[nospecinterests]

None (Edit: I'm talking about digital data retention) of this even matters when you take into account the fact that it is IRS policy to print out each and every e-mail sent and received by their employees. One would assume that this is required to maintain a permanent record of all communications for the Federal Archives and for legal matters that arise for confidential taxpayer cases.

"The Treasury Department’s current email policy requires emails and attachments that meet the definition of a federal record be added to the organization’s files by printing them (including the essential transmission data) and filing them with related paper records."[0]

[0] http://www.irs.gov/irm/part1/irm_01-010-003.html

[morganvachon]

So why have the emails in question not surfaced in paper form yet? If the whole scandal and potential lawsuits are riding on missing emails, which should have been printed and archived from day one, where the hell are they?

[fpgeek]

As I understand it, the policy is that only emails that should be permanent, official records are supposed to be saved - and the judgement of what those are is left up to the individual employee. If you're someone investigating that employee, you're not going to trust that judgment. You'd want to see all of the employee's emails - even ones about lunch plans and carpool arrangements. Not to mention going through thousands of of paper emails is likely to be even more labor-intensive than the electronic search and review so far.