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White House knew about missing IRS emails 6 weeks before congressional investigators

By Robert Laurie ——--June 21, 2014

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It looks like we're not done with the fireworks from today's testimony IRS Commissioner John Koskinen just yet. During questioning by Dave Camp (R-MI) it became clear that, when the truth of Lois Lerner’s "lost" emails was "suddenly discovered" by the IRS, the agency didn't immediately tell congressional officials who were investigating the scandal. Instead, they ran to the Treasury Department which, in turn, made sure the White House was in the loop.
From CNSNews:
"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?" "No, as I told you...our original thought was to complete the Lois Lerner email production--complete the review of what other custodians (IRS employees) had a problem, and produce a report to you, laying it all out," Koskinen said. "So why did the IRS inform the Executive Branch agencies, the White House, the administration, but kept it secret from the Congress, who was conducting an investigation?" Camp asked. "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. My position has been, when we provide information, we should provide it completely. If we provide you incomplete information, people sometimes are tempted to leap to the wrong conclusion, not based on any facts, so we thought it would be important to give you the full description--"
It's okay for the White House and Treasury to leap to a conclusion six weeks before the Congress," Camp shot back. In other words, News reached the White House immediately, but congressional investigators were allowed to twist in the wind for another six weeks. Koskinen is trying to claim that they wanted to have all of the information available to the congressional investigators before they turned it over. Y'know: So people wouldn't jump to some crazy conclusion about the IRS purposely destroying evidence. Apparently, the way this went down is: "Someone" at the IRS told the Treasury Department, and "someone" at the Treasury told the White House. Camp pressed for who those "someones" might be, but was stonewalled.
Camp told the committee he received a letter from the White House two days ago, telling him that the Obama White House learned about the missing Lois Lerner emails in April and was informed by the Treasury Department. Koskinen said he's also seen that letter. He said his "understanding" is that someone in the IRS general counsel's office informed someone in the Treasury Department's general counsel office "that there was an issue and the IRS was investigating."
Beyond that, he claims to have no idea who was involved - or even that the news was winding its way through the Executive Branch. Koskinen remained defiant, saying "I have no communications with the White House." Camp was incredulous. "You're the head of the IRS. You don't know something this important - contacts between your agency and the Executive Branch? You're unaware of them?!"

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Robert Laurie——

Robert Laurie’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain.com

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