IRS chief doesn’t apologize for lost emails, infuriating Republicans

WASHINGTON – Defiant before skeptical Republicans, the head of the IRS refused to apologize Friday for lost emails that might shed light on the tax agency’s targeting of tea party and other groups before the 2010 and 2012 elections.

Instead, Commissioner John Koskinen accused the chairman of a powerful House committee of misleading the public by making false statements based on incomplete information.

The contentious back-and-forth didn’t end there. Later in the hearing, Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republicans’ vice presidential candidate two years ago, told Koskinen bluntly that “nobody believes you.”

“I have a long career. That’s the first time anybody has said they do not believe me,” said Koskinen, who came out of retirement in December to take over the IRS. Previously, he served in other positions under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

The hearing showed that emotions are running hotter than ever in the dispute over the IRS and political fundraising.

Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, asked Koskinen to testify a week after the IRS disclosed that it had lost an untold number of emails to and from Lois Lerner. Lerner headed the division that processes applications for tax-exempt status during a time when, the IRS has acknowledged, agents improperly scrutinized applications from tea party and other conservative groups.

Camp was clearly expecting Koskinen to be more contrite.

“What I didn’t hear in that was an apology to this committee,” Camp said after Koskinen’s opening statement.

“I don’t think an apology is owed,” replied Koskinen.

The IRS commissioner also dismissed Camp’s call for a special prosecutor to investigate, saying it would be “a monumental waste of taxpayer funds.”

Later, White House spokesman Josh Earnest was equally dismissive. “I’m not sure that there’s a whole lot more to be discovered here,” Earnest said.

The IRS says it lost Lerner’s emails when her computer crashed in June 2011. At the time, technicians went to extraordinary means to recover them, even sending Lerner’s hard drive to the agency’s forensic lab, Koskinen said. But to no avail.

In 2011, the IRS had a policy of backing up emails on computer tapes, but the tapes were recycled every six months, Koskinen said. He said Lerner’s hard drive was recycled and presumably destroyed.

“I am sitting here listening to this testimony. I just, I don’t believe it,” said Ryan. “That’s your problem. Nobody believes you.”

When Koskinen objected, Ryan cut him off: “I don’t believe you.”

Democrats on the committee were much more accommodating to Koskinen.

“I want to apologize to you for the way you’re being treated this morning,” said Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. “I thought this was a hearing and not a trial.”

The IRS was able to generate 24,000 Lerner emails from the 2009 to 2011 period because she had been copied in other IRS employees. Overall, the IRS said it is producing a total of 67,000 emails to and from Lerner, covering the period from 2009 to 2013.