Ex-Justice Attorney: Lerner Email Could Help Get Her to Testify

Revelations that former IRS official Lois Lerner was concerned about an internal communications server used by the agency and warned employees not to say too much in emails could be used against her, according to Sidney Powell, a former attorney in the Department of Justice.

"It certainly indicates a consciousness of a problem and a concern. It could be evidence against her in a criminal proceeding,'' Powell told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

"If they wanted to pursue it further and if there were enough evidence to indict her, for example, it might encourage her to plead guilty to a lesser offense and then have her testify against others.''

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Lerner, who was in charge of the agency's granting of tax-exempt status to non-profit groups, resigned after it emerged that her department had been allegedly targeting conservative groups.

A House committee probing the scandal is now warring with the IRS over a series of emails written by Lerner and other employees that the agency claims were destroyed during a computer crash.

"Obviously they're trying to hide something or they would have been forthcoming with all of it immediately. I can't imagine any other reason for this mysterious and sudden loss from not just one computer, not just hers, but six others all involved in the same aspect,'' Powell said.

"Some people think that technology can have a glitch like that — and I guess it's possible, a very specific glitch for the specific emails — that relates to the time that might implicate the White House and the scandal.

"We know there's a lot of foot traffic between the White House and IRS during the same time frame.''

Ultimately though, it is unlikely Lerner will be prosecuted as long as President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder are in power, she predicted.

"It's unlikely in the next two years that that will happen. I mean I wish I could say I could trust the Department of Justice to conduct a thorough investigation of it. It would take a special prosecutor to do that. Eric Holder's not going to appoint one of those,'' she said.

"All Americans know that something's not right here and they just want the truth. If the government would just be more forthcoming with everything, we can't identify a problem when they're hiding the truth and we can't solve it if you can't see it.''