Dear Conservative,
The Lois Lerner saga just keeps getting worse and worse every day.
On June 3, 2011, Representative Dave Camp (R-MI), the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, sent a letter to the IRS inquiring about the agency’s practice of targeting Tea Party and Conservative groups.
“The IRS appears to have selectively targeted certain taxpayers who are engaged in political speech,” Rep. Camp wrote in the letter, “not only does this threaten political speech, it casts doubt on the IRS’s credibility as an impartial enforcer of the nation’s tax law.”
The minute that this letter was delivered, the IRS was put on notice that it was under investigation. As per Federal Law, the IRS has a legal obligation to back-up all of the relevant files and begin to print out hard copies.
But the IRS didn’t follow the law. It didn’t secure any of the relevant documents!
In fact, ten days after the IRS was officially put on notice that it was under investigation, Lois Lerner’s computer mysteriously “crashed.” Next, the computers of six other targeting officials also “crashed.” These “crashes” allegedly wiped out Ms. Lerner’s email archive, something that was extremely convenient for an agency just notified it was under investigation.
No efforts were made to retrieve the data. Nor did the IRS attempt to retrieve any of the backed-up files. Instead, the agency physically melted down Lois Lerner’s hard drive and cancelled its contract with Sonasoft, a company whose sole purpose was email archiving.
The very minute that the IRS received notice it was under investigation, the agency had a legal obligation to do everything in its power to safeguard the evidence. That isn’t just a suggestion… that is Federal Law.
Instead, the tax agency ignored the Congressional letter and within days, all of Lois Lerner’s files were conveniently “lost.”
The reason it is so important to safeguard evidence and data during an investigation is because if that data is destroyed or goes missing, guilt becomes inferred. Regardless of whether Lois Lerner was responsible for targeting these Conservative groups (she definitely was), the fact that the IRS mysteriously lost the emails and then destroyed the physical evidence provides for inferred guilt!
The IRS had 10 days to back up Ms. Lerner’s files after being notified the agency was under investigation. The law requires that the files be stored on a separate hard drive and for relevant emails to be printed out in hard copies.
In legal terms, this is known as the “spoliation of evidence,” which describes an intentional or negligent withholding, hiding, alteration or destruction of evidence that is relevant to a legal proceeding. Regardless of the cause of the computer crash, the fact that the IRS did not make a good faith effort to follow protocol and secure the data means that it is reasonable to infer “consciousness of guilt.”
Here in the United States, citizens are innocent until proven guilty. That is why criminals like Lois Lerner are afforded to right to remain silent and avoid self-incrimination. However, when evidence is intentionally or negligently destroyed, the burden of proof shifts dramatically. Instead of assumed innocence, courts are forced to assume that the evidence was deliberately destroyed.
This is all very technical, but the fact is that the IRS did not follow protocol spells bad news for the Obama administration. And now that the Lois Lerner emails are lost, the agency is actually in a worse situation because a court would be forced to assume that the tax agency is deliberately hiding something.
All of the evidence is there to send Lois Lerner to prison for a long time. The only thing standing between Lois Lerner and a jail cell is the Eric Holder.
There’s a reason that Attorney General Eric Holder hasn’t followed up on Lois Lerner’s Contempt of Congress charge. That is because the evidence actually suggests that Ms. Lerner was actively collaborating with Holder’s DOJ to target Conservative groups in the first place! If you want to know why all of these scandals get dragged on for years without any justice, it is because the House of Representatives is too cowardly to act on its own and chooses to turn cases over to the most corrupt and partisan Attorney General in our nation’s history!
Congress has the Constitutional and legal authority to go around Eric Holder and arrest Lois Lerner on its own. And that is something that the House of Representatives must do!
Lois Lerner was held in Contempt of Congress. She was charged with lying to Congressional investigators about her involvement in the IRS targeting of Conservative tax-exempt groups. This isn’t just a meaningless accusation… Lois Lerner’s actions had consequences and because of her, Conservative groups were not allowed to participate in the 2012 election! And yet even with all this evidence, the House of Representatives let her walk away.
Every day that Lois Lerner walks free is a slap in the face to the Conservative groups that were silenced by her targeting program!
What is Congress waiting for? Are they waiting for the statute of limitations to run out and for Ms. Lerner to walk free? It has already been three years since Lois Lerner abused her authority and used the full weight of the IRS to silence the president’s opposition…
Congress has EVERYTHING it needs to throw Lois Lerner in prison! Yet, John Boehner and the other RINOs are clinging to the foolish notion that the Obama administration will actually prosecute one of its own! Eric Holder will never prosecute Lois Lerner because he knows that she will bring the entire administration down with her… The only path to justice is for Congress to arrest Lois Lerner on its own!
Congress answers to us and We the People must rise up and DEMAND that Lois Lerner and her accomplices be thrown in prison for their crimes!
The evidence is all there. All that remains to be seen is whether the American people will demand justice!
Sincerely,
Joe Otto
Conservative Daily
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