Big Three Blackout: No Mention of Issa Threatening Contempt Charges for IRS Chief
On Wednesday, Fox News reported that House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa threatened to hold the IRS commissioner in contempt of Congress if he didn’t hand over emails from Lois Lerner and other IRS officials.
So far none of the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) network evening or morning shows have mentioned the latest development in the ongoing investigation of the IRS targeting Tea Party groups.
Fox News.com went on to report:
In another heated congressional hearing on the IRS targeting scandal, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., on Wednesday questioned IRS boss John Koskinen on why his agency still has not produced documents subpoenaed by his committee. The chairman wants to see all of Lerner's and other agency officials' emails since 2009, to look for political motivations that might have been behind the practice of singling out conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. The last subpoena went out Feb. 14.
“We issued you a lawful subpoena,” Issa told the commissioner, adding that delivering all emails from the four officials flagged is “not difficult.”
Koskinen repeatedly pledged, in general, to “continue to work with you” on the investigation.
Issa, seemingly frustrated by the responses, said he expects Koskinen to comply “or potentially be held in contempt.”
Issa is also weighing whether to pursue contempt proceedings against Lerner herself, for refusing to testify about her role in the targeting -- Lerner is the former head of the Exempt Organizations Division.
Koskinen, though, appeared to agree to eventually turn over the documents, while warning that many of the emails would be "irrelevant" to the investigation.
“If you want them all, we’ll give them all to you,” the commissioner said. He said it could take “years, not months.”
— Geoffrey Dickens is Deputy Research Director at the Media Research Center. Follow Geoffrey Dickens on Twitter.
