Rep. Dave Camp Calls for Special Prosecutor on IRS Emails

The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee called Friday for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the loss of Internal Revenue Service emails that congressional Republicans say could have a bearing on their probe of the agency’s alleged targeting of Tea Party groups, Bloomberg writes.

“We are missing a huge piece of the puzzle,” Republican Rep. Dave Camp said at a hearing Friday at which IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified on the loss of correspondence involving former IRS official Lois Lerner, whom the House voted last month to hold in contempt for refusing to answer questions in the Tea Party probe.

The tax agency said earlier this month that it could not recover some of Ms. Lerner’s emails from 2009 to 2011 due to a crash of her computer and routine recycling of backup tapes. Mr. Camp called the loss “convenient” for the IRS and the White House.

According to IRS documents, after the 2011 crash Ms. Lerner asked agency technicians to try and recover the contents of her hard drive. A White House spokesman said the Obama administration opposes retaining a special prosecutor on the matter.