House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) spoke with investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson about developments in the IRS conservative targeting scandal.
During the interview Chairman Issa told Attkisson the IRS told Treasury and the White House about missing emails long before they told Congressional investigators.
Rep. Darrell Issa says this shows the IRS is still playing – deny, delay and cover up.
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told the Oversight Committee, under oath, he did not know who leaked documents to the White House. IRS Legal advisor Catherine Duval, who told Treasury about the missing emails, was sitting behind Koskinen at that same hearing.
Sharyl Attkisson reported on FOX San Antonio:
In a new development, we’ve learned it was IRS Commission John Koskinen’s own chief legal advisor at the IRS, Catherine Duval, who informed someone at the Treasury Department, who told someone at the White House that emails were missing, while Congress, which subpoenaed the documents, was left in the dark.
Duval disclosed that she was the source when she gave closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee before Congress’ summer break. The emails in question are from IRS manager Lois Lerner who’s implicated in the agency’s improper targeting of conservative groups.
Duval acknowledged she told Treasury’s senior counsel there were “issues” finding emails.
“We are friends, we talk,” Duval testified. “I believe we talked about it in mid to late April.”
Congress wasn’t told until June.
Republican Darrell Issa heads the Oversight Committee. He says the IRS was focused on political damage control.
“This is very troubling because this organization’s supposed to be apolitical,” Issa told us. “They’re supposed to in fact inform us all at the same time.”
We asked Representative Issa, “The IRS telling the Treasury Department which told the White House well before Congress, tells you what?”
“It tells us they’re still playing deny, delay and cover up,” said Issa.
The IRS may have lost 24,000 emails related to the targeting investigation.