Issa Subpoenas Lew for Tea Party Targeting Docs

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, served Treasury Secretary Jack Lew with another subpoena relating to the IRS scandal in which the organization targeted Tea Party organizations, the committee announced on Friday. 

This is the second subpoena Issa has served on Lew regarding the scandal. “Secretary Lew is responsible for providing all pertinent documents Treasury has in its possession, both within and outside the IRS,” Issa said in a statement. “The Committee is aware of responsive documents in Treasury’s possession that have not been produced to the Committee.”

In a press release, the House oversight committee detailed the committee’s and other House committees’ efforts to obtain documents from the IRS and the Treasury Department about the scandal–and how President Barack Obama’s administration has obfuscated and not complied with the House’s investigations and previous subpoena.

On June 13, Issa joined Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the chairman of the House oversight committee’s subcommittee on Economic Growth, Job Creation and Regulatory Affairs; Dave Camp, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee; and Charles Boustany (R-LA), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee’s subcommittee on oversight, to write to Lew to demand he produce nine categories of documents by June 27. On June 27, Issa’s committee notes in its release that the Treasury Department responded by producing “only 356 pages of documents, mostly letters from Member of Congress and drafts of congressional testimony.”

On Sept. 18, Issa and Jordan wrote to Lew to again demand compliance by Oct. 2 with the June letter’s request for nine categories of documents and made clear that the committee was prepared to use “compulsory process” (subpoenas) if Lew did not comply. On Oct. 2, the Treasury Department wrote to the committee and said it would not be able to meet the deadline due to the government shutdown. “As an accommodation to the Treasury Department, the Committee allowed an extension of time for a response,” Issa’s committee noted.

By Oct. 24, the Treasury Department “finally responded” to Issa’s and Jordan’s Sept. 18 letter with 800 pages of additional documents–what Issa’s committee notes were “mostly draft regulations and comments to proposed regulations.”

“As of today, almost five months since the Committee’s initial request, the Department has produced almost no internal communications about the substance of the investigation and has only produced material in response to a few of the Committee’s multiple document requests,” the press release adds.

The subpoena Issa’s committee served on Friday seeks eight different categories of information

Those categories are, in detail as provided by the committee via its press release:

1.  All documents and communications to or from any employee of the U.S. Department of the Treasury referring or relating to Internal Revenue Service processes, procedures, or criteria for evaluating applications for tax exempt status. 
2. All documents and communications referring or relating to a June 4, 2012 briefing delivered by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration to General Counsel Christopher Meade.
3. All documents and communications referring or relating to the disclosure, potential disclosure, or any plan to disclose the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration’s audit 2013-10-53, entitled, Inappropriate Criteria Were Used to Identify Tax-Exempt Applications for Review.
4. All documents and communications to or from any employee of the U.S. Department of the Treasury referring or relating to congressional requests for information about the process for reviewing applications for tax-exempt status.
5. All documents and communications to or from any employee of the U.S. Department of the Treasury referring or relating to the drafting, review, editing, or approval of testimony given to Congress by any employee of the U.S. Department of the Treasury about matters related to the IRS, including, but not limited to, communications between and among employees of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and employees of the Office of Management and Budget.
6. All documents and communications to or from any employee of the U.S. Department of the Treasury referring or relating to the drafting, review, editing, or approval of letters sent by the IRS to any Member of Congress, including, but not limited to, the following letters:
• Steven Miller’s letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, dated July 1, 2011;
• Steven Miller’s letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, dated July 25, 2011;
• Joseph Grant’s letter to House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Charles Boustany, dated November 18, 2011;
• Joseph Grant’s letter to House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Charles Boustany, dated March 12, 2012;
• Joseph Grant’s letter to House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Charles Boustany, dated March 23, 2012;
• Lois Lerner’s letter to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and House Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Job Creation and Regulatory Affairs Chairman Jim Jordan, dated April 26, 2012;
• Joseph Grant’s letter to House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Charles Boustany, dated April 26, 2012;
• Steven Miller’s letter to Senator Orrin Hatch, dated April 26, 2012;
• Lois Lerner’s letter to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and House Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Job Creation and Regulatory Affairs Chairman Jim Jordan, dated May 4, 2012;
• Steven Miller’s letter to House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Charles Boustany, dated June 15, 2012; and
• Steven Miller’s letter to Senator Orrin Hatch, dated September 11, 2012.
7. All documents and communications to or from any employee of the U.S. Department of the Treasury referring or relating to the establishment of the IRS Affordable Care Act Office and related personnel and staffing decisions for the Affordable Care Act Office. 
8. All documents and communications to or from any employee of the U.S. Department of the Treasury referring or relating to any internal IRS evaluation, review, or investigation into the processing of applications for tax-exempt status.