John Koskinen has some ‘splaining to do. Last June, Koskinen, the IRS commissioner, told Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden and ranking member Orrin Hatch that a computer malfunction somehow zapped thousands of emails to and from Lois Lerner, the scandalized IRS official whose office targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny when applying for tax-exempt status.
John Koskinen has some ‘splaining to do. Last June, Koskinen, the IRS commissioner, told Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden and ranking member Orrin Hatch that a computer malfunction somehow zapped thousands of emails to and from Lois Lerner, the scandalized IRS official whose office targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny when applying for tax-exempt status.
Last week, those potentially incriminating emails were recovered — not because Koskinen was determined to get to the bottom of the IRS targeting scandal, but because of the diligence of J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.
George is in the process of turning over some 6,400 emails to the Senate Finance Committee, which last year tasked the inspector general’s office with figuring out what emails had been lost, if someone at IRS intentionally destroyed them and if the emails could possibly be retrieved.
That seemed to us at the time a project Koskinen’s staff could have undertaken. Instead, it appeared that Koskinen — and, perhaps, Obama administration officials further up the food chain — were hoping the scandal would just fade away.
We came to a similar conclusion April 1 when Ronald Machen, outgoing U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, announced that the Justice Department had decided not to seek criminal contempt charges against Lerner after her refusal to answer questions during her appearance in March 2014 before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Lerner made an opening statement professing her innocence, which nullified her right not to testify, asserted Darrell Issa, the former House oversight committee chairman. However, Machen concluded that, while the former IRS official did, indeed, declare innocence, she did not waive her right not to answer questions from lawmakers “because she only made general claims of innocence.”
The tortured defense of Lerner by Machen, who left the Justice Department the day after he let the central figure in the IRS targeting scandal off the hook, and the fecklessness of Koskinen in recovering the emails has the smell of a cover-up.
That’s why we are pleased that George’s office continues to investigate the IRS targeting scandal, including the possibility that crimes were committed.