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House Chairman Calls for Obama to Sack IRS Chief

CBN

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A leading House Republican is calling on President Barack Obama to fire Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Jon Koskinen.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, accuses Koskenin of obstructing a congressional investigation of the agency by failing to protect and produce 24,000 emails to and from Lois Lerner.

"His obstruction takes the form of failure to comply with a congressional subpoena, failure to testify truthfully, and failure to preserve and produce up to 24,000 emails relevant to the investigation," Chaffetz wrote in a letter to the president that included pertinent transcripts of Koskinen and other IRS staffers' hearings.

Lerner headed an IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups. Her department unfairly denied and delayed applications for tax-exempt status from conservative groups, including the Tea Party.

In May 2014, the House voted to hold Lerner in contempt and called for the Justice Department to appoint counsel to investigate the agency.

An earlier IRS investigation concluded that the emails were lost when Lerner's hard drive crashed and IRS staff erased backups.

The American Center for Law and Justice represents 38 groups in a suit against the IRS.

ACLJ chief counsel Jay Sekulow is scheduled to testify about the case before a Senate subcommittee on Wednesday.

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