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On Friday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) told Congress it has lost thousands of emails belonging to former employee Lois G. Lerner, a central figure in the agency’s tea party controversy.
Lerner, former director of the IRS division that processed tax-exempt applications, is currently under congressional investigation. Under her watch, tea party groups were singled out and faced additional scrutiny or delays in their applications. The IRS acknowledged last year that agents had improperly scrutinized tea party and other conservative groups.
The agency blames a computer crash for the lost emails between January 2009 and April 2011, sparking outrage from congressional investigators.
“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’ response to congressional inquiries,” said Representative Dave Camp, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
In May, the House of Representatives voted to hold Lerner in contempt for refusing to cooperate.
Source: The Washington Post.
