IRS CANCELLED Contract with Email-Storage Firm Weeks After Lerner’s Computer Crash

UPDATED AT BOTTOM OF POST

The questions not addressed by this article are:

DOES THE SONASOFT RETAIN COPIES OF THE ARCHIVES AFTER A RELATIONSHIP IS SEVERED, 

OR, 

DOES IT SONASOFT ROUTINELY RETURN THE ARCHIVES WHEN A RELATIONSHIP IS SEVERED, 

AND, IF SO,

DOES IT MEAN, SONASOFT TURNS OVER THE ARCHIVES AND THE IRS SUBSEQUENTLY DESTROYED THEM?

From the Daily Caller:

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) cancelled its longtime relationship with an email-storage contractor just weeks after ex-IRS official Lois Lerner’s computer crashed and shortly before other IRS officials’ computers allegedly crashed. 

The IRS signed a contract with Sonasoft, an email-archiving company based in San Jose, California, each year from 2005 to 2010. The company, which partners with Microsoft and counts The New York Times among its clients, claims in its company slogans that it provides “Email Archiving Done Right” and “Point-Click Recovery.” 

Sonasoft in 2009 tweeted, “If the IRS uses Sonasoft products to backup their servers why wouldn’t you choose them to protect your servers?” Sonasoft was providing “automatic data processing” services for the IRS throughout the January 2009 to April 2011 period in which Lerner sent her missing emails. 

But Sonasoft’s six-year business relationship with the IRS came to an abrupt end at the close of fiscal year 2011, as congressional investigators began looking into the IRS conservative targeting scandal and IRS employees’ computers started crashing left and right. 

Sonasoft’s fiscal year 2011 contract with the IRS ended on August 31, 2011. Eight days later, the IRS officially closed out its relationship with Sonasoft in accordance with the federal government’s contract close-out guidelines, which require agencies to fully audit their contracts and to get back any money that wasn’t used by the contractor. 

Curiously, the IRS de-allocated 36 cents when it closed out its contract with Sonasoft on September 8, 2011. Lois Lerner’s computer allegedly crashed in June 2011, just ten days after House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Dave Camp first wrote a letter asking if the IRS was engaging in targeting of nonprofit groups. 

Two months later, Sonasoft’s contract ended and the IRS gave its email-archiving contractor the boot. IRS official and frequent White House visitor Nikole Flax allegedly suffered her own computer crash in December 2011, three months after the IRS ended its relationship with Sonasoft.

UPDATED --- SONASOFT STILL CONSIDERS THE IRS A CUSTOMER 

U.S. House Hold Former IRS Official Lois Lerner In Contempt Of Congress

Lot of good this will do.

Eric Holder has demonstrated that "Contempt of Congress" means nothing to friends of Obama. Holder has been in Contempt of Congress for almost two years, and there is no result at all.

Lerner will do the same.

From Fox:

The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to hold former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about the agency’s targeting of conservative groups. 

The House voted 231-187 for a resolution holding Lerner in contempt. Lerner’s case will now be sent to the Justice Department, which then must decide whether to essentially prosecute Lerner in the case. 

House GOP leaders have said Lerner’s testimony is important to fully investigate the scandal, in which IRS agents singled out Tea Party nonprofit applications for extra scrutiny. 

“Thorough investigations by the Oversight and Government Reform Committee as well as the Ways and Means Committee have revealed findings that indicate that Ms. Lerner played a central role in the illegal targeting of conservative groups by the IRS,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said in a memo last month. 

Last May, Lerner refused to answer questions at a hearing about IRS agents singling out Tea Party applications. She again refused to answer questions in March, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. 

The House Oversight Committee voted to hold Lerner in contempt last month. All Republicans voted in favor and all Democrats voted against. 

Lerner directed the IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status. She retired from the IRS last fall, ending a 34-year career in the federal government, including work at the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission.