When stories are released late on a Friday by some federal government agency, we often refer to it as a "document dump." But when the IRS sent a letter on the afternoon of Friday the 13th, it was to tell Congress that the tax agency had lost all kinds of documents about a central figure in the Tea Party targeting scandal.
"The fact that I am just learning about this, over a year into the investigation, is completely unacceptable," said Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), who demanded a forensic audit by the Department of Justice into "a supposed computer crash" involving emails of Lois Lerner.
The IRS explanation just didn't wash with other Republicans either.
"Isn’t it convenient for the Obama Administration that the IRS now says it has suddenly realized it lost Lois Lerner’s emails requested by Congress and promised by Commissioner John Koskinen?" said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA).
Other GOP lawmakers took to Twitter to vent their own frustration:
So, what does the IRS have about Lerner in terms of emails? A statement from the Ways and Means Committee says there are IRS-to-IRS communications, but nothing else:
"Due to a supposed computer crash, the agency only has Lerner emails to and from other IRS employees during this time frame. The IRS claims it cannot produce emails written only to or from Lerner and outside agencies or groups, such as the White House, Treasury, Department of Justice, FEC, or Democrat offices," the panel said in a statement.
"This is not the transparency promised to the American people," said Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA). "If there is no smidgeon of corruption what is the Administration hiding?"
Meanwhile, one GOP lawmaker had an interesting idea on how to find the missing Lerner emails.
He asked the National Security Agency to check its files.
"I am writing to request the Agency produce all metadata it has collected on all of Ms. Lerner’s email accounts for the period between January 2009 and April 2011," Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) wrote in a letter to the head of the NSA.
"Your prompt cooperation in this matter will be greatly appreciated and will help establish how IRS and other personnel violated rights protected by the First Amendment," Stockman added.
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