New IRS head Daniel Werfel claims over 64 million documents part of IRS investigation
The Acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel has informed the House Ways and Means Committee that the request for IRS documents related to the agency’s targeting of tea party, conservative and religious groups has resulted in approximately 64,600,000 pages of documents from IRS officials “who may have potentially relevant information” about the targeting.
Tea Party deserves the IRS targeting? Some folks feel that way.
CNC News details Werfel’s response to the committee that he believes the ultimate answers to who knew what and when in the White House and the Treasury Department about the IRS’s targeting of Tea Party and conservative groups will be discovered by the Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration and Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department, which are conducting the administration’s internal investigations of this matter.
The committee asked the IRS to supply “all documents and communications” on the matter between the IRS and the Treasury and between the IRS and the White House.
The committee asked the IRS to comply with this request by May 21—a filing deadline the IRS missed.
Now, in a letter to Camp and Levin (Dave Camp (R.-Mich.) and Sander Levin (D.-Mich.) dated June 4, Acting Commissioner Werfel says the IRS is working on partially complying with the request, but will not comply completely because, according to Werfel, fully answering some of the committee’s questions would be illegal.
“Please note that I cannot provide information requested in certain questions because Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 6104 prohibits the disclosure of information about specific taxpayers unless the disclosure is authorized by some provision in the section.”
“We have reviewed these requests and are in the process of gathering relevant, responsive information,” wrote Werfel. “As part of this process, we have directed our document retention and retrieval specialists to perform an electronic data search of the records of all personnel we have identified who may have potentially relevant information.”
“As of May 28, 2013, we had collected 646 gigabytes of raw electronically stored information (ESI),” said Werfel. “One gigabyte of data is approximately 100,000 pages of documents.”
646 gigabytes multiplied by 100,000 pages equals 64,600,000 pages.
“Much of the ESI will require decryption, which often corrupts files that must be restored manually before the search process can begin,” said Werfel. “Once we have decrypted information, we can search it according to requested terms. We then review ‘hits’ to ensure they are responsive. As a result, the time frame for completion depends on several factors, including the number of custodians, search terms, and hits.”
Werfel told Camp and Levin that as the IRS worked through these documents it would provide the committee with “a rolling production” of material relevant to the committee’s request.
Check out the full article here
THE TIME HAS COME FOR PROSPECTIVE POLITICAL CANDIDATES IN THE 2014 ELECTION CYCLE TO START GROWING THEIR TREASURE CHESTS. THIS Internal Revenue Service scandal NEEDS TO BE “OFF-THE-TABLE” BEFORE THE END OF SUMMER – IT MAKES CONSERVATIVES LOOK LIKE FANATICS AND LIBERALS LOOK LIKE HYPOCRITES; NO ONE WINS.
CHRISTOPHER ALLEN HORTON