‘Sometimes stuff just happens.’

What a novel defense from the Internal Revenue Service.

Lois Lerner on IRS hard drive crash: ‘Sometimes stuff just happens’

The amazing thing is that this might not have been the worst strategy… from any other government agency. But the tax folks have no leeway, for they show none themselves.

5 thoughts on “‘Sometimes stuff just happens.’”

  3. I CANNOT believe they are trying this as a defense.

    Do some Google searching and you can find that the IRS is using Microsoft Exchange server (actually the search is a bit harder now due to all of the media coverage, but it’s there).

    Another Google search will find the publicly available IRS policies and procedures that detail standards for data backup, retention, legal discovery/FOIA, etc. of the email system.

    In Exchange the mail data is stored on the server (ok, unless they use a local PST file, but that negates their own policies) not the laptop hard drive, Outlook is just a client of the server infrastructure.

    If they cannot recover the emails then they aren’t meeting the requirements for Exchange best practices, disaster recovery, data retention and and other compliance regulations… and some people should be losing their jobs and/or benefits.

    My advice would be to offer a reward, amnesty and Federal Witness Protection for any IT personnel who can either provide documentation on the email storage issue OR provide evidence of a cover-up or conspiracy to delete data. I bet you would get some data and quick.

    Somewhere there is an IT person who knows what we need huddled in a cubicle and miserable. Give them an exit.

    I’ve kicked this around with about a dozen friends in the IT industry and all of us (even the Dems) are thinking it’s BS.

    Former Exchange Admin and general IT monkey…
    -RainGeek

    1. …”offer a reward, amnesty and Federal Witness Protection for any IT personnel”…
      .
      There’s the carrot. Don’t forget the stick….

Comments are closed.