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IRS Claims Emails of FIVE More Workers Related to Congressional Investigation Have Been Lost
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building is viewed in Washington, DC, February 19, 2014. AFP PHOTO / Jim WATSON JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

IRS Claims Emails of FIVE More Workers Related to Congressional Investigation Have Been Lost

The IRS said it found no evidence that anyone deliberately destroyed evidence.

WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) -- The IRS says it has lost emails from five more workers who are part of congressional investigations into the treatment of conservative groups that applied for tax exempt status.

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The tax agency said in June that it could not locate an untold number of emails to and from Lois Lerner, who headed the IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status. The revelation set off a new round of investigations and congressional hearings.

On Friday, the IRS said it has also lost emails from five other employees related to the probe, including two agents who worked in a Cincinnati office processing applications for tax-exempt status.

The agency blamed computer crashes for the lost emails. In a statement, the IRS said it found no evidence that anyone deliberately destroyed evidence.

The news comes as House Republicans on the Oversight and Government Affairs Committee said there may still be a way to recover the “lost” emails of ex-IRS official Lois Lerner.

“The committee has recently learned that Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has identified 760 IRS exchange server drives from the relevant period that currently exist and could contain Ms. Lerner’s emails,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote in an email to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.

Lerner, who is at the center of the IRS targeting scandal, recently pleaded the Fifth Amendment and has thus far refused to talk to congressional investigators about the tax agency’s handling of conservative groups.

Republicans, like Oversight Committee Chairman Darrel Issa (R-Calif.), have alleged a cover up at the IRS.

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