[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 117 (Thursday, July 24, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H6757]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1230
      THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE HAS A MAJOR CREDIBILITY PROBLEM

  (Mr. DeSANTIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeSANTIS. Madam Speaker, the Internal Revenue Service has a major 
credibility problem. Last month, Internal Revenue Service Commissioner 
John Koskinen told Congress under oath that the agency had confirmed 
that backup tapes storing Lois Lerner's emails were destroyed.
  Now we learn from IRS officials that such tapes may, in fact, exist. 
Last week, the IRS filed a declaration in Federal Court stating that 
Lois Lerner's hard drive was destroyed and the data contained on the 
hard drive was unrecoverable, yet testimony provided to the House Ways 
and Means Committee by IRS IT professionals suggests that the hard 
drive was merely scratched and the data was, in fact, recoverable.
  Of course, the IRS has identified roughly 80 individuals of interest 
in the investigation, and yet now they tell us that as many as 19 of 
them may have suffered Lois Lerner-style hard drive crashes.
  Madam Speaker, the troubling part about this is the American citizen 
would never be able to get away with these types of explanations. It is 
intolerable to have one set of rules for the IRS and one set of rules 
for the rest of us.

                          ____________________