IRS scandal: Lois Lerner’s secret, personal email account was ideal cover

The IRS admitted to a federal court there was a second personal email account that Lois Lerner, the official at the heart of the Tea Party targeting scandal, used to conduct agency business.

The IRS made the big admission on Monday in response to an open-records lawsuit filed by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, according to The Washington Times.

The undersigned attorneys contacted the Office of IRS Chief Counsel, and IRS Chief Counsel attorneys informed the undersigned attorneys that these denominations refer to a personal email account used by Lerner.

Klimas told the court that as the agency was putting together a set of documents to turn over to Judicial Watch, it realized Ms. Lerner had used yet another email account, in addition to her official one and another personal one already known to the agency.

The IRS has steadfastly claimed that all of Lerner’s official IRS emails were lost when her computer crashed in 2011, and her computer hard drive was destroyed. Copies of some of her emails were eventually turned over to U.S. House investigators.

Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch’s president, said in a statement Tuesday that he couldn’t fathom why the Obama administration “waited two years” to tell the court about the email address, and insisted that the IRS “has obstructed this court’s orders to get Lois Lerner’s emails recovered and searched”. The lawyer explained that the government agency will review prior document releases to Judicial Watch in light of the new information and will provide an update at the end of the month. The “Toby Miles” address was also known to exist, but it was initially believed to be connected to Lerner’s husband Michael Miles.

“This is just another example from the Obama administration of the – to use an old Nixonian phrase – modified limited hangout”, Fitton said.

Monday, Day 837 of the IRS scandal, according to the Tax Prof blog, brought some interesting information.