Either has to be evidence of crime or a belief by your investigators that there is, in fact, a crime that has been committed that youre investigating. Isnt that correct . There has to believe that there is still evidence necessary to be looked at to determine whether or not a criminal statute has been violated. Mr. Cole, i really appreciate the dodging on behalf of koran, but my question needs to be answered. Behalfnot dodging on of the crime. That would be a frivolous investigation at some point, wouldnt it . You continue looking into crimes for years of innocent people when there is not a smidgen of evidence. You continue a criminal investigation with months or years without any evidence just because in the long run you think it might happen . That is a yes or no. Do you do that . I outlined a rather repugnant comment that has been made about this chair and this committee that we are continuing to investigate wrongdoing in in washington led by lois lerner. We continue to investigate
So, depending on a duty but that would be something to look into. You would investigate if they had a duty to disclose they had lost those documents . We would. Thats something you would investigate. We would. So you said emergency roarli relative to it depends, it depends on whether theres a problem with the fact that the commissioner at the irs knew in april and waited two months to tell us the American People and more importantly you. So youre going to investigate that aspect, as well, just like you would for a private citizen . All the issues relating to those emails will be wrapped up in the investigation that we do. Including delay . Including delay. So the delay, the fact that the commissioner at the Internal Revenue Service Delayed telling the congress, the American People, the fbi and the Justice Department is a matter that you are going to investigate . We are going do look into what the circumstances were around that, yes. Well, thats important. I would recognize the Ranking
Schulman, in a 2008 president bush appointee was asked, did the Citizens United case in any way affect the irs process by handling tax exempt applications. His answer, no. To the best of my knowledge, it did not. Likewise, the head of the Elections Crime Branch said it is the law, so no, i am not aware of any effort or part of any effort to fix a problem from Citizens United. While republicans continue to promote their unfounded allegations, they conveniently overlook the furnling of dark money into elections. 501c organizations are not barred from participating in political campaigns. But the regulations are clear, they state political activity must be a substantial amount of the groups activity less than 50 . These groups can already gain Tax Exemption as a section 572 organization. That would require them to disclose their donors rather than keeping the American People in the dark about where theyre getting their money. As i repeatedly stated, anonymous money in politics disrupts th
Im not sure the Justice Department requested information or if the irs offered it. Im not sure how the idea when you get in the format you ask for, it sure likes like you asked for it. Im not sure of the actual idea providing that information to the Justice Department came up four years ago, but it was provided after the meeting. Im just reading your testimony. She indicated someone else would followup, but that did not occur. Why did not occur . I dont know. You dont know . Let me give you a reason why i think it might not have occurred. This corresponds, this meeting took place on may 8th 2013. Do you know what happened . Yes i do. What happened . She gave a speech and talk about the issue. Yes. She explained to the whole world the irs was caught with their hand in the cookie jar and were target targeting conservative groups. That is what a followup did not occur. Two days before the very lawyer who met with lois lerner and got that data base. Two days before she goes Public Meeting
Computer. Produced documents related to the limited by criminaln attorneys with lois lerner who is head of the division at the i. R. S. Weve taken the step of making available as fact witnesses, two prosecutors who explained with miss. Lerner. Following theve Supreme Courts decision in the versus the united f. C. C. Meeting, ite of the became clear it would be difficult to bring criminal this area a no criminal investigations were referred to the department of and no by the i. R. S. Investigation was opened by the integrity session as a result of the meeting. It was both asked by the senate fromng and in a letter senator and the white house if submitted mechanism to the white house. Out to miss. Lerner occur. Followup did not these two instances show that integrityin the section were fulfilling their as Law Enforcement officials. Were ensuring that the department remained vigilant in its enforcement of those laws. As weve explained to the committee previously, in 2010, in conjunction w