Friday June 13 is not considered a lucky day. But for IRS officials it was especially lucky; the lost Lois Lerner’s emails.
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp was informed that Internal Revenue Service lost Lois Lerner emails from a period of January 2009 – April 2011. Due to an alleged computer crash, the agency only has Lerner emails to and from other IRS employees during this time frame. The IRS claims it cannot produce emails written only to or from Lerner and outside agencies or groups, such as the White House, Treasury, Department of Justice, FEC, or Democrat offices.
Dave Camp (R-MI) said, “The fact I am just learning about this, over a year into the investigation, is completely unacceptable and now calls into question the credibility of the IRS’s response to Congressional inquiries. There needs to be an immediate investigation and forensic audit by Department of Justice as well as the Inspector General. Just a short time ago, Commissioner Koskinen promised to produce all Lerner documents. It appears now that was an empty promise. Frankly, these are the critical years of the targeting of conservative groups that could explain who knew what when, and what, if any, coordination there was between agencies. Instead, because of this loss of documents, we are conveniently left to believe that Lois Lerner acted alone.”
Camp said the failure of the IRS requires the White House, which promised to get to the bottom of this, to do an Administration-wide search and production of any emails to or from Lois Lerner. The Administration has repeatedly referred us back to the IRS for production of materials, according to Camp.
“It is clear that is wholly insufficient when it comes to determining the full scope of the violation of taxpayer rights.” Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Charles Boustany Jr., M.D. (R-LA) added, “In the course of the Committee’s investigation, the Administration repeatedly claimed we were getting access to all relevant IRS documents.
“Only now – thirteen months into the investigation – the IRS reveals that key emails from the time of the targeting have been lost. And they bury that fact deep in an unrelated letter on a Friday afternoon,” said Camp. “In that same letter, they urge Congress to end the investigations into IRS wrongdoing.This is not the transparency promised to the American people. If there is no smidgeon of corruption what is the Administration hiding?”
Camp quipped, “Rumor has it the IRS is having a special bridge sale for a group package of all the bridges crossing the Potomac.”