What the Hell, Congressman?
Turned back and Cummings (D) almost in tears because the IRS Commissioner had to answer some tough questions. Not even joking.
— AG (@AG_Conservative) June 24, 2014
It was a happy day when they told me that Annapolis-based shenanigans had moved me out of Elijah Cummings’ district. It was just so embarrassing.
I’m sorry* to revisit this topic, but this Sonasoft thing is starting to blow up: “The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) cancelled its longtime relationship with an email-storage contractor just weeks after ex-IRS official Lois Lerner’s computer crashed and shortly before other IRS officials’ computers allegedly crashed.” Basically, the Daily Caller – doing the legwork that our legacy media apparently cannot – determined that Sonasoft offered email backup services from 2005 to 2011 (Sonasoft certainly claimed that). A couple of weeks after Congress started requesting Lois Lerner’s email records from the IRS, Lerner’s computer crash – and, shortly after that, the IRS let their contract with Sonasoft lapse. Left unstated is why the IRS would decide to terminate services with the company that was providing them with backups, although I’m sure that we could all hazard a guess or two. Continue reading IRS cut ties with Sonasoft almost immediately after Lois Lerner scandal broke.
Because the IRS apparently did use Sonasoft, once:
The IRS reportedly used a private company to back up emails, a new report claims. The company is called Sonasoft, which boasts, “Email Archiving Done Right.”
“The IRS had a contract with email backup service vendor Sonasoft starting in 2005, according to FedSpending.org, which lists the contract as being for ‘automatic data processing services.’ Sonasoft’s motto is ’email archiving done right,’ and the company lists the IRS as a customer,” Reason magazine reports.
Continue reading Question of the day: Does the IRS use/*still* use Sonasoft to back up its archives?
That’s the central problem that the IRS has, here:
A defiant IRS Commissioner on Friday refused to apologize for the loss of ex-IRS official Lois Lerner’s emails, and said the agency produced what they could, attributing their disappearance to dated technology.
“I don’t think an apology is owed,” chief John Koskinen told Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp after the Republican lawmaker asked for one at the first hearing since news came of crashed computers of some IRS officials.
(H/T: Instapundit) This was… unwise of the Internal Revenue Service.
Some history: House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa as early as June 4, 2013 asked the IRS to provide “all documents and communications sent by, received by, or copied to Lois Lerner” between Jan. 1, 2009 and the present.” Note the “all.”
Mr. Issa sent an official subpoena demanding “all” the records in August 2013, and another subpoena reiterating the “all” demand in February 2014. Former Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel in August of 2013 told Congress, under oath, that the IRS was “reviewing every one of Lois Lerner’s emails, and providing the response.” Current IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in February told Congress, under oath, that the IRS was sending all of Ms. Lerner’s emails.
Yet in its letter on Friday the IRS slipped in the following: “In early 2014, Chairmen Camp and Issa reiterated their requests for all of Lois Lerner’s email, regardless of subject matter . . . Fulfilling the request,” said the IRS, meant it had to compile Lerner emails that went beyond the “search terms” it had “originally loaded for review.” By mid-March, the agency admitted, it had produced for Congress only the Lerner emails that it—the IRS—considered “related” to the scandal.
Highly unwise. It’s precisely because of behavior like this that the House has decided to spank the IRS. Or, rather, start the spanking process: Continue reading IRS continues to flail about in Lerner case; consequences to ensue.
…but it’s just that Ron “Whitewater” Fournier of the National Journal agrees with you.
If the IRS can’t find the emails, maybe a special prosecutor can.
Mind, he didn’t – and probably still doesn’t – agree with you that the IRS targeting originated with the White House*, but hey, a special prosecutor is just what we need to resolve that question. Surely we can all – and do, apparently – agree that the important thing here is to figure out just what happened…
Moe Lane
The technical term for this is, I believe, ‘bullshit:’
Wow. IRS Claims to Have Lost Over 2 Years of Lerner Emails | House Committee on Ways & Means http://t.co/IqmwJsGpFU
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) June 13, 2014
Continue reading IRS claims to have lost key Lois Lerner emails.
We knew already that she should be held in contempt: the House just merely made it official tonight. Please note this, too:
Federal law says that if the House or Senate votes to hold someone in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena, the matter is referred to the local U.S. attorney, a Justice Department official. It is then the “duty” of the U.S. attorney to bring the matter before a grand jury. But that doesn’t guarantee an indictment. Justice officials didn’t respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
Oh, man, speaking as a partisan political hack it’d be a real shame if Eric Holder’s Justice Department tried to do a whitewash of political corruption in an election year. An absolute shame. I mean, I can’t see at all how we could take advantage of that move…
Moe Lane
PS: The statute of limitations on all of this will extend past January of 2017, ye Beltway denizens. Have a nice day!
[UPDATE: Dagnabbit, I think Ace got in that particular snark first.]
Of course he did: Bruce Braley is, after all, a liberal lawyer-loving Democrat.
Four days after the head of the Internal Revenue Service denied the agency was targeting conservative social welfare organizations applying for tax exempt status, Rep. Bruce Braley signed a letter urging a probe into the political activities of social welfare organizations.
Braley was one of 30 Democratic members of Congress who signed the letter, dated March 26, 2012, to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman urging him to investigate whether “any groups qualifying as social welfare organizations under section 501(c)(4) of the federal tax code are improperly engaged in political campaign activity.”
Braley later – as in, ‘after the 2012 election’ – called the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups ‘shameful.’ Which it certainly was: but they learned it from you, Bruce! They learned it from you.
Via the Washington Free Beacon.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
The following paragraph tells you everything you need to know about Senator Charles Schumer (D, New York) and his Democratic compatriots:
“Let’s say you’re a person who doesn’t believe in undisclosed money; let’s say you’re a person who doesn’t want to go to a 501(c)(4) because you’re worried maybe there’ll be an IRS investigation sometime down the road,” Schumer told reporters. “You can write one check to a joint committee of 232 House members and give them each the maximum.”
…you see, Schumer thinks that this is a bad thing. Which I suppose it kind of is, if you’re a Democrat this cycle. Continue reading Charles Schumer is having a cranky day.