The White House knew Lois Lerner’s emails were lost back in April

 According to this story, in what must have been a relief to the White House, we now know that the White House was informed that Lois Lerner’s emails were lost back in April.

In sworn testimony Friday, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen admitted that the IRS told the Obama administration about Lois Lerner’s missing emails in April, six weeks before telling Congress, even though Congress had subpoenaed Lerner’s emails as part of its investigation into the alleged muzzling of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status before the 2010 election.

  Back in March IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified under oath that the IRS backs up all emails to servers and that is why it was going to take years to produce all of Lois Lerner’s emails. 

Under questioning by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) on the House Oversight Committee, Koskinen said IRS emails “get taken off and stored in servers.” That was part of the reason, he said, it was so difficult to provide them in a timely fashion.

  If we give John Koskinen the benefit of the doubt it could be said that when he testified in March he did not know the emails were missing so he did not lie to the Congress at that point. However at some point he did realize the emails were gone and he notified the White House in April. Why then in May did the IRS promise to turn over the emails to the Congress if he already knew they were missing? Why did he not also notify the Congress at this point?

  The timeline does not add up yet he claims he did not try to keep this news from the Congress.

“The IRS knew in February, or maybe even in March, and Treasury and the White House knew at least in April — but Congress and the American people didn’t find out until June. Were you purposely not telling us?” House Ways and Means Chair Dave Camp (R-Mich.) asked Koskinen. “Were you purposely not revealing this to the American people?”

“We were not keeping it a secret,” Koskinen said. “It was our public report to you that has in fact provided you this information, there’s been no attempt to keep it a secret. 

  But yet the IRS felt no need to tell the Congress what it told Barack Obama back in April. One has to believe the IRS and the president used this time to coordinate their message. Wouldn’t you love to see the emails between John Koskinen and the White House during this time frame?