Ex-IRS official Lois Lerner told colleagues that their emails were being stored and to try to be “cautious” about what they said because Congress was asking for emails.
Lerner did this in an April 2013 email released Wednesday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
“I had a question today about OCS,” Lerner wrote to IRS official Maria Hooke on April 9, 2013, just one month before the IRS targeting scandal broke.
“I was cautioning folks about email and how we have had several occasions where Congress has asked for emails and there has been an electronic search for responsive emails—so we need to be cautious about what we say in emails,” Lerner wrote. “Someone asked if OCS conversations were also searchable—I don’t know, but told them I would get back to them. Do you know?”
“My general recommendation is to treat the conversation as if it could/is being saved somewhere,” Hooke wrote to Lerner.
“Perfect,” Lerner replied.
Hooke is identified as director of business systems planning for the tax exempt and government entities division on 2014 documents.