Potentially incriminating e-mails of former IRS official Lois Lerner have been permanently lost, angering Republicans probing accusations of political favoritism by the taxing authority.
Investigators had been searching for Lerner’s 2011 e-mails, but Politico reported that they have been destroyed because of the agency’s IT policies.
In 2011, when the IRS would have been going over tax-exemption applications of Tea Party-affiliated groups, the agency only backed up e-mail for six months.
Then the agency would wipe out any individual e-mails within boxes with more than 1,800 messages. The cap has since been raised to 6,000.
Individual taxpayers are instructed by the IRS to keep their records for seven years.
“Isn’t it convenient,” snapped Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chair of the House Oversight Committee. “If there wasn’t nefarious conduct that went much higher than Lois Lerner in the IRS ‘targeting’ scandal, why are they playing these games?”
House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Oversight subcommittee chair Charles Boustany (R-La.) issued a joint statement questioning the IRS’s credibility.
“Plot lines in Hollywood are more believable than what we are getting from this White House and the IRS,” they said.