IRS Commissioner John Koskinen Does Not Think an Apology is Owed to Congress or We the People

The height of contempt and arrogance … IRS Commissioner John Koskinen does not think that an apology is owed for the lost Lois Lerner emails and the stonewalling by the IRS.  Koskinen said he didn’t inform Congress immediately because he wanted to find out the full scope of the situation before reporting to them. But some how the Treasury Department and White House were notified in advance of Congress and the American people.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen said Friday that he does not owe an apology for computer crashes that resulted in the loss of emails connected to an ongoing probe.

“I don’t think an apology is owed,” Koskinen said during a tense hearing with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. “Not a single email has been lost since the start of this investigation.”

Last week, the IRS acknowledged that the computer of Lois Lerner, the IRS employee at the center of the probe, experienced a hard drive crash in 2011, making some of her emails inaccessible for the investigation. Koskinen said the IRS is taking measures to restore the emails and noted that the loss took place before the investigation began.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) says during Friday’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the IRS scandal of targeting conservative non-profit organizations and the convenient IRS losing of Lois Lerners’s emails … “This is unbelievable. The apology that ought to be given is to the American tax payer, not to a government agency that is abusing it’s power.

Audiance Gasps at House Ways and Means Committee Hearing When IRS Commissioner John Koskinen Admits Lois Lerner’s Missing Hard Drive Was Recycled & Destroyed

House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp  said in his opening statement, “We are missing a huge piece of the puzzle. How convenient for the IRS and the administration.”

During Friday’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the IRS conservative targeting scandal, audible gasps could be heard in the room from the audience as IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told Congress that Lois Lerner’s hard drive was recycled and destroyed. Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), House Ways and Means Committee Chair questioned IRS Commissioner Koskinen on the condition and location of Lois Lerner’s hard drive. When asked by Camp whether the IRS Commissioner knew where Lerner’s hard drive was Koskinen responded, “after it was determined that it was dysfunctional and that with experts no emails could be retrieved was recycled and destroyed.” When further pressed as to where the hard drive was Koskinen responded, “I have no idea what the recycler does with it. This was three years ago.”

Imagine saying the same to an IRS agent during an audit, I have no idea where the data was, that was 7 years ago.

Transcript of discussion between US Representative and House Ways and Means Committee Chair Dave Camp (R-MI):

Rep. Camp: Do you know where the actual hard drive is that crashed in 2011?

IRS Commissioner Koskinen: I am advised that the actual hard drive after it was determined that it was dysfunctional and that with experts no emails could be retrieved was recycled and destroyed in the normal process.”

GASPS from the audiance

Rep. Camp: So was it physically destroyed?

IRS Commissioner Koskinen: That is my understanding.

Rep. Camp: So was it melted down do you know?

IRS Commissioner Koskinen: I have no idea what the recycler does with it. This was three years ago.

Rep. Paul Ryan Says to Arrogant IRS Commissioner John Koskinen … “I DON’T BELIEVE YOU!”

ONCE AGAIN THE IRS SHOWS CONTEMPT FOR WE THE PEOPLE AND DISPLAY THEY THINK THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW …

US Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) ripped into IRS Commissioner John Koskinen during yesterday’s Ways and Means Committee Hearing on the investigation of the IRS targeting conservative non-profit groups and more specifically, the sudden revelation that former IRS head Lois Lerner’s emails disappeared due to a convenient hard drive crash. Ryan said to the arrogant and defiant  IRS Commissioner, “I don’t Believe You”.

It’s about time some one put the IRS in its place and defended the American people against this rogue agency.

“You are the Internal Revenue Service. You can reach into the lives of hardworking tax payers and with a phone call, an email or letter you can turn their lives upside down. You ask tax payers to hang on to 7 years of their person tax information in case they are ever audited and you cant keep 6 months worth of employee emails? And now that we are seeing this investigation you don’t have the emails, hard drives crashed. You learned about this months ago and you just told us and we had to ask you on Monday. This is not being forthcoming, this is being misleading again. This is a pattern of abuse, a pattern that does not give us any confidence that this agency is being impartial. I don’t believe you.”

VIDEO Hat Tip: The Gateway Pundit

The Politico:

A defiant IRS Commissioner on Friday refused to apologize for the loss of ex-IRS official Lois Lerner’s emails, and said the agency produced what they could, at a combative hearing marked by accusations by Republicans of IRS deceit.

The meeting comes a week after the agency revealed that two years worth of emails to and from Lerner, the ex-official at the center of the tea party targeting controversy, were lost when her hard drive crashed in 2011.

“I don’t think an apology is owed,” chief John Koskinen told Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp after the Republican lawmaker asked for one at the first hearing on the email issue.

But of course the IRS claims they did not conceal anything and did not mislead the committee yet, as discussed at Hot Air, the White House notified of missing IRS e-mail 6 weeks before Congress?

Remember when IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform on March 26, 2014 and told Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) during the hearing that former IRS employee Lois Lerner’s emails were archived and not just necessarily in her sent box in Outlook. Koskinen said it would take a long time even as he argued whether he would would would not comply with the House subpoena.

Chaffetz asks IRS Commissioner: “Are you going to comply with subpoena?”

Watergate IRS-gate is a long way from over and the rate this is going with the Obama administration and their cronies attempting to stonewall and have the American people believe the improbable and the impossible, it is going to come to a head right around the 2016 elections.

IRS Gives Bonuses to Employees Who Owed Back Taxes and Committed Fraud & Abuse

HYPOCRISY AT IT’S WORSE …

So what happens to Americans who fraudulently claim unemployment benefits, misuse a company credit card or not pay your taxes, you would be arrested, charged with a crime, no longer allowed to use the hand out program, get reprimanded or fired from your job and have the IRS threaten you, place liens on your property and garnish your wages. What happens to an IRS employee  fraudulently claiming unemployment benefits, misusing government credit cards and failing to pay their taxes … THEY GET BONUSES!!!

When is enough, enough with this out of control rogue agency? The Founding Fathers did not intend a federal government to have federal agencies that acted above the law. It is time for a flat tax so that everyone, and I mean everyone pay their fair share, as well as to end this governmental agency of corruption, cronyism and fear. I wonder if any of the IRS employees who received bonuses and owed back taxes have been audited?

A report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration shows that between Oct. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2012, the IRS paid $2.8 million in bonuses to employees cited in the past year for such things as drug use, making violent threats, fraudulently claiming unemployment benefits, misusing government credit cards and — get this — failing to pay their taxes.

The report said more than 1,100 employees who failed to pay their taxes received discretionary awards of more than $1 million in cash bonuses and more than 10,000 hours in extra paid vacation.

At least five employees received performance awards after being disciplined for intentionally under-reporting their tax liabilities for multiples years, paying taxes late and under-reporting income.

Like many companies and government agencies, the IRS sweetens the deal for its employees by giving bonuses based on performance. But at the IRS, breaking the federal tax laws you were hired to enforce and running afoul of other agency rules aren’t considered relevant to performance-based awards.

I guess we are now giving bus drivers who get into accident and police officers with criminal records raises and bonuses too?

What a Coincidence … Cancer Patient Bill Elliot Who Spoke Out Against ObamaCare Now Being Audited by IRS

THIS IS REALLY DISTURBING, DO WE REALLY HAVE A GOVERNMENT TARGETING AMERICANS WHO DARE BE CRITICAL OF OMAMA?

Bill Elliot, a cancer patient who lost his insurance due to Obamacare and couldn’t pay the expensive new premiums, went on FOX News, ‘The Kelly Files’ to tell his story. Now, suddenly Bill Elliot is being audited by the IRS, scheduled in April 2014. That is if he actually lives that long. There seems to be an extremely disturbing pattern of the IRS being used as the Obama administrations storm troopers for anyone critical of Obama’s policies or who would dare use their 1st Amendment rights of free speech. The cancer victim had an insurance policy he liked and could afford. Now, thanks to Obamacare, he does not and can’t afford the ridiculous premiums.  So what is the remedy for this cancer patient for a president who cares, why have him audited of course.

What a vindictive government! This is still the United States, right?

The Front News Magazine:

He went on FOX News where his story was picked up by C. Steven Tucker, a health insurance broker who helped him keep his insurance.

Now suddenly Bill Elliot is being audited for 2009 with an interview only scheduled in April 2014. Assuming he lives that long. That might be a coincidence, but Tucker is being audited back to 2003.

That’s a rather strange coincidence.

Would the IRS actually go after a cancer patient, who had voted for Obama initially, just for appearing on FOX and now being sharply critical of Obama and suggesting that he resign for his health plan lie?

Under the current insane state of affairs, where the IRS was used to silence the opposition, it’s unfortunately entirely possible. The fact that we are even having this discussion shows how badly Obama has undermined confidence in government institutions and the rule of law.

More at Patterico’s Pontifications … hmm, remember when Dr. Ben Carson got audited as well after he was critical of Obamacare at the National Prayer breakfast with Barack Obama mere feet away ?