Lois Lerner Email: We Should Be Careful What We Say In Emails
And, Say, Just Curious: The IRS' Internal Instant-Message System Isn't Archived By Any Chance, Is It?

So first she says that we should be careful what we say in emails, and then asks if the OCS system -- an internal IRS instant-message system -- is also archived, as emails are.

She is told "no."

She responds: "Perfect."

This is big.

The latest emails suggest that IRS officials had a separate instant-messaging system that also wasn't preserved.

The new emails also raised new questions for some lawmakers about Ms. Lerner, the now-retired head of the IRS exempt organizations division who has become a focus of the inquiry. The emails show her urging colleagues to be cautious about what they say in their emails, because Congress had previously tried to obtain them.

"I was cautioning folks about email and how we have had several occasions where Congress has asked for emails and there has been an electronic search for responsive emails--so we need to be cautious about what we say in emails," Ms. Lerner wrote. "Someone asked if [instant messaging] conversations were also searchable--I don't know, but told them I would get back to them. Do you know?"

She is urging people to be cautious in emails while simultaneously asking if it's safe to say whatever she likes on OCS.

I know I keep saying that; but it should be stressed.

"[Instant] messages are not set to automatically save as the standard; however the functionality exists within the software," the technician wrote back. "My general recommendation is to treat the conversation as if it could/is being saved somewhere, as it is possible for either party of the conversation to retain the information and have it turn up as part of an electronic search."

"Perfect," Ms. Lerner replied.

I'm sure she meant "I'll just change the default setting to archive these instant messages right now, in order to carefully preserve a record of official documents."

The email conversation occurred in early April of 2013, just a few days after the agency's inspector general delivered a critical report on the alleged targeting to IRS officials. The inspector general's report--which concluded that the IRS targeted the conservative groups--was made public about a month later, touching off a political furor.

Viewable here, if that doesn't display.

There's more, too. Lerner is in trouble because the law requires her to print out emails, to be archived as official documents.

However, I get the sense she's not eager to share those print-outs, and would rather the "failed harddrive" story be the end of the matter.

So Lerner -- and it seems Koskinen -- are playing a game here as to whether she actually did print them out.

If she didn't print them out, she violated the law, and Holder has even less of an excuse not to prosecute.

If she did print them out, then she didn't violate the law -- but in that case, why hasn't the IRS or Lerner produced these print outs?

So the story here as to whether the emails were printed out keeps changing, or at least it's never clear.

All via Twitchy, which also has a video of Koskinen being grilled by Representative Jim Jordan.

This John Koskinen sounds, frankly, like a mob lawyer -- he just doesn't know anything about anyone.

Oh, and:

posted by Ace at 06:10 PM

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