The head of the IRS confirmed Wednesday that investigators looking into missing emails from ex-agency official Lois Lerner have found and are reviewing “backup tapes” — despite earlier IRS claims that the tapes had been recycled.
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, testifying before a House oversight subcommittee, stressed that he does not know “how they found them” or “whether there’s anything on them or not.” But he said the inspector general’s office advised him the investigators are reviewing tapes to see if they contain any “recoverable” material.
The revelation is significant because the IRS claimed, when the agency first told Congress about the missing emails, that backup tapes “no longer exist because they have been recycled.”
It is unclear whether the tapes in IG custody contain any Lerner emails, but Koskinen said investigators are now checking.
Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee first raised questions about the backup tapes on Monday, releasing a partial transcript from an interview with IRS official Thomas Kane. In it, Kane said “there is an issue” as to whether all the backup tapes were destroyed. Asked if they might still exist, he said he didn’t know but “it’s an issue that’s being looked at.”
By the time the IRS gets finished “reviewing” them nothing is likely to remain intact.
More at Fox News
UPDATE
Here’s Trey Gowdy having Koskinen’s lunch today
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1w5s0WwjFc[/youtube]
via Jim Hoft
Right the IRS is investigating itself. Let’s see what the outcome will be. Hmmmm innocent yep innocent. They all need to go to jail for a long time. This is an agency that has more power than other agency. They can come into your house, repossess it, freeze your assets, ruin your credit, force you to pay huge interest rates forever AND yes, put you in jail. The IRS needs to be abolished. They have no credibility and are now being used as part of obama’s brown shirt army to punish those who disagree with him. In other countries this is called a dictatorship.
Both the IRS and the EPA are exceeding their authority. OSHA is also gearing up to garner more power, too.
Well, first, they have to determine that the newly found tapes aren’t infected with magnetism using specialized diagnostic equipment called “degaussing coils” or some such. Then they have to determine that the tapes are properly fireproofed and comply with IRS standards for backup tape abrasion and electrical shock protection.
Then the IRS needs to get funding approved to hire 1,200 new “Data Recovery Specialists”. That alone could take months, assuming Harry Reid expedites this funding through the Senate. It will take until December at the very least, well after the mid-term elections, when hopefully this willful idiocy will start tapering off.