1 year later, the IRS turning over all Lerner's emails
After Congress holds Lois Lerner in contempt in the IRS targeting scandal, the embattled agency agrees to hand over all of her emails
This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," May 8, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Yesterday, the House held Lois Lerner in contempt. And then today, suddenly the IRS agrees to turn over all of Lerner's emails to a House committee.
Ways Committee Chair Dave Camp joins us. Good evening, sir.
REP. DAVE CAMP, HOUSE WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Hey, Greta. How are you?
VAN SUSTEREN: Very well. So why do you think suddenly today the IRS says you can have all the emails of Lois Lerner?
CAMP: You know, it shouldn't have taken this long. It's been almost a year. The president promised quick action. It's taken a long time. The IRS has delayed, but I think maybe ratcheting up the pressure with contempt and special counsel, maybe they saw the light. And the sooner we can get this information, the sooner we can get to the bottom of it.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, it's regrettable that it takes anything to ratchet it up when the responsibility is to respond to the -- I mean, that's really disgraceful that you have to ratchet it up, spend time and money doing that.
Did the IRS say when they were going to deliver the emails? Or did they just say that you're going to have them?
CAMP: We hope that in the next six to eight weeks. And like I said, everything they've turned over has been important. We've discovered a lot of things. I mean, we believe that she violated people's constitutional rights, their rights to due process, and that's -- that's actually criminal in nature. And so, this is very serious. And we want to find how far this goes, and we're going to just follow these emails wherever they lead us.
VAN SUSTEREN; Are you willing to release those e-mails, minus of course redacting like Social Security numbers of citizens, names of citizens, but to give us as much transparency as you can, so the American people can likewise see who's going on?
CAMP: I would very much like to do. We can we can do that in conjunction with a final report. That's why it's so important to get all this information, because when we -- when we issue a final report, that will go to the full House, and then we can make this information public.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right, now, there's been a referral by, I think, your committee to DOJ for a possible criminal prosecution --
CAMP: Yeah.
VAN SUSTEREN: -- of Lois Lerner. Is that correct?
CAMP: It is. And we've sent them a lot of detailed information on -- on why we think that she should be prosecuted criminally.
VAN SUSTEREN: And what were the specific -- what are your three areas?
CAMP: Well, the one area is that, by targeting conservative groups only, and by not following the procedures of the IRS, and intervening in these cases and delaying them, she actually violated their constitutional rights.
We also believe there was an impermissible release of donor information. Donors to 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) groups should not be made public. The IRS improperly released that information. And that is obviously also a violation of statute that was really very important.
And the third is she used a fake name or a private e-mail account and put IRS business on that account, much like the EPA administrator did. And that could have potentially compromised the confidentiality of taxpayer information.
We've documented all that in a report that's now public. It's been sent to Justice. I hope they look at it with thoroughness. It's obviously their decision whether to prosecute or not. But we want to make sure that they take this seriously, and that's why I think it's important at this point that we have that special counsel. And because we have already done a lot of this work, we can -- we can share this work with the special counsel when they get appointed.
VAN SUSTEREN: Mr. Chairman, thank you for joining us, and I regret it took so much to get the IRS simply to do what it should have done, which is, you know, disclose the information as part of your oversight obligation. But it's another statement about how happen here.
Thank you, sir.
CAMP: Right. You and me both, there is no reason for them slow walking this.
VAN SUSTEREN: No kidding. Anyway, thank you, sir.
CAMP: Thank you.
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