Hatch Statement on Commissioner Koskinen Meeting

WASHINGTON – Today, Finance Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) released the following statement regarding his meeting with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen. Hatch, along with Chairman Wyden, met with Commissioner Koskinen for over an hour Monday evening to discuss the IRS’s announcement that the committee did not have all relevant documents pertaining to the investigation and that Lois Lerner’s email account cannot be accessed due to a hard drive crash:

“Yesterday evening I met with Commissioner Koskinen regarding the revelation that the IRS could not access Lois Lerner’s email account for the two years between 2009 and 2011, and I was greatly disturbed by what I heard. Simply put, we will never be able to access all relevant emails sent from her account during that time because the hard drive has been destroyed. I am greatly dismayed by this development, but am even more concerned that it took the IRS over a year to notify the committee that we did not possess all relevant documents created by Lerner needed to complete our comprehensive report. There are many pressing questions that must be answered regarding how this development came about and what led to the destruction of the hard drive in the first place. Moving forward, I will work with Chairman Wyden on charting next steps for our report and how to best address this development from the IRS. The IRS must be held accountable for their actions in order to restore trust for the American people.”

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