FOX News "FOX News Sunday" - Transcript:IRS Scandal

Interview

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BREAM: The IRS continues to turn over new documents after claiming to have lost two years' worth of e-mails belonging to ex-IRS official Lois Lerner. Republican and Democratic staffers are reportedly scouring tens of thousands of pages of newly provided material on a holiday week, no less. Joining us now, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and a key leader in the investigation, Darrell Issa. Chairman Issa, welcome back to "Fox News Sunday."

REP. DARRELL ISSA, R-CALIF.: Good to be back. Sorry to be still talking about the same issues month after month as we get dribbed and drabbed documents, as you said, in the opening.

BREAM: Well, and to that point, in a letter dated June 27th, the commissioner, IRS commissioner John Koskinen wrote to your counterpart that came over at House Ways and Means and he said, quote, "We are working to complete our production of Ms. Lerner's e-mails for the tax writing committees by the end of next week as promised." Of course, that puts that smack up against a holiday. Now, we've been told tens of thousands of pages of material were turned over. What can you tell us, if anything, about that?

ISSA: Well, you know, he said tax writing committees. Because there's been a double standard. The tax-writing committees, they could have pushed one button, taken everything that came out of this surge, and handed it to tax-writing committees in hours, not over a year. In the case of my committee, they redact and they check to make sure that I'm not getting any of your personal tax information, especially if you were a conservative targeted by Lois Lerner. So there's an understanding of why there's a little delay for us. But the commissioner has had -- three commissioners have had these delays since the beginning of our investigation when, in fact, there should be no looking at these documents. They should simply hand them to the tax-writing committees. Do I expect that there are more documents to come well after this week? Absolutely.

BREAM: All right. You also wrote a letter to the commissioner this week inviting him to clarify some discrepancies in testimony that he gave, sworn testimony before the committee, and comments that we've now had publicly from Lois Lerner's attorney. What are the discrepancies? Will he take you up on that offer?

ISSA: Well, he's asked to come back for a committee hearing that we didn't ask him to come to, related to improper payments at the IRS. And we presume he'd like to use that opportunity to correct the record, and he should. Because either Lois Lerner's attorney is outright not telling the truth, which he's played fast and loose with the truth several times, or the commissioner was inaccurate in his testimony before Congress. Now, the lawyers, Mr. Taylor, is not under oath. The commissioner is. So, hopefully he'll clarify it, support it and it probably will make us understand that Lois Lerner's attorney continues to profess her innocence when we're long past the question of guilt. She broke rules, she broke the law, and she continues to hide under the Fifth Amendment, which is her right, but let's understand, she's, in fact, a person who's been referred for criminal prosecution.

BREAM: She has. And the Justice Department is doing an investigation. It said, it's, you know, a year or so ago that it announced that it was going to do that. The Attorney General Eric Holder says that's ongoing. I know that you and others in the House have concerns about exactly what's happening. One of the committee staffers said that the committee is going to take a, quote, closer look at what the DOJ is or isn't doing. What does that mean? What's the plan?

ISSA: At some point, after you've produced -- and I brought my props. But this is all about the targeting of conservatives, not progressives, targeting of conservatives for their political beliefs. This is a pretty definitive document on Lois Lerner. And there's more to be done. And this is separate from the indictment referral. Now we have to ask, how long will the Justice Department not take on this case? My ranking member Elijah Cummings continues to say this case is over and has been saying it for more than a year. But it's amazing that until the Justice Department actually does a criminal investigation, hopefully with a special prosecutor, the American people aren't going to believe for a moment that, in fact, nobody's at fault here, this was just an accident, some rogue people in Cincinnati as Lois Lerner and the president would have had you believe.

BREAM: So what can you do to push the DOJ or to dig into what they are or aren't doing?

ISSA: We actually think the pressure of an upcoming election, the pressure of the Attorney General wanting to leave at the end of this year may cause them to at least go through the motions of presenting the contempt before a grand jury and coming back with some responses to these rather scathing indictments of Lois Lerner that came out of the Ways and Means Committee.

BREAM: I want to read you something that her attorney said, just a few days ago. This is a quote. "She's been made to be a villain in a way that's very, very unfair. She's a person who did everything she thought was right and now she's being blamed for things which aren't really even scandalous." Does she make a perfect villain for you for the committee?

ISSA: Well, you know, Bill Taylor is doing a really good job for his client, but he's just not telling the truth. Let me just take it as the truth. She did everything she thought she should do. That's right. She agreed with the president in opposing Citizens United, a Supreme Court decision that he was scathing in the House opposing. And she agreed. She agreed with the progressive movement. She disagreed with conservatives. So she did what she thought was right. She went after and tried to stop conservatives from expressing their beliefs, held up systemically along that some of her co-workers, just paused (ph) on others, held up their applications until well after the election, two years and more. She did that.

And she's -- in her e-mail, I remember one of them said she didn't want to look per se political. Yes, she hid the fact that she was politically biased and that she was using the power, the great power of her position, against conservatives and in support of the president's opposition to Citizens United. Her attorney's right in that sense.

BREAM: OK. It's no secret that you and the ranking member, Democrat Congressman Elijah Cummings, are not the best of friends. You've had some differences.

ISSA: Just a bit.

BREAM: He says that you've released things selectively and that you've -- that's given a false impression at times. Seemed like he took a swipe at the committee this week as well. I want to read something he was quoted in "USA Today" saying this. "Our committee and all committees should use taxpayer dollars to help better the everyday lives of our constituents, not inflate the press operations to basically run political campaigns out of government buildings." Your response?

ISSA: Well, he should tell that to the president who has the large political campaign and Air Force one to do it. We have a small staff that work on new media and when I say small, you know, it's less than a handful. The fact is that he talks about selective release. He is free to release the counterpoint of anything we do. When we do these reports, he's free to produce a minority report. But back to the question of releasing selectively. Of course, you shouldn't show your whole hand. Did you ever see a U.S. Attorney hand out an entire case or throw out all the transcripts? We do try to keep the American people informed. We're doing -- partly doing that by being on with you today because it's important they understand. Conservatives were targeted for their political beliefs. Progressives weren't. Lois Lerner broke rules. She broke the law. And now two years of her e- mail are missing. And we may never know all that she did.

BREAM: All right. Chairman, thank you for your time today. We know this is far from over. So we'll continue to follow it. Thank you, sir.

ISSA: Thank you.

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