If an email message is deleted from the Deleted Items folder, it's not easy for an end-user to retrieve, but the data still exists in the PST file and if it hasn't been overwritten (a big if), it could be retrieved using a variety of file recovery and analysis tools.

The email message could also have been archived or auto-archived in the PST file. We've had many reports from users where they've let Outlook auto-archive messages, then moved to a new machine, and lost the archive file. They remembered to move Personal Folder.PST, but forgot to move their archive files, which were living somewhere in the Documents and Settings folder.

And, finally, the PST file itself could have been deleted, damaged, or destroyed. This is also a common reader complaint.

If the email messages reside on an IMAP or Exchange server, the deleted messages are harder for the end-user to permanently delete or destroy, but the normal garbage collection process on the server is likely to recover space from deleted messages. If the messages were deleted years ago, it's entirely likely that many garbage collection passes have occurred and those messages are long gone from the server.

Of course, there should have been regular backups, but that's not what Senator Leahy is asserting here. So, in response to Senator Leahy's claim "You can't erase emails, not today.", sadly, he's wrong.

"They've gone through too many servers."
Without a doubt, email messages transit servers. In fact, the core architectural approach to email is a concept called Store and Forward. The idea is the server stores the message, then forwards it on to the next server in the chain. Unfortunately for Senator Leahy, the servers the messages travel through don't store the message any longer than it takes to move it to the next server.

There are archiving servers, specifically designed to hold email messages for further examination. We discussed that last week in some depth. But those systems have to be put into place in addition to the typical email server. It's not a normal function of email servers to hold mail messages that they forward in perpetuity. In fact, most servers, by design, don't hold those messages simply because the storage load would be overwhelming.

Again, sadly, he's wrong.

"They can't say they've been lost."
Well, most presidents say pretty much anything they darn well please. But the real statement here is the assertion that email messages can't be lost.

Sadly, they can.

We documented some years ago "My thirteen days in Exchange Hell", a story about how our Microsoft Exchange server's hard drive crashed and we were unable to restore backups for almost two weeks. We'd done everything right, or so it seemed. But we missed one critical element of the configuration puzzle and almost lost the entire company's email.

It took thirteen days and the support of some of the leading experts to recover our messages, but we were able to do so. But had that hard drive crashed, and had we not had a lot of backups or had we had the backups but had I not taken precautions to make image copies of the backups before attempting restores, we would have lost those messages.