According to the chief archivist at the National Archives, David S. Ferriero, the Internal Revenue Service broke the law when it failed to report a hard-drive crash that destroyed two years’ worth of emails to and from Lois Lerner, the official accused of improperly examining Tea Party-aligned groups’ requests for tax exemptions. “In accordance with the Federal Records Act, when an agency becomes aware of an incident of unauthorized destruction, they must report the incident to us,” said Ferriero, who spoke at a congressional hearing examining the disappearance of the emails.