Exempt Organizations Unit at the IRS, responsible for reviewing the tax exemption applications of Tea Party and conservative groups. Many of those applications were delayed for years, allegedly in an effort to prevent those groups from participating fully in the 2010 and 2012 elections. Documents, including emails, have been sought by congressional investigators since May 2013.

In June 2014, the IRS disclosed to Congress that Lerner’s computer had apparently crashed and her emails from January 2009 to April 2011 were lost. Then in August, a Justice Department attorney admitted that the federal government maintains a back-up system for all computer records and the emails potentially could be recovered.

The latest revelations about the IRS not even looking for Lerner’s emails on IRS computer systems came about because of Judicial Watch’s lawsuit to force testimony and document production from the agency regarding the “lost and/or destroyed” records on the targeting of Tea Party groups.

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