30K Lois Lerner emails recovered in IRS Tea Party controversy
WASHINGTON Federal investigators have told Congress that they have recovered data that may include lost emails from one of the pivotal figures in the controversy over the IRSs treatment of tea party groups, congressional aides said Friday.
Frederick Hill, spokesman for Republicans who run the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the investigators told congressional staff at a briefing Friday that they have recovered up to 30,000 emails to and from Lois Lerner.
They didnt indicate any doubt that theyll be able to recover emails, Hill said.
A statement from Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee was more measured. It said the investigators have recovered data which may include emails to and/or from Lois Lerner which could be material to the investigation.
The Senate Finance statement did not specify a figure.
Lerner headed the IRS division that processes applications for tax exempt status. She told a congressional committee that shed done nothing wrong and refused to answer lawmakers questions, citing her constitutional protection against self-incrimination, and has since retired.
Congressional Republicans have been trying to determine whether the treatment of conservative groups was politically motivated.
The IRS has acknowledged that its handling of those groups was inappropriately burdensome, but no evidence has been made public that anyone outside the IRS directed the targeting or knew about it.
The investigators were from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which audits the IRS. A spokeswoman for the inspector general, Karen Kraushaar, declined comment, saying the investigation was continuing.
In May 2013, the investigators issued a report saying IRS agents had given exceptionally close scrutiny to tea party and other conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status.
See more here:
30K Lois Lerner emails recovered in IRS Tea Party controversy