GOP: Lerner's hard drive 'scratched'

[DonViejo]

House Republicans said Tuesday that new evidence suggests that former IRS official Lois Lerner’s missing emails might have been recoverable, raising new questions about the IRS’s handling of the Tea Party controversy.

Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said that the committee had learned that Lerner’s hard drive was “scratched,” and that private sector specialists likely could have recovered emails.

IRS technicians also recommended that the agency seek outside help in recovering the emails, before the hard drive was recycled. A Ways and Means spokeswoman said the information came from an analyst with the IRS’s criminal investigations unit, which examined Lerner’s hard drive.

The IRS has said for weeks that Lerner’s hard drive crash left them unable to reproduce all of her emails for more than two years.



Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/finance/213038-gop-lerners-emails-could-have-been-recovered#ixzz38RK9B4QD

A Ways and Means spokeswoman said the information came from an analyst with the IRS’s criminal investigations unit, which examined Lerner’s hard drive.

The analyst was probably a part of a team made up of analysts; they rejected this leaking analyst's analysis. Wouldn't be surprised to see the analyst being exposed and proclaimed a whistleblower.

[defacto7]

1. To scratch a hard drive....

First the seals have to be broken, the it has to be pulled apart then there are usually several layers of disks. That takes a lot of time and premeditated activity. If the mechanism broke, it would not scratch them enough to make any difference in the data.

So, they were scratched on purpose... or they were mechanically scratched which they would not have found out without breaking the seals, unscrewing the housing and pulling it apart which would not make any difference to the data on those disks.

It's all still pretty fishy.

BTW, I love the magnets in those things.

[NM_Birder]

2. The same IRS that is now tied to your medical records, via the ACA

what could go wrong when you have an inept IRS, and a health industry overhaul teamed up ?

[riqster]

3. Scratched? Really? No, seriously, really?

Luddites never do well when they try to speak about tech.

[JohnJohn]

4. Definitely curious

When these people say "scratched," I think they are likely referring to head crash. Head crash occurs when the spindle (think record needle) actually makes contact with the platters (think record), which usually only occurs if a laptop has been dropped or significantly jarred while in operation. Its definitely a real thing, although rare in my experience. Most of the time however you can still recover the data even though a system won't boot.

I think its clear at this point that there is significant evidence of compliance violations at best and criminal violations at worst. Lerner needs to start talking so that we can be done with this mess.

[Sunlei]

5. if the emails republicans nag about are 'so important' why don't any senders come foward with copies

probably just thousands of bagger lovers sending complaint emails.