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A top IT specialist for the IRS was disturbed to learn that tapes containing backups of Lois Lerner’s emails had been erased. Lerner is currently at the center of a targeting scandal at the agency.
Ongoing efforts to recover the emails have met several mishaps, and lawmakers were told one week ago that the erasure occurred around March of 2014. The admission was part of a 1,600-page report released by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which was not made public but viewed by some media sources.
The report does not indicate a deliberate cover up but states the IRS did not make a resaonable effort to retain the data.
The problem began in 2011 when the hard drive on Lerner’s computer failed. The IRS attempted to recover the drive, even sending it to Atlanta to Lillie Wilburn, a program manager of IT services for the IRS. Wilburn later informed Lerner that the recovery attempt was unsuccessful. Lerner replied with a thank you note, stating that sometimes things happen and no one was at fault.
Before leaving the IRS, Lerner headed the department currently under fire for putting extra scrutiny on conservative groups seeking status as non-profit organizations.
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