I appreciate you have been willing to persist but participate. As we continue to explore the timeline of the crash, the inconsistency of the probability of lost emails by multiple people with the government, we appreciate you are not in government. You were not doing this at the time. As you can imagine, not just the internet, not just fox but america is beginning to question how convenient so many emails of so many people at the heart of targeting conservative groups for their views and politics and for the fact that the Citizens United was objected to by the president how many of them had loss of data and how much is not available to American People . A coverup is normally described as something that happens during an investigation around here. In other words, things go missing during an investigation. When it comes to the loss of data, it is clear that data began disappearing and not being able to be found at a time when congress was just beginning to look at wrongdoing that is now confirmed that began with the president objected to Citizens United. That began with democratic members of the house and senate writing letters asking for investigation of people that were politically the opposite of their party. Not asking for investigations about all people who may be involved in Political Activities in addition to the nonprofit work. It is clear they were driven within the irs and perhaps other areas by the lyrical bias political bias and the president wanted a fix in the fix had to occur. Commissioner, you are not in government at that time, but government it is their time and watched and responsibility. Whether it is the fcc, the irs the department of justice, or any and all of government activities that led to the unfair treatment on the eu of Campaign Election of conservative groups, it is clear there was a convenient loss of far more data by four more people than is explained by the normal probability. Today, we will explore not only the timeline for when this Committee Received that timeline. It was your watch to give us accurately and keep us up to date on developments related to other parts of our investigation. It is my view that you couldve done better. You will and have paid a price in Public Opinion for not being as forward and proactive as you couldve been. That was yesterday. Today, what we are asking you to do is to continue working with your i. G. And if we are fortunate enough to get a special prosecutor, work with him or her and work with the groups that now have federal judges ordering the irs to show particular information and bringing it all together back to this committee because this committee has an intent to make it public what we can find is being done on behalf of the American People to bring back the confidence in the irs. Again, i appreciate your willingness to be here. These are not easy hearings. Each time you come, you leave with more questions from austin you come with answers to us and that is the nature of the investigation that continues to evolve. Mr. Chairman, i want to thank you for recognizing me. Commissioner, you need to be a part of the solution. I believe you have to a certain extent and i believe you are committed to do more and for that, i thank you and yield back. The Ranking Member of the committee thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank you for testifying before this committee yet again. This is the third time in the past month you have appeared before us and that is not count the appearance before the ways and Means Committee. Unfortunately, it appears that you and other irs employees are now Collateral Damage in a fight for the spotlight among the Republican Committee chairman. This is unseemly, embarrassing. It is not a proper way to run an investigation or to spend millions of dollars in taxpayer funds. As the commissioner knows very well, when the chairman was informed about the crash of the hard drive, he announced he would be putting the hearing before the ways and Means Committee. There was a unilateral subpoena were crying requiring the commissioner justified before the committee. There was no holding of a debate. The hearing was moved up several days. It did not seem to matter to either chairman that the irs provided numerous documents showing that during the computer crash there was a technological problem with multiple i. T. Officials trying to remedy it. Those were irrelevant. They have asked the Inspector General to conduct an investigation into the hard drive crash which he has agreed to do. Commissioner testified last time that he was here that the Inspector General asked him to make his investigation the top priority. That was the ids request i. Gs request. They demanded that the irs make employees available to him now. The commissioner explained that the Inspector General did want employees subjected to multiple invest theigative issues. He made the employees appear before the committee. Republicans accused him of of trucks and claiming that he was hiding witnesses from the committee. When he again explained that the Inspector General asked him not to subject employees to multiple interviews, he said he was going to file it directly. That did not happen. Yesterday, i asked my staff to contact the Inspector Generals office and find out what is going on. I can report when he told us. The investigation confirmed that his office is conducting the investigation that the chairman requested exactly what the commissioner told us which is the Inspector General refers about the irs employees not be subjected to multiple interviews in order to avoid obtaining their testimony. Without directly criticizing the chairman, the i. G. Says as investigators working for the Inspector General they want everyone to allow them to complete their interview first without distraction. There is no confusion of witness testimony and integrity. The investigation is not compared. Contrary to these requests, the commissioners forcing employees to come to our committee. Since he is excluding the chairman irs employees are being forced to appear before the ways and Means Committee. There were dueling press releases with its of information and excerpts in an effort to compete for more headlines matter how on substantiated claims were. The investigation also told us else over the past year and a half, there has been no new evidence that would change the audit from 2013. There are simply no evidence whatsoever of any white house involvement in the applications. The irs has spent 18 million responding to the congressional investigation. The commissioners not testifying before congress for the fourth time in just over a month. Yet, the chairman informed Committee Members at that he will be holding another hearing next wednesday. We have the notice here. With that, i yield back. I think the gentleman. Point of privilege. There were a number of words in the gentleman statement that disparage me and i object to his words. I ask them to withdrawal and modify them. Among the terms that be withdrawn be not only unseemly statements but in fact when the Ranking Member disparaged me for a number of areas, including my intent and essentially said the items i said were not true. Additionally, the Ranking Member while objecting to multiple objecting to multiple claims of cherry picking releases for interfering with the i. G. , in june of 2013 he release the entire transcript with which compromise the entire investigation saying they have reviewed the preparation for those. I would say well question the intent and some argument about republicans and not getting along the Ranking Member managed to go beyond the ordinary Opening Statement and claiming the intent. In fact, the Ranking Member of june of 2013 went on National Television claiming the investigation was over. This investigation is not over. I would ask that such items, including unseemly be taken down. I object. The gentleman of jack objects. I would reiterate that the decorum of this committee should not lead to personal attacks as to the intent of individuals on either side. The fact is this committee is conducting vigorous oversight. We do so as a matter of our obligations as a committee. I would make one last request. I ask unanimous consent that the staff place a time line into the record so the Ranking Members a roni us claims that our request erroneous claims that our request for the hearing came after the events when in fact the timeline will show that the subpoena had been served prior to the announcement from ways and means. As the Ranking Member would know if he ever carhaired, it would take a long time to write at subpoena and then serve it. I would hope the Ranking Member once he sees that in the record we recognize that in fact he has been clearly erroneous in his claims. I think the gentleman. Let us allow the timeline in and move to the next Opening Statement. Mr. Chairman . It certainly is satisfactory. I just wonder though would just a brief response . Do we really have to . [laughter] no, i dont. I certainly associate with myself and my colleagues with the sentiments expressed by the distinguished chairman that we should always speak with respect. We should never question each others intentions. That is not been the practice as often as i would like. I certainly hope this would reflect a new dawning and we can proceed civally. Ily. We will come back the witness, the commissioner. Al qaeda questions need to be answered and that is why for the third time in a month we have him here to answer and address what those Unanswered Questions are. We were promised the irs would give the emails. Then we learned of the emails were destroyed and there was absolutely no way he could produce all of the emails to congress. We were told of the irs had confirmed that all backup had been destroyed. Then we learned last week from irs attorneys that a backup tape may exist. We were told there was 1 hard drive crash. Than the ways and Means Committees says there was seven or eight total crashes. Then we learn that there may be as many as 20. Think about this. The irs has identified 83 documents and information. They have identified these People Associated with this targeting of conservative groups. Now, almost a fourth of them may have had hard drive crashes. Unbelievable. We were told the irs found out in april 2013 that the emails were lost. Than we learned that the irs february knew on february 4 that the hard drive crashed and had it recycled and the contents were unrecoverable. That is why we have hearings. That is why we have the commissioner back for the third time in a month. After a month since the first irs told congress that it lost the emails, there are still many Unanswered Questions. There are Unanswered Questions about why the irs delayed notifying congress, the Justice Department, and the people about the problems with the emails. Attorney general cole told us last week the Justice Department learned the emails from press accounts in the media. Imagine that. One of the highest profile investigations in years and the Justice Department has to learn about Critical Evidence by the central player in this investigation. They learn about that in news accounts, not directly from the Internal Revenue service and that is why last week sitting at this very table, the Deputy Attorney general told us he wouldve liked and known about the emails and he announced the Justice Department was investigating why the commissioner failed to disclose the missing emails in a timely matter. That may reiterate that. James cole, Deputy Attorney general of the United States department of justice said last week to the same committee that they are investigating why the Internal RevenueService Delayed months and telling the congress, the American People, and most important, the fbi and the Justice Department about the loss of the emails. Rather than the irs coming to congress in informing us what they knew, they waited four months. The irs finally came for two dollars the emails when they had no choice. Came forward to it knowledge the emails when they had no choice acknowledge the emails when they had no choice. It provides more questions than answers about the missing emails. Remember this is an information they are offering willingly. It is taken almost a month before the have come clean and taking subpoenas to get people to talk. We tried for weeks to get mr. Kane to talk and we finally had to subpoena him to get him to come to the deposition last thursday. The American People have this information only because the committee has been asking questions. That is why the commissioners here today. He is the individual handpicked by the president to clean up this agency and that is why he is here today to answer our questions. And so we clear up all the statements about the missing emails, the committee will press for the truth. That is why we meet today. With that, i yield to mr. Cartwright. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for coming in today. We schedule these things on these little things. It asks you if you want to make this a recurring entry. [laughter] when i see the commissioner, i want to say yes. Is the conduct responsible oversight of the legitimate Critical Issues within our jurisdiction. I believe these repeated hearings that we are seeing today are both and abusive authority and a dereliction of this committees duty. I think it is abundantly clear that the chairman are in some kind of taxpayerfunded foot race over who can make the first headline about lthe lost emails. We ought to look at that time line because it was on june 16 shortly after chairman camp of the ways and means announced he would be holding a hearing with you, commissioner, on june 24 that chairman issa of this committee issued a unilateral subpoena. Chairman camp move his hearing up to june 20. It is Something Like a childrens fairytale that we are looking at here. Chairman issa is no longer allowed staff on the ways and Means Committee to participate in the Oversight Committee of interviews. His refusal to hold a joint interviews is resulting in wasted taxpayer money as irs employees, like you, are now being subjected to multiple interviews. There is his government wide conspiracy that was made after this Citizens United decision, including the president and the department of justice and other federal agencies. This committee has obtained at evidence linking these accusations to what we all know now were inappropriate criteria used by irs employees and cincinnati. Some of my colleagues on the other side have chosen to overlook the funneling of dark money into the political system of the United States. The public have not demanded the same from corporation to influence our national elections. In january 2010, the Supreme Court decided for the Citizens United allowed for the corporations, unions, nonprofit groups to raise unlimited funds and register for taxexempt status under the 501 c designation and the irs got flooded for this kind of status. It is a clue civilly organizations whose primary activity is social where pharaoh is social where if social welfare. It is contributions to a community. While they are not barred from but is abating in political campaigns, it is stated plainly and clearly that political participation must be an in substantial of the groups overall activity accounting for less than 50 of expenditures. The irss job is to make sure these groups are following the rules so they are not taking tax breaks meant only for groups contributing to the community not hiding the influence of the select few individuals have on the nations electoral politics. As i said before this is about groups doing everything they can do to hide where they get their money. And have undue influence on the political system taxfree. Anonymous money in politics is something we do not need in this country. Something that disrupts the democratic process and something that has to be changed. I commend chairman lee he lay eahy. A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the u. S. Constitution which would negate of these damaging effects of Citizens United. I have cosponsored the house companion to that bill introduced by representative ted deutch of florida. I will conclude my comments and youll back to you, mr. Chairman. I think the gentleman. We ar