ms. lerner's hard drive crash. hard to challenge this as an attempt to stonewall-- sorry, hard to characterize it as an attempt to stonewall-- stonewall a congressional investigation. the overall record of multiple investigations failed to support the allegations leveled in this hearing and i regret we are not addressing many of the issues that the irs that were raised by the gentle lady from washington that would have a real impact on the services provided to our constituents and i also regret there was no time today to hold a hearing on criminal justice reform, gun violence prevention, legislation to protect intellectual property rights of artists and musicians or comprehensive immigration reform and with that, i yield back. >> chair thinks the gentleman and recognizes the gentleman from south carolina four, five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i was thinking to myself as the chairman was talking about the chronology of this investigation as these two witnesses well-- well know that there were about a half-d

ms. lerner's e-mails performance. koskinen testified every e-mail had been preserved since the start of the investigation and the irs destroyed over 400 backup tapes containing as many as 24,000 of lois lerner's e-mails and march of 2014 through these e-mails were the subject of an internal preservation order and to congressional subpoenas. koskinen testified the backup tapes from 2011 had been recycled or soon to normal irs policy the backup tapes were destroyed until march of 2014 and moreover the inspector general was able by doing a cursory investigation to identify some backup tapes that have not been recycled. koskinen testified the irs had gone to great links to make sure that all e-mails were produced but as the chairman pointed out he failed to look at lerner's mobile device the e-mail server backup server loaner laptops and irs backup tapes all of which were examined by the inspector general so this matter there's no dispute about the fact the irs destroyed up to 24,000 of lois lerner's e-mails commissioner k

ms. lerner and all of that. the premise is of course all the information and charges made by discriminating against conservative groups, are they not? >> the underlying concern and need -- >> came about through all of that. >> yes. >> right. and so the basis of which the doj investigation found no evidence to suggest any crime. and so in respect to the commissioner, his answers cannot be part of a crime. if they found no basis for such crime. if he's answering best of his knowledge, he cannot -- maybe bad behavior, but not an impeachable offense. >> i would disagree with that. >> that's why we have that right of disagreements. this is the impeachment committee. mr. issa asked you if we had threatened impeachment hundreds of times. you said yes. if that turns out to be untrue have you given us yourself a false testimony and should you be removed from office? >> well, i hope i've given everything as accurate. if i find there is something inaccurate, i have a duty and obligation to as swiftly as possible correct th

ms. lerner. on march 4, 2014, after they discovered there was a problem. the second quote. on the same day, june 20, 2014. mr. cusk and then testified before congress. quote, we confirm backup tapes from 2011 no longer existed". that was not true either. were intactapes until march 4, 2014, almost two years after the congressional investigation began and nearly one month after the irs new there was a problem with lois learners e-mails. at best, this is gross negligence. of theuote, to be one most troubling. this is july 23, four months afterwards. july 23, 2014. he was asked what was meant by the word confirmed. he said, confirmed meant somebody went back and looked and made sure that in fact any back up tapes had been recycled. that was false. nobody at the irs went back and confirmed the tapes had been destroyed. the inspector general interview the people responsible and they said nobody had ever asked for the backup tapes. fact, all told, the inspector general took 13 days to find them and did recover e-mails. thank you, you can take that down. if they had done so after