Freedom Line Blog

Apparently, you can lie to Congress but not to Judicial Watch.

The conservative watchdog organization is publicizing an admission by the Department of Justice that government officials can access emails reportedly lost in a hard drive crash.

The messages – correspondence to and from former IRS manager Lois Lerner – have been sought by congressional investigators seeking more information about the agency’s targeting of conservative advocacy groups filing for tax-exempt status.

In sworn testimony, IRS officials have told members of Congress that thousands of emails sent from Lerner’s government account could not be retrieved because a back-up system had also been erased.

But now attorneys at the DOJ are singing a different tune.

“Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said Justice Department lawyers informed him that the federal government keeps a back-up copy of every email and record in the event of a government-wide catastrophe,” reports the Washington Examiner.

That includes Lerner’s IRS emails.

But don’t expect them to be produced anytime soon. The DOJ is claiming that the newly revealed back-up system would be “too onerous to search,” but did say that Treasury Department inspectors are looking into it.

While the litigators wrangle, we’re left with yet more evidence that the Obama administration doesn’t mind playing fast and loose with the truth – even under oath.

The House of Representatives already voted back in May to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify; making her the second administration official after Attorney General Eric Holder to receive such a dishonor.

If it’s true that top IRS brass lied under oath to Congress about the whereabouts of Lerner’s potentially damaging emails, one wonders what message House leadership would send to this latest act of executive defiance.

‘Tis the season for end-of-the-year lists and the folks at Judicial Watch have compiled a list of the “Ten Most Corrupt Politicians” for 2009. A brief summary of their qualifications accompanies the alphabetized list.

1. Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT): Failed to disclose the true value of a home in Ireland, and a sweetheart mortgage rate provided by Countrywide, a company he helps to regulate

2. Senator John Ensign (R-NV): Allegedly broke anti-lobbying laws to quiet a former staffer whose wife Ensign had an affair with

3. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA): Repeatedly blocked attempts to audit and regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, even claiming in 2003 that there was no impending housing crisis due to questionable lending practices

4. Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner: Failed to pay $34,000 in federal taxes, and employed illegal immigrants for domestic help

5. Attorney General Eric Holder: Refused to investigate ACORN for fabricating 400,000 voter registrations, or a group calling itself The New Black Panthers for voter intimidation outside polling places

6. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) / Senator Roland Burris (D-IL): After Jackson got caught offering $1.5 million to former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for Barack Obama’s old senate seat, Burris was eventually named, but only after changing his story about contacts with Blago three times while under oath

7. President Barack Obama: Since promising to have the most transparent administration in history, Obama has claimed that the Privacy Act does not apply to the White House, refused to honor Freedom of Information Act requests, and failed to release visitor logs as required by federal law

8. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): Apparently, Pelosi likes to use the United States Air Force as her personal airline, but unlike commercial passengers suffers none of the consequences for last minute changes and cancellations – all at the expense of taxpayers and military personnel

9. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and the rest of the PMA Seven: Call it cash-for-earmarks because Murtha continued his legacy of funding defense-related pet projects to friendly contractors who then contribute money to his reelection campaigns

10. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY): In an effort to avoid punishment for “forgetting” to pay taxes on off-shore rental property, Rangel has contributed money to 119 members of Congress, including members of the House Ethics Committee investigating his incomplete financial disclosures

H/T: Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government