IRS Official Says Even More Employees Had Computer Problems, May Not Be Able to Comply With Congressional Subpoenas

When the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said that
Lois Lerner, a former tax official at the center of a congressional
investigation over targeting of conservative groups, could not
produce an untold number of emails during a time-frame crucial to
the investigation due to a hard drive failure, it seemed
convenient, but entirely plausible. When it was later revealed that
six more IRS employees could not produce certain records related to
the investigation, at least one due to another computer failure, it
seemed more than a little convenient. But still, these things
happen. 

Now, it appears that there are even more records that the IRS
may not be able to produce due to employee computer failures. In
transcribed testimony today, IRS Deputy Associate Chief Counsel
Thomas Kane, the individual in charge of producing documents for
congressional investigators, said that a number of additional tax
agency officials “have had computer problems over the course of the
period covered by the investigations and the chairman’s subpoena,”

according to a House Oversight Committee release this
afternoon. Kane placed the total number as “less than 20.” The
group apparently includes Justin Lowe, an exempt organization
technical advisor, David Fish, who was the manager of Exempt
Organization Guidance and an “advisor to Lois Lerner” (who ran the
tax exempt division), according to the Committee release. 

Details of what sorts of records can’t be provided are still
unclear, as are the particulars of the computer problems involved.
But on the surface, this is pretty incredible. Yes, hard drives
crash and computers malfunction, but increasingly, this strains
credibility. Based on what we know, at least, this looks pretty bad
for the agency, even if there was nothing particularly damning in
the lost records and emails. The IRS appears, at minimum, to have a
widespread problem keeping and storing records that might be of
interest to congressional investigators. 

Or at the very least, senior officials do not have any idea how
the data retention process works. The other interesting detail
revealed in the Committee release is that some email backup tapes
may still exist. When Kane was asked about a June IRS memo to Sens.
Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) stating that “back-up tapes
from 2011 no longer exist because they have been recycled,” he
responded hesitantly. There was “an issue” with whether the backup
recovery tapes were actually destroyed, he said. “I don’t know
whether they are or they aren’t, but it’s an issue that’s being
looked at.” 

That seems like the sort of thing that the IRS should have been
confident, certain, and accurate about the first time around, and
the conflicting stories—first agency officials are certain the
records were destroyed, later they are not so sure—does further
damage to their credibility. The most generous possible
story here is that the IRS is massively sloppy and incompetent in
its records retention processes, and as a result suffered some
extremely convenient data losses.