Issa on Changing Number of IRS Officials Experiencing “Email Loss”: This Pattern Must Stop

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., today released the following statement on news that yet again, the Internal Revenue Service is changing its story about the number of individuals who have experienced email loss at the agency, following the loss of Lois Lerner’s emails. Lerner is the former IRS official in charge of the unit where the targeting of conservatives occurred.

“The so-called ‘most transparent administration in history’ has given Congress inconsistent information since the beginning of the targeting scandal,” said Chairman Issa. “First, the Administration denied that targeting was occurring, and then ‘rogue agents’ in a field office were blamed for the misconduct.  Today, months into the congressional investigation, we’re still getting conflicting information. This time, it’s on the number of individuals who experienced email losses. First it was only Lois Lerner, now we learn there are 5 others, several months after the administration supposedly came clean about email losses.  Another source, TIGTA, tells Congress there are at least 8 individuals who may have lost emails. Initially, IRS said it confirmed that the email back-up tapes were recycled, but now TIGTA tells us that there are 760 unsearched exchange server drives. The IRS’s ever-changing story is practically impossible to follow at this point, as they modify it each time to accommodate new facts.

 “This pattern must stop.  Attorney General Holder must appoint a special prosecutor to sort the truth from the fiction at the IRS. Americans deserve better.”