AP:
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the IRS to explain under oath how it lost a trove of emails to and from a central figure in the agency’s tea party controversy.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan gave the tax agency a month to submit the explanation in writing. Sullivan said he is also appointing a federal magistrate to see whether the lost emails can be obtained from other sources.
Sullivan issued the order as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group. He said the IRS declaration must be signed, under oath, by the appropriate IRS official.
“I’m going to hold tight to that Aug. 10 declaration,” Sullivan said.
The IRS says it lost the emails in 2011 when Lois Lerner’s computer crashed. At the time, Lerner headed the IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status. She has since retired.
Lerner, who refused to answer questions at two House committee hearings, has become a central figure in several congressional investigations over the handling of tea party applications. At both hearings, Lerner cited her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself.
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has testified on the lost emails before Congress at least three times. Each time he was under oath.
Koskinen said he first learned there was a problem with Lerner’s computer in February but didn’t learn that emails were lost until April. The IRS notified Congress June 13.
Judicial Watch lawyer Ramona Cotca complained that the IRS never informed her group or the court about the lost emails, even though Sullivan had ordered the IRS to produce documents related to the information request on a monthly basis.
Geoffrey Klimas, a Justice Department lawyer representing the IRS, said the agency had no legal obligation to tell Judicial Watch about emails that may have been destroyed two years before the group filed its request for information.
Judicial Watch filed a series of requests with the IRS shortly after the tea party controversy erupted in May 2013. Among its requests, the watchdog group wanted communications Lerner had with others concerning the handling of applications for tax-exempt status since Jan. 1, 2010.
This command by the Judge is irrelevant.
Judge Sullivan has no authority over the IRS.
He is just a judge. He has no troops. He has no guns. He has no bullets.
He better get himself a new identity, because the whole alphabet soup is going to descend on him.
The IRS acts on the instructions of the Chief Imam. And when the Chief Imam says to stamp out the opposition, they follow orders. So there.
Over and done with.
Nothing here. Just move on.
The IRS has already explained how the emails were lost. Explaining that repeatedly won’t satisfy anyone who has decided not to believe the explanation.
@mathman:
What he does have is the power of the court behind him. If the documents he requests are not provided, he can find the person he requested those documents from in contempt of the court and order their arrest by officers assigned to the court.
@Greg:
Makes no difference. Now they will have to testify, under oath and under penalty of perjury, how they were “lost.”
What fun it would be to see a few of the IRS goons jailed for non-compliance/perjury.
@Greg:
Try using the excuses the IRS is using when dealing with the IRS and see how that works for you…..
And you do realize they have found a letter from Lehrner warning IRS officials about what they put in emails, as well as the written comment she made being glad the IRS IM system was not being archived?
But of course you leftists will insist there is nothing cottupt at the IRS…..
I believe testimony at all of the innumerable Congressional investigative committee hearings has already been provided under oath, with hands properly raised at the angle prescribed by Darrell-the-unconvicted-car-thief-and-arsonist-Issa. Still, I suppose it never hurts to dot your Is and cross your Ts. Lying about a consensual sexual encounter under oath was all they ever got on Bill Clinton.
I’m still waiting for Issa’s great revelation about how Braulio Castillo is involved.
@Greg:
Although this time it will be under oath in a court of law where the judge has the powers to incarcerate perjurers. It will be fun to see IRS liars perp walked.
The IRS doesn’t like it when the shoe is on the other foot.
The so-called missing emails are residing in a server waiting to be discovered. Just because the emails on a local machine were lost does not mean they were removed from Microsoft Exchange server. If they were removed from an Exchange server, then you’re talking about deliberate destruction of federal records.
@Greg: No Greg, Learner never testified. They were her emails. You have a very selective memory when it is working. Did you take the advice of the Psych Doc on FA? I think he offered you several free sessions. You should consider the offer seriously.
Greg #5:
So you condone lying.
Lying would seem to be condoned to a far greater degree on the right. Most of their investigations seem to be built on lies and distortions. Their endless accusations have never been proven with evidence. None of them.
Well, there you have it, boys and girls. According to Greggie the Socialist, all those people who testified that they were harassed and persecuted by the IRS, are just liars.
Of course, Lois Lerner never testified. She pled the 5th, just like Al Capone.
@Greg:
Oh really? Then why is the terrorist who led the Benghazi attack on trial in DC?
Why did Lehrner exercise her 5th Amendment right not to incriminate herself?
And I bet you believed Clinton when he lied about not having sexual relations with that woman…Ms. Lewinski, until his semen showed up on her dress…..
@Greg: time to change the paper in your birdcage gregory the 71st,greggie want a cracker awk awk
@Greg: If Lerner has nothing to hide why is she taking the Fifth? If the administration has nothing to hide why hasn’t this been investigated by the Justice Department and the FBI? The administration continues to run slowdowns in all aspects of the congressional investigations…why? The MSM continues to block and tackle on these questions for Obama. At some point the media going to have to do more than pretend it is covering the biggest scandal since Watergate…likely it’s bigger. Much bigger.
Greg
shame on you to try to stain the elected man on the task to find the shit of the IRS,
no matter what dirt you send to the elected, it won”t help your wish to see LERNER GET AWAY FREE,
it”s time that the IRS LOSE THE POWER THEY TOOK THEMSELVES TO INTIMIDATE THE PEOPLE,
IN A SO NASTY WAY OF policing honest people, who don’t eat the food the administration is feeding,
to the goodwill people tolerant and that’s why they abused them,
now the table are turned on them, this is the begining,
Since the typical leftist synchophants are always blathering how we conservatives only listen to Fox News and would have a different opinion of things if we got news from non-conservative sites, I figured a little actual evidence might help them with their delusional collectivist worldview:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/07/11/the-insiders-more-irs-smidgens-show-up-perfect/
Yes – this is from the Washington Post –
And the ridiculous idea that Lehrner, et al, at the IRS are not feverishly working to cover up their criminal acts at the IRS also receive comment in the Washington Post:
For anyone to claim the Washington Post is a conservative mouthpiece is laughable and strains even the most rabid leftist’s capacity for doublethink – so from the same WaPo piece, commenting on democrat collusion:
And this isn’t just a single editorial from WaPo on the IRS scandal, which is the next trick you leftist naysayers will try to say:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2014/07/09/lois-lerners-attorney-now-says-former-irs-official-saved-some-e-mails/
http://online.wsj.com/articles/emails-point-to-irs-officials-using-instant-messages-1404936144
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/federal-judge-orders-irs-explain-lost-emails
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/irs-lois-lerner-emails-take-oath-108773.html
If one takes the time to read the articles on the IRS being ordered to explain the lost emails, it is reported that the IRS has been able to come up with 24,000 emails from 2009 to 2011 that Lehrner wrote because they were able to extract them from other employees emails. Funny, isn’t it, that they can’t seem to do the same thing with regard to Lehrner’s emails from 2011-2013 so far despite Congressional hearings that have subpoenaed all her emails for that period? (Though one of the stories reports the IRS is working on providing 67,000 Lehrner emails that include the time period in question.)
This is a criminal cover-up worse than Watergate, though the left is so barren of integrity that the continued caterwauling of democrat mouthpieces about “witch hunts” will persist just exactly like the left bellowed about the investigations into Clinton…until the evidence the dems are so desperately hiding comes out and they cannot lie anymore.
they are too sure of their jobs,
the unions will not get them fired,
so they can do like OBAMA,
anything they want, and laugh at anyone,
but we are witnessing a person who won”t eat their lies,
HE MIGHT HAVE THE POWER TO SHUT DOWN THAT BUILDING,
IF YOU CAN’T FIRE THEM,
DEMOLISH THE BUILDING