Republican Rep. Darrell Issa slapped the Department of Justice with a round of subpoenas for documents after he says they “obstructed” his House Oversight Committee investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s political targeting controversy which erupted last year.
“Because you have failed to comply with this request for documents and because the Department has obstructed the Committee's oversight, the Committee has no choice but to issue a subpoena compelling your cooperation with this important matter,” Issa wrote in a letter accompanying the subpoenas.
In addition, Issa contends that Richard Pilger, director of the DOJ’s Election Crimes Branch, “refused to answer critical questions” during a May 6 interview.
Issa has led the Republican charge with relentless investigations since the IRS came clean after agents targeted conservative groups for heightened scrutiny when they applied for tax exempt status.
The Republican-led Congress already voted to hold former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before committee hearings.
Lerner, the former head of the agency's tax-exempt division, is once again a target after IRS emails revealed her discussions with Pilger about “singling out and prosecuting tax-exempt applicants.”
Lerner resigned from the agency last year after serving at the IRS for over a decade.