DOJ Attorney Admits “Lost” Lerner Emails are Backed Up But “Too Onerous” to Retrieve

Have they been lying to us the whole time?

An attorney for the Justice Department defending the IRS has admitted to an organization seeking to obtain Lois Lerner’s emails through a FOIA request that these emails are stored on a previously unrevealed government-wide backup system.

The FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request brought by Judicial Watch is the center of ongoing federal litigation over precisely Lois Lerner’s missing emails.  The IRS and DOJ have been saying for months that the emails of Lois Lerner, the former senior IRS official at the center of the IRS targeting scandal, are irretrievable.  They told this to federal judges.  The IRS commissioner John Koskinen even swore this under oath before Congress.

Yet, as Fox News reports, their continued assertions that the emails are gone forever, may be completely and utterly false:

In a stunning revelation, the president of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch told Fox News that Justice Department attorneys have intimated that Lois Lerner's "lost" emails likely exist in back-up computers.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said the news came during a Friday phone call with Department of Justice attorneys representing the IRS in Judicial Watch's FOIA lawsuit against the IRS.

Fitton said DOJ attorneys told him the federal government backs up all computer records to ensure the continuity of government in event of a catastrophe. They told him that retrieving the emails from Lerner, a former IRS official, would be "too onerous" - a legal burden that can exempt an agency from complying with FOIA requests.

If in fact there is a backup system holding those emails after the IRS has been withholding them, even swearing under oath that those emails are gone for good, this scandal escalates even further.

The excuse that the emails would be “too onerous,” too hard, to retrieve would hold no water at this point.  The American people, those targeted for their beliefs, Congress, and at least two federal judges have been told these emails don’t exist.  If they in fact do, there is no justifiable reason at this point not to immediately produce them.

Yet, as soon as this revelation was made the Obama Administration immediately began once again trying to deflect and dissuade the truth.

An Administration official has reportedly told Fox News:

“There was no new back-up system described last week to Judicial Watch. Government lawyers who spoke to Judicial Watch simply referred to the same email retention policy that Commissioner (John) Koskinen had described in his Congressional testimony.”

The IRS hasn’t been honest with the American people from day one.  And it’s still obstructing the truth.  From a faux “apology” to stonewalling Congress to constantly changing its story, the IRS and the Obama Administration supposedly investigating it has been hiding the truth.

We’re continuing to press forward with our lawsuit on behalf of 41 targeted conservative and pro-life groups from 22 states.  The truth will be known.  Justice will be served.