The House Oversight and Reform Committee held a hearing today to look into the $500 million government contracts that were awarded to a computer company by the IRS.
Gregory Roseman , a Deputy IRS Director plead the fifth, today, rather than answer questions about the government contracts he awarded to Strong Castle Inc., and whether his friendship with Strong Castle’s CEO, Braulio Castillo, was a factor in the company’s ability to win such large contracts with the IRS.
The committee published text messages between Roseman and Castillo to provide evidence of their friendship. The two men apparently bonded by using homophobic slurs.
“Paging Dr. Faggot,” one exchange began. “Queerbait. How come u haven’t called back? Ain’t got all day. Lol,” was the response.
The fact that Roseman is still employed by the IRS prompted a testy exchange between Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and Beth Tucker, the IRS’s Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support.
“Can you issue a statement by five o’clock today as to how someone who used this language in their official capacity as a government employee is still employed and drawing a paycheck?” Gowdy asked.
Tucker replied that they are “having discussions with our general counsel.”
After Gowdy had finished questioning Tucker and Castillo and his time was almost up, Tucker indicated that she had perhaps not seen all the “disturbing” text Gowdy was referring to. The congressman offered to walk the documents over to her, because as he said, “if you thought you were deeply disturbed, you might reach a whole ‘nother level of disturbia.”