Hopes of recovering Lois Lerner’s “lost” emails from the IRS computer hard drive have all but vanished, multiple sources told Politico.
If the key figure in the IRS scandal responds to a subpoena by pleading the fifth, and the agency claims it cannot produce her emails, the next step is to subpoena her computer hard drive.
That’s the apparent logic of House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, who has subpoenaed former IRS employee Lois Lerner‘s hard drive and all other electronic devices.
“We’ve been informed that the hard drive has been thrown away,” U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told Politico.
Lerner is at the center of the IRS intentionally targeting tea party and other conservative groups for additional scrutiny. The agency informed Congress Friday that it had lost Lerner’s emails for a critical two year period being investigated.
Just the latest road block to learning whether there is more than a smidgen of corruption at the agency, which informed Congress this week the emails of six other IRS employees involved in the scandal are also lost.