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Press Release Published: Jun 23, 2014

Oversight Subpoenas White House Attorney for Tuesday Testimony on Lerner Emails

Committee announces subpoena after White House Counsel’s office declines to make attorney who supervised IRS’s response to congressional inquiry available for testimony

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., today issued a subpoena to Ms. Jennifer O’Connor of the White House Counsel’s office for testimony on Tuesday, following Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen’s testimony this evening at 7 pm.  The subpoena follows a letter from White House Counsel Neil Eggleston declining to make Ms. O’Connor available on a voluntary basis as requested last Thursday.  Chairman Issa issued the following statement on the issuance of the subpoena:

“A year ago, when news broke that the IRS had targeted Americans because of their political beliefs, President Obama pledged, ‘we will work with Congress as it performs its oversight role.’  I’m disappointed that one year later, the White House has attempted to block this Committee’s first request for voluntary cooperation from a White House official.  Before her promotion to the White House, Ms. O’Connor led the response to the Congressional targeting inquiry and she is uniquely qualified to explain why attorneys did not focus on and flag Lerner’s ‘lost’ e-mails at the outset.”

The subpoena creates a legal obligation for Ms. O’Connor to appear at Tuesday’s hearing, “IRS Obstruction: Lois Lerner’s Missing E-mails, Part II” on Tuesday, June 24 at 9:30 am.