(Update — see: IRS contracted with email archiving company in 2005)
I have been listening all week to TV pundits lamenting that Lois Lerner’s hard drive has been destroyed, and therefore her e-mails are lost. This is simply not the case. I never cease to be amazed at the lack of understanding of how the e-mail system works.
When you write an e-mail, it goes to your server to be sent to the person you e-mailed. Your server keeps a copy of that e-mail, and of all your e-mails – sent and received. When you create all the folders in your e-mail program that you use to save e-mails in…these are also stored on your server. I use MSN, so my server is an MSN server. My wife uses Gmail, so her server is a Google server. These servers are large machines, and they most often run the Unix operating system.
– See more at:
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/the-lost-irs-e-mails-exist_062014