(AP) — The Justice Department is investigating the circumstances
behind the disappearance of emails from a former senior Internal Revenue
Service official, part of a broader criminal inquiry into whether the
agency had targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status,
according to congressional testimony released Wednesday.
In a statement to be delivered to a congressional committee on Thursday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole says investigators are looking into emails that went missing from the computer of Lois Lerner.
Cole was to appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has been investigating the matter. He declined to provide additional information about the investigation, according to prepared remarks issued ahead of his appearance.
The IRS has said it lost the emails in 2011 when Lerner's computer crashed. At the time, Lerner headed the IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status.
In a statement to be delivered to a congressional committee on Thursday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole says investigators are looking into emails that went missing from the computer of Lois Lerner.
Cole was to appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has been investigating the matter. He declined to provide additional information about the investigation, according to prepared remarks issued ahead of his appearance.
The IRS has said it lost the emails in 2011 when Lerner's computer crashed. At the time, Lerner headed the IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status.
GOP skeptical of Justice IRS probe
The Justice Department learned about Lois Lerner’s lost emails through press reports and would like to know why the IRS waited at least two months to tell investigators, a top official said Thursday.
Deputy Attorney General James Cole told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that his department learned of the 2011 hard drive crash that erased two years of the former IRS official’s emails from the media around the same time the IRS told lawmakers in June.
