Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is requesting the testimony of a White House attorney who previously oversaw the production of Internal Revenue Service documents for the congressional investigations into the targeting of Tea Party and conservative groups.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is asking a White House attorney to testify about the vanished IRS emails. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is asking – but not subpoenaing – Jennifer O'Connor to testify next Tuesday about what she might have known about the vanished emails of former IRS official Lois Lerner.
“Given your prominent role in supervising the IRS’s document review and production processes, you likely knew or should have known that the IRS was missing a portion of e-mails sent or received by Ms. Lerner responsive to the Committee’s subpoena,” Issa said in a letter to O'Connor.
The White House did not immediately comment to TheBlaze about whether O'Connor will appear before the committee next week.
O'Connor has not yet confirmed whether she will appear before the Oversight committee, Frederick Hill, deputy staff director for the committee, told TheBlaze Friday evening.
O'Connor began working for the White House counsel's office earlier this year. From May 2013 until November 2013, she worked for the IRS for what the Wall Street Journal reported was to “navigate the scandal over reviews of conservative organizations,”
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen answered questions from skeptical members of the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday and said he didn't believe an apology was owed for the missing emails. He'll answer another round of questions from the oversight committee on Monday.
“In this position, you had a direct and substantial role in the IRS’s response to congressional requests for documents, including documents sent or received by Ms. Lerner,” Issa said in the letter to O'Connor. “In fact, IRS Chief Counsel William Wilkins, when asked who was supervising the collection of, ‘documents relating to the committee’s requests for material,’ responded ‘Tom Kane and Jennifer [O’Connor] are the two I would identify as the key supervisors.’”
During the 1990s, O'Connor was a senior aide to Harold Ickes, President Bill Clinton's deputy chief of staff. After serving in the Clinton White House, she was an attorney at the firm of Wilmer Hale.
