Lawmakers fume over lost emails in IRS tea party probe
Congressional investigators are fuming over revelations that the Internal Revenue Service has lost a trove of emails to and from a central figure in the agency’s tea party controversy.
The IRS said Lois Lerner’s computer crashed in 2011, wiping out an untold number of emails that were being sought by congressional investigators. The investigators want to see all of Lerner’s emails from 2009 to 2013 as part of their probe into the way agents handled applications for tax-exempt status by tea party and other conservative groups.
The IRS acknowledged last year that agents had improperly scrutinized applications by some conservative groups. Lerner headed the IRS division that processed the applications.
Investigators are hoping to see whether Lerner’s emails implicate anyone outside the IRS in the probe.
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