WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service did not follow the law when it failed to report the loss of records belonging to a senior IRS executive, the nation’s top archivist told Congress on Tuesday.
In June 2011, IRS executive Lois Lerner’s computer crashed, resulting in the loss of records that are sought in investigations into the agency’s targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. At the time, the IRS unsuccessfully tried to recover Lerner’s records, the agency said.
When it was determined later in summer 2011 that the records on the hard drive were gone forever, the IRS should have notified the National Archives and Records Administration, U.S. Archivist David Ferriero told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. But Ferriero learned of the lost records June 13 when the IRS notified Congress.
“Any agency is required to notify us when they realize they have a problem,” he said.
Lerner, who is at the center of the controversy, has refused to answer questions from Congress, citing her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself. In May, the House voted to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress. She retired from the IRS last fall after having been placed on paid leave.
Lawmakers have sought and received thousands of IRS records — none of which has implicated the White House in the controversy. But when it was revealed that some of the e-mails sought were unrecoverable, Republicans questioned the timing of the hard-drive crash, suggesting key records related to the investigation have conveniently gone missing.
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has said that he has seen no evidence anyone committed a crime when the agency lost e-mails.
Pressed by a congressman Tuesday, Ferriero would not state that the IRS broke the law. He would say only that the agency didn’t “follow” the law, referring to the Federal Records Act.
In a rare evening hearing before the same committee Monday, Koskinen said the IRS went to great lengths trying to retrieve lost documents on Lerner’s computer, even sending it to the agency’s forensic lab.
Republicans have said the Obama administration has not been cooperative with Congress’ investigation.
“They’ve not only not fully cooperated, they haven’t done a damn thing to help us get to the truth of what really happened,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. “Lois Lerner refuses to tell us the truth, and then all of sudden, ‘Oh, my goodness, we lose two years worth of e-mails.’ Listen, I grew up in a bar. This doesn’t pass the straight-face test.”
The IRS was able to generate 24,000 Lerner e-mails from the 2009 to 2011 period because she had copied in other IRS employees. Overall, the IRS said it is producing a total of 67,000 e-mails to and from Lerner, covering the period from 2009 to 2013.
