IRS says it lost key Lerner emails - Washington Times
The IRS has told Congress that it has lost some of former employee Lois G. LernerÂ’s emails from 2009 through 2011, including those she sent to other federal agencies, the HouseÂ’s top tax-law writer said Friday.
The agency blamed a computer crash for the mishap.Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said he was stunned that it took more than a year into the investigation for the IRS to inform Congress that it didnÂ’t have those emails.
“The fact that 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,” Mr. Camp said. “There needs to be an immediate investigation and forensic audit by Department of Justice as well as the Inspector General.”
The IRS said it still has been able to collect 24,000 Lerner emails from the 2009-2011 time period in question that it has turned over or will be providing, as part of a total production of 67,000 emails that Ms. Lerner either sent or received.
ItÂ’s part of a massive effort to get to the bottom of the tea party targeting.
“The IRS has made unprecedented efforts in connection with this effort, producing more than 750,000 pages of documents to help complete the investigations. In total, the IRS’s efforts to respond to Congress have involved more than 250 IRS employees working more than 120,000 hours at a direct cost of nearly $10 million,” the agency said in a statement.
Ms. Lerner ran the division that gave unwarranted scrutiny into tea party groupsÂ’ applications for tax-exempt status. She retired from the agency last year while under scrutiny for her actions.
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So basically the IRS tells congress....................
