IRS Commissioner John Koskinen was slammed by GOP lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday as he testified about the loss of Lois Lerner's emails due to an allegedly crashed hard drive, which has since been destroyed.
"What you have lost is all credibility," Michigan Rep. Dave Camp, committee chairman, said. "I don't believe the IRS went through every possible exercise to recover these documents."
Camp added that the loss of all of Lerner's emails from 2009 to 2011 was "convenient," reports CBS News. Koskinen argued that while all those emails were lost back in 2011 because of a computer issue, the IRS has complied and turned over all the emails it has since, an amount totaling 67,000.
Despite the convenience of the loss of the emails, which Koskinen knew about in February and failed to inform lawmakers until late last week, he wasn't apologetic, notes USA Today. "I don't think an apology is owed," the IRS chief said. "Every e-mail has been preserved that we have."
Camp tried to get a straight answer out of Koskinen on the matter, since White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said that back in April the White House knew about the loss of the emails, but yet the investigating committee wasn't informed.
"There's been no attempt to keep it a secret," Koskinen claimed. "My position has been, when we provide information, we provide it completely."
While Koskinen rejected the idea of appointing a special prosecutor to the case as it would be wasteful for the taxpayers, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) shot back that after all that has happened there is no trust in the IRS and something must be done to restore that. "This is the most corrupt IRS in history."