House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa said
Wednesday night that his committee could consider holding former Internal
Revenue Service official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress as early as next
week for failing to testify at Wednesday’s hearing.
Appearing on Fox News’ “On the Record,” Issa discussed the
explosive incident with U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings after adjourning Wednesday’s
hearing and said he didn’t consider Cummings request to “ask a question,”
because Cummings wasn’t asking a question.
“[Cummings] was just endlessly slandering the efforts of the
committee,” Issa said. “Mr. Cummings is there with the president on ‘Not a
smidgeon of evidence’” regarding the IRS targeting of conservatives, he added.
But, in fact, there is evidence that “leads to Lois Lerner
and that’s why we hoped to hear from her,” Issa told Van Susteren.
Issa explained that, as the Democratic ranking member,
Cummings received the same emails Issa attempted to question Lerner on, like
the email where Lerner specifically wrote, “Tea Party Matter very dangerous.”
“When the discovery comes in from the IRS, it goes to both
of us together,” Issa said. “So simultaneously they’ve been receiving the same
emails, the same information. They’ve been in every single one of 33
interviews. This is not something where we’re asking questions behind closed
doors.”
Van Susteren pressed Issa to answer whether the House
Oversight Committee would consider holding the new IRS commissioner in contempt
for continuing to fail to comply with the subpoena requesting the emails, to
which Issa said the Committee would “have no choice but to hold” him in
contempt as they did with Attorney General Eric Holder.
