SEARCH IS ON

Justice Dept. to Probe Lost IRS Emails

Lois Lerner faces more federal heat.

Lois Lerner isn’t escaping public or federal scrutiny any time soon. On Wednesday, the Department of Justice announced that it would investigate the circumstances behind the disappearance of her missing Internal Revenue Service emails. The probe is part of a larger investigation into improper IRS scrutiny of Tea Party groups. The IRS has claimed that certain Lerner emails from 2011 vanished when her computer crashed. At that time, Lerner headed the section of the IRS that oversaw tax-exempt organizations. Lerner has twice refused to speak before House committee hearings, claiming her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself. In May, the House voted to hold her in contempt of Congress. News that the Justice Department would probe the missing emails comes after Republicans accussed the Obama administration of not doing enough to investigate the IRS. Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Pierce said in a statement, “The IRS investigation was launched without hesitation and immediately after Ms. Lerner publicly acknowledged the potential misconduct.”