A House chairman probing the IRS scandal on Wednesday said
that President Obama has reneged on a promise to have his aides cooperate with
the investigation, forcing the Ways and Means Committee to conduct a dragnet
for emails and documents needed to smoke out the truth.
Rep. Dave Camp also revealed that federal agents conducting
an investigation into the Internal Revenue Service's bid to punish Tea Party
and conservative critics of the president have yet to talk to a single target
of the scandal.
Camp, whose committee is one of several looking into the
2010-2013 scandal, put the blame for the drawn out investigations on Capitol
Hill at the president’s feet.
“I don’t fully understand why it’s taken them so long given
that the president promised,” Camp said at a media roundtable hosted by the
Christian Science Monitor. “He promised that he would have quick action and we
still don’t have the documents from an agency that is in this
administration."
His committee has been frustrated with the administration's
failure to cough up emails from Lois Lerner, who ran the IRS department that
blocked Tea Party groups from winning the typically quick approval of tax
exempt status. Lerner was on Capitol Hill Wednesday where she refused to
testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
“I still don’t have all of her emails. I still don’t have
all of the documents that I’ve requested. The administration promised a quick
action, and I’m still waiting for her emails,” said Camp, a Michigan
Republican. “I need all of those, before I can conclude.”
By refusing to make good on his promise, Camp said that
Obama and his administration is to blame for dragging out the investigations.
Had Lerner not refused to testify to his committee earlier, Camp said “we
probably would be at the bottom of what this is all about.”
He also expressed disgust that the Tea Party victims of the
scandal, many of whom have been identified and even testified before his panel,
are being ignored by the administration’s probe.
“As far as I know, I don’t know that Justice has spoken to
any of the victims. I have not got information that they have even contacted
the witnesses that came before the Ways and Means Committee,” said Camp.
While the scandal has taken a back seat to other issues,
Camp said that his probe has uncovered several new elements to be included in a
final report. “We found that the targeting was more widespread than they had
admitted. We found that it wasn’t just agents in Cincinnati that were rogue
agents, this actually originated in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “I don’t think
a lot of the public knows that,” he added.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington
Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com.
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