a lot has been said about what thomas kane has said. well, last week, thomas kane told our staffs that the irs always intended to alert us about ms. lerner's lost e-mails, so, i know you have all these theories. unfortunately, our committee has been one where we put out these headlines, and then we go chasing facts that in many instances never exexist. include everything when you ask the questions. >> they get a letter from us on june 9 where they know we now have this e-mail from the justice department that they can't produce. and four days later they tell the world we've lost lois lerner e-mails, when they knew that, according to mr. koskinen's testimony in questioning from me that he knew in april they couldn't get ms. lerner's e-mails. so they waited two months, and then when they decided to tell us was four days after, on a friday, four days after we knew there were e-mails we were getting from justice that we weren't getting from the internal revenue service. all i'm saying is that timing is pretty suspect technically in light of

thomas kane told him that the hard drive never crashed but rather was scratched and that some data waslikely recoverable. he said the irs knew it in february. yet only revealed it in june. he said he waited in part so as not to interfere with the investigation. >> he told me that he did not want us interviewing any witnesses. >> republicans weren't buying it. >> i find it vexing that once the i.g. is involved, nobody else can do anything. that is not supported by the law. can there be a criminal investigation while there's an i.g. investigation? >> there can be all sorts. what i was talking about is -- >> there can be a congressional investigation while there's an ongoing i.g. investigation also, correct? >> of course. >> and they don't tell you -- and you can come in front of congress four times and not disclose that. and when you do learn in april, you can wait until june 13th -- that is what the -- no wonder there's morale concern and a distrust. that is unbelievable. >> democrats reject what they believe is a gop fishing expedition. >> this is unseemly embarrassing, and not a way t

then we learned last week from irs attorney thomas kane that a backup tape may exist. third, we were told there was one harddrive crash, lois lerners and then the ways and means committee told us there were seven or eight total crashes and now we learn that there may be as many as 20. think about this. the irs has identified 83 custodians of documents and information. the irs has identified these people, associated with this targeting of conservative groups, and now almost a fourth of them may have had harddrive crashes. unbelievable. first, we were told that irs found utin april of 2014 that ms. lerner's e-mails were lost, but then we learned they knew on february 4th, 2013, about the hard drive crash and it found out just days later that the harddrive had been recycled and its contents were unrecoverable. that's why we continue to have hearings. that's why we have mr. koskinen back for the third time in a month. we would like to get some straight answers. we have convened this hearing because today, over a month after the first irs told congress it lost ms. lerner's

chairman issa issued a press release based on the interview of irs deputy associate general counsel thomas kane, quote, new developments have regarded uncertainty regarding the existence of backup tapes. commissioner koskinen, is it your practice to release nonpublic information about an ongoing ig investigation? >> no. >> why not? >> because we made a commitment to the ig that we would give -- honor his priority, that we would not do anything that would interfere with his investigation. he could talk to anybody he wanted, they could look at any evidence they wanted, and we would not have an ongoing discussion with any of the witnesses he was talking to because we did not want to interfere. >> of course the press release and statements from mr. kane and other witnesses undermined the partisan narrative. mr. kane told the committee that he was aware of a, quote, potential issue, end of quote, regarding the backup tapes. but he did not know any additional details. when asked whether he had seen, quote, any evidence that any irs employee intentionally destroyed documents or e-mails to avoid their

the inspector general's request a press released was issued saying that based on the interview of thomas kane, new developments have created uncertainty regarding the existence of backup tapes. commissioner, is it your practice to release nonpublic information about an ongoing ig investigation? >> no. >> why not? >> because we made a commitment to the ig that we made a commitment we would not do anything to interfere with his investigation. they could do whatever they wanted, look at whatever they wanted, and we would not have ongoing discussion with any of the witnesses because we did not want to interfere. >> the press release from mr. kane and other witnesses undermined the partisan narrative. mr. kane told the committee he was aware of a potential issue in backup tapes, but he did not know any additional details. when asked if he had seen "any evidence that any irs employee intentionally destroyed documents or e-mails to avoid their disclosure", mr. kane said, and i quote, "i have not seen every -- i have not seen anything to that effect." yesterday the committee interviewed leonard --, h

kane county. check out these pictures: it happened early yesterday morning on thomas road in burlington township. sheriff's police say a ford taurus drove into the washed out road and plunged into a ten-foot-wide sinkhole . a 41-year-old mother and her 15-year-old son were trapped. then .. a chevy pickup tried to pass through and drove over the taurus. emergency crews rescued the victims in the taurus. they were taken to a nearby hospital with non-life threatening injuries. the driver of the pickup was treated at the scene. and the storm kept swimmers out of lake michigan. there is a ban on swimming on chicago beaches due to concerns about the water quality. heavy rains overloaded the sewer system and stormwater tunnels causing sewage to flow into the lake. swimming will be allowed again when test results show it's ok. no word on when the results will come back. there's a temporary delay on the riverwalk expansion project because of flooding. heavy rains raised chicago river levels, putting the construction area under water. work will resume once the water is drained or pumped out. the plan calls