Another 'recycled' hard drive: Former Lois Lerner deputy can't be prosecuted for fundraising for Democrats on the job because the FEC destroyed the evidence



April Sands was a Federal Election Commission lawyer before she resigned this year and accepted a ban on holding government jobs until 2016

She was former IRS official Lois Lerner's deputy when she was at the FEC

Like the allegations against Lerner, Sands admitted violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits government workers from advocating for candidates

And as seems to be the case with Lerner, Sands escaped prosecution because her hard drive mysteriously 'crashed' and was recycled

She was known as 'Obama girl' in her office, and a colleague recalled how she boasted that Obama's 2012 campaign would hire her away



Republicans are investigating another Obama administration official who played politics on the job but escaped prosecution when the Federal Election Commission recycled her hard drive before evidence could be recovered.

April J. Sands resigned her position as an FEC attorney in April 2014 after investigators confronted her with tweets she sent and a video interview she conducted during work hours, advocating for the election of President Barack Obama and other Democratic candidates – and asking people to contribute to their campaigns.



When the FEC's Office of Inspector General began the process of filing criminal charges, however, it found that the agency had destroyed her computer's hard drive before it could be seized.

April Sands said during a September 2012 Huffington post video chat, while working for the FEC, that Mitt Romney's presidential campaign lacked 'a unified message,' and claimed 'there's nothing that they can focus on with respect to the economy or anything else'

In the midst of the 2012 presidential campaign, the Federal Election Commission lawyer declared that only 'straight white men' ought to vote for the GOP Lois Lerner, a former IRS official who once mentored April Sands at the FEC, landed in the middle of a lost-emails scandal after the IRS told Congress it had recycled a hard drive containing evidence needed to prosecute her

Lois Lerner, a former Internal Revenue Service official at the center of an alleged years-long plot to politically target tea party groups and other conservative organizations, also has seen her legal picture brightened by the IRS's decision to render the hard drive in her government-issued computer into scrap metal.

Lerner, whose missing emails have made her a political lightning rod, was Sands' supervisor until 2001. FEC documents indicate that as the agency's acting general counsel, Lerner oversaw the younger attorney's work.



Following an investigation into her partisan political activity, Sands admitted to the FEC's Office of Special Counsel that she had violated the Hatch Act, a federal law banning partisan politicking by most government employees, and agreed not to seek employment in the federal government for two years.

The special counsel wrote that she had ' posted dozens of partisan political tweets, including many soliciting campaign contributions to President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.'

She also 'participated in a Huffington Post Live internet broadcast via webcam from an FEC facility, criticizing the Republican Party and then-Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.'

An FEC attorney who is still employed by the agency told MailOnline on Monday that Sands was known in the agency as 'the most enthusiastic pro-Obama lawyer we had.'

'Everyone called her Obama girl,' said the lawyer, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak on the record.



'She probably didn't worry about seeming too rah-rah and running afoul of the law,' he added, 'because she bragged to anyone who would listen that the Obama 2012 campaign was going to hire her away from the FEC.'

The attorney also said that Sands and Lerner 'were definitely acquainted with each other' when the two worked together in the agency's Office of General Counsel.

'There were two mid-level associates that Lois Lerner latched on to at the time,' he recalled, 'and one of them was April. Last year when Lerner got into hot water at the IRS, April made a point of telling everyone that her old boss got railroaded by the Republicans on the [Capitol] Hill.'

The Oversight Committee wrote in a statement Monday that 'it is unclear whether Ms. Sands ever communicated with Ms. Lerner after Ms. Lerner moved to the IRS; however, the Committee is aware that Ms. Lerner maintained communication with some former FEC colleagues.'



Sands, a University of Texas at Austin Law School graduate, locked down her social media profiles on Monday after the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform blasted out a letter to FEC Chairman Lee E. Goodman asking how sensitive evidence in a likely criminal case wound up in a recycling bin.

Sands retweeted this partisan jab during work hours on March 5, 2013

Sands used her personal Twitter account during the work day to publicly slam 'every single Republican ever'

Sands, an FEC attorney, was identified during a September 21, 2012 Huffington Post broadcast only as a 'lawyer' from Washington, D.C.

The prolific tweeter has sent more than 232,000 messages on Twitter since March 2010, but it was just a handful of tweets she sent her 8,500 followers that got Sands into trouble.

'I just don't understand how anyone but straight white men can vote Republican,' read one she wrote in June 2012.

'Dear every single Republican ever,' Sands tweeted a month earlier, 'When will U learn that Barack Hussein Obama is simply smarter than U? Stand down. Signed, #Obama2012.'

In August 2012 she wrote on Twitter that 'If you're still calling yourself a Republican after the #WarOnWomen, their stated RNC platform, & Birtherism, you are my enemy. Done.'

'Birtherism' is a reference to a belief among some on the Republican Party's far right wing that Obama was born overseas, making him ineligible to serve as president.

Sands' Twitter feed, now shut from public view, indicated a gradual transition from online cheerleading for the Obama White House to direct campaigning and fundraising, all of which came during work hours.

In March 2013 she tweeted a graphic produced by the Blue Street Journal, an obscure progressive blog, displaying an image of a light bulb and a riddle.

'How many Republicans does it take to change a light bulb?' it read. 'None – they'd rather sit in the dark and blame it on Obama.'

But by July 2012 she was in full campaign mode, tweeting an indirect appeal for contributions toward Obama's re-election.

'Our #POTUS's birthday is August 4,' she wrote. 'He'll be 51. I'm donating at least $51 to give him the best birthday present ever: a second term.'

'You are my enemy': The taxpayer-salaried attorney tweeted her opposition to Republicans Among Sands' more egregious violations of the Hatch Act was this fundraising notice sent in July 2012 while she was at work at the Federal Election Commission

Protected: Sands locked down her Twitter account on Monday afternoon

Minor change: Three months ago Sands' Twitter profile identified her as an 'Obama supporter'

The following month, as a Missouri U.S. Senate race descended into chaos following comments by the anti-abortion Republican candidate Todd Akin about whether pregnancy could result from rape, Sands directly appealed to her followers for contributions to defeat him and return Democrat Claire McCaskill to the Senate for a second term.

'Donate to @clairecmc today,' she wrote, reacting to news that Akin had decided not to drop out of the race.

It is a crime for any employee of the federal government 'to solicit or receive a donation of money or other thing of value in connection with a Federal, State, or local election, while in any room or building occupied in the discharge of official duties.'

Convictions can result in a $5,000 fine and three years in prison.



Seven weeks before Election Day, Sands declared on Twitter that the presidential race was effectively over.

'Romney is toast,' she tweeted on September 18, 2012, 'But POTUS can't do it all on his own. Don't forget Congressional races. We need a Democratic sweep. Stay focused.'

Three days later Sands appeared in the Huffington Post broadcast as part of a six-person panel discussing political news via Google video chat.

'There are so many distractions that the Romney campaign is bringing forward,' she complained.

'The problem is, I think, that because they don't have a unified message there's nothing that they can focus on with respect to the economy or anything else.'

April Sands graduated from law school the University of Texas at Austin and was admitted to the Washington, D.C. bar in 1994, according to the Martindale-Hubbell directory

Not just Obama: Sands tried to help Missouri Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill raise money for her November 2012 re-election battle Seven weeks before Election Day in 2012, Sands declared on Twitter that 'Romney is toast,' but urged her followers to also support Democrats in down-ticket races

Asked whether it was wise for former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to appear on Saturday Night LIve, Sands responded that the one-time Alaska governor 'was comedic in and of herself, because she was a walking gaffe machine.'

And on the perennial candidacy of the 'Celebrity Apprentice' host, she took no prisoners.

'I'm still trying to understand how Donald Trump is an expert on anything but bankruptcy,' Sands said.



It's just really hard to take him seriously. ... Some people really believe what he says. And that's the scary part.'



The Federal Election Commission's Office of Inspector General later determined that she participated 'via webcam from an FEC conference room ... while on duty.'

Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, demanded on Monday that the FEC turn over '[a]ll documents and communications referring or relating to the recycling of Ms. Sands's hard drive, including all correspondence between or among FEC employees and outside vendors or contractors involved in the recycling.'

On Monday after Issa re-opened Sands' three-month-old professional wound, she tweeted a message about her new career goals.

'I want to teach people how to use Twitter. How to tweet & grow & stuff,' she wrote, drawing retweets from friends. 'Someone find me a job doing that. Thanks.'

