Darrell Issa subpoenas IRS Commissioner over Lois Lerner’s “lost” emails

 After months of stonewalling the IRS targeting investigation the IRS promised to turn over all of Lois Lerner’s emails only to claim last week the agency just learned the emails were lost in a computer crash. This excuse is so laughable that even CNN is openly mocking this claim.

  Even if we give the IRS the benefit of the doubt and concede the emails were actually lost in a computer crash in 2011 it takes–to paraphrase Hillary Clinton–the willing suspension of disbelief to think that the IRS did not know this at the time they promised to turn the emails over. It seems like yet another delaying tactic to me.

  In response to this claim Darrell Issa has issued a subpoena to IRS Commissioner  John Koskinen to testify on the “lost” emails.

  Here is what he said:

“Congress passed the Federal Records Act (FRA) to preserve key documents—such as those that were stored on Lerner’s hard drive—for production to congressional investigators and other stakeholders, including historians and FOIA requesters,” Issa wrote in a letter accompanying his subpoena. ”The FRA requires agencies to make and preserve records of agency decisions, policies, and essential transactions, and to take steps to safeguard against the loss of agency records.”

“I will not tolerate your continued obstruction and game-playing in response to the Committee’s investigation of the IRS targeting,” Issa wrote. “For too long, the IRS has promised to produce requested — and, later, subpoenaed — documents, only to respond later with excuses and inaction.  Despite your empty promises and broken commitments to cooperation, the IRS still insists on flouting Constitutional congressional oversight.”

  Koskinen is now scheduled to testify at 7:00 pm on Monday and this should be very interesting to say the least. Could it be that the IRS got too cute for its own good last Friday and has finally tripped itself up while trying to run the Congress around in circles? One can only hope so if we are ever to get to the bottom of this scandal. Of course Barack Obama could always use Executive Privilege to seal the documents, there is a precedent here with Fast and Furious after all.