The IRS Scandal, Day 645

U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Press Release, Chairman Asks IRS Commissioner Questions Raised by New Lerner E-mail Information:

Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) wrote to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen Tuesday  with questions raised by new information that has emerged about missing e-mails from former IRS official Lois Lerner. 

Senator Johnson’s staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) learned last week that the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), an independent investigative agency, has recovered as many as 80,000 missing IRS e-mails, more than double the number that TIGTA investigators were estimating in November. The recovered files represent about 16,000 unique e-mails, TIGTA investigators told the senator’s staff. TIGTA is now finished identifying missing emails and must compare them to e-mails already turned over by the IRS, but “it is possible that a large number of these e-mails have not yet been produced to Congress,” Johnson’s letter said.

The IRS became embroiled in controversy after Lerner, who oversaw the agency’s office in charge of administering nonprofit status to groups, admitted that the IRS gave heightened scrutiny to conservative groups. Members of Congress, investigating whether a powerful federal agency discriminated among citizens on the basis of their political beliefs, were told by the IRS in 2014 that it had lost e-mails sent or received by Lerner over a period of more than two years and that it had failed to tell Congress about the loss in a timely way. The IRS said it went to “great lengths” to recover the emails but could not do so.

The revelation from TIGTA means that the e-mails the IRS could not originally recover off backup tapes may now be found. “Accordingly,” reads Senator Johnson’s letter, “I respectfully request your assistance in better understanding the IRS’s document retention and production process.”

• Breitbart, GOP Sen: We Have 16,000 Unique Lerner Emails with Potential Admin Contacts
• Government Executive, Senator Demands IRS Explanation of Email Recovery
• Headline & Global News, IRS: Obama Administration Refusing To Release More Than 500 IRS Tea Party Targeting Documents

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• The IRS Scandal, Day 632 (Jan. 31, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 631 (Jan. 30, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 630 (Jan. 29, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 629 (Jan. 28, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 628 (Jan. 27, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 627 (Jan. 26, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 626 (Jan. 25, 2015)
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• The IRS Scandal, Day 604 (Jan. 3, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 603 (Jan. 2, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 602 (Jan. 1, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 601 (Dec. 31, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 501-600 (Sept. 22, 2014-Dec. 30, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 401-500 (June 14, 2014 - Sept. 21,2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 301-400 (Mar. 6, 2014 - June 13, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 201-300 (Nov. 26, 2013 - Mar. 5, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 101-200 (Aug. 18, 2013 - Nov. 25, 2013)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 1-100 (May 10, 2013 - Aug. 17, 2013)