For months on end, Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen insisted that Lois Lerner's emails were destroyed when her computer's hard drive failed.

Koskinen even told Congress that IRS "moved heaven and earth" trying to recover the emails but simply could not find a way to do so.

Now, thanks to a determined federal judge, the country learns that all government emails are preserved in a doomsday kind of database. Lerner's emails never were lost.

They just don't want to look

But here's the kicker: According to Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, government lawyers told U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan on Friday that "this back-up system would be too onerous to search." Yes, too onerous.

"This is a jaw-dropping revelation. The Obama administration had been lying to the American people about Lois Lerner’s missing emails," Fitton added.

"There are no 'missing' Lois Lerner emails – nor missing emails of any of the other top IRS or other government officials whose emails seem to be disappearing at increasingly alarming rate," he said.

What about HHS and EPA?

Fitton's reference to "other" disappearing government emails concerns recent claims that Obama political appointee Marilyn Tavenner mistakenly deleted emails concerning the disastrous launch of the healthcare.gov website.

In addition, Environmental Protection Agency officials have claimed a computer hard drive crash in 2010 made it is impossible to provide Congress with copies of key emails concerning that agency's controversial handling of an Alaskan mining project.

These revelations came about because earlier this month Sullivan ordered IRS to produce sworn statements by the responsible officials explaining what happened to the Lerner hard drive and why nothing could be recovered from it.

Will this be the end of federal agencies claiming they can't follow the FOIA law because emails were lost or destroyed?

On today's washingtonexaminer.com

Editorial: The U.S. can, if Obama chooses wisely, lead a Middle Eastern coalition to destroy ISIS.

EXography: Urbanist lobby's goals will mean fewer families with children, more seniors needing government help.

Columnists/Gene Healy: Fight against militarized police is a culture war worth having.

Columnists/Cal Thomas: What will U.S. do if ISIS attacks again?

Columnists/Sean Higgins: How Obama made a federal agency Big Labor's litigation arm.

Beltway Confidential/T. Becket Adams: Major voter turnout seen in November.

PennAve/Susan Crabtree: White House signals its open to military action in Syria but not yet.

PennAve/Joseph Lawler: Will losing Burger King make America care about corporate taxes?

PennAve/Brian Hughes: Unresolved issues hang over Obama's address to veterans convention.

Legal Newsline/Bryan Cohen: Oregon AG says Oracle overcharged for poorly trained personnel.

Video/Morning Examiner: Morning Examiner with Steve Doty for Aug. 26.

In other news

The Washington Post: Egypt, UAE said to strike ISIS secretly.

The New York Times: FEC making new laws even as partisan gridlock keeps it divided.

ABC News: ISIS is an "incredible fighting force," special ops experts say.

Righty Playbook

The American Thinker: Where government incompetence ends and malice begins.

The American Conservative: A realist guide to grand strategy.

The American Spectator: Jesse Jackson and the renewed fight to racialize America.

Bonus must-read

The Federalist: Hyper-democracy and progressive oligarchy.

Lefty Playbook

The American Prospect: Withdrawing from the fight against racism guarantees more Fergusons.

The Daily Beast: No force now on the ground can defeat ISIS.

The Nation: Ferguson and parallel universes.

Bonus must-read

Mother Jones: Can this Democrat win on a "no more Trayvon Martin tragedies" platform?