'We have a problem with you, and you have a problem maintaining your credibility': House Republicans slam IRS commissioner as they subpoena a White House lawyer in 'missing emails' case | Mail Online
- IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified Monday in a rare evening hearing, just days after being called a liar in another House proceeding
- He defended the IRS against insinuations that it covered up a political targeting scheme by burying inconvenient emails
- Koskinen testified that the Treasury Department's inspector general is investigating, but couldn't explain why a six-month 'disaster recovery' backup wasn't tapped to restore her emails after the computer crash
- Republicans say he lied in March when he promised to deliver copies of 'all' of former official Lois Lerner's communications even though he knew of a 2011 computer crash that destroyed 28 months' worth
- Koskinen complained that it would take $10 to $30 million to upgrade IRS computers to retain all its emails and documents; the agency paid $89 million in bonuses last year and as an $1.8 billion IT budget
- Lerner has been held in Contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about her part in a scheme to use the IRS to hamstring tea party groups
- House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa subpoenaed White House attorney Jennifer O'Connor on Monday to testify Tuesday morning
- O'Connor, former counsel to the then-acting IRS commissioner, was invited to testify but the White House Counsel's office refused to let her testify
Republicans dropped a hammer on IRS Commissioner John Koskinen during a testy hearing covering the disappearance of emails tied to the agency's tea party targeting scandal.
The emails, covering the period January 2009 to April 2011, belonged to embattled former official Lois Lerner and could shed light on whether an expansive scheme to single out conservative groups for special scrutiny was guided by members of Congress or administration officials outside the IRS.
'The committee requested all of Lois Lerner’s emails over a year ago,' said House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa. 'And we subpoenaed the emails in August 2013 and again in February 2014. ... You worked to cover up the fact they were missing and only came forward to fess up on a Friday afternoon after you had been caught red-handed.'
'You personally did not cause the targeting,' he told Koskinen, referring to the tea party scandal. 'You personally did not destroy the emails. But by your actions and your deception, you now own this scandal.'
'We have a problem with you,' Issa sniped, 'and you have a problem maintaining your credibility.'
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