On Thursday, Rep. Jim Jordan sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder provide Congress with the contact information for former Department of Justice attorney Andrew Strelka, who he asserts is being prevented from speaking to Congress.
“Despite notifying [Oversight and Government Reform] Committee staff that the [Justice] Department no longer employs Mr. Strelka, the Department has refused to assist the Committee in speaking to Mr. Strelka directly. The Department’s efforts to prevent the Committee from learning Mr. Strelka’s whereabouts suggest the Department has cause for keeping him from speaking with the Committee,"
the Ohio Republican wrote in a Sept. 4 letter to Holder.
As a DOJ lawyer, Strelka represented the IRS in Z Street v. Koskinen, a civil suit related to the IRS targeting of conservative groups, despite having previously worked for former IRS executive Lois Lerner with whom he kept in contact after her departure from the agency.
Strelka sent an email to Lerner saying he "cherished" his time "in the EO [Executive Office] family and I owe a big thanks to you for hiring me."
As an IRS employee, Strelka was kept in the loop about the agency’s targeting practices and, according to
National Review, was "handling a case that had been designated to Group 7825, which at the time handled tea-party applications."
The Justice Department has issued a statement saying the department is "already conducting an active investigation" into the IRS matter, adding: "There remains no basis for questioning the integrity or independence of that investigation," reports Fox News.
Documents obtained by
the Oversight and Government Reform committee in August show Strelka had received several questionable emails, including a March 2010 email from IRS manager Ronald Shoemaker which directed him to “[b]e on the lookout for a tea party case.”
He also received an e-mail in June 2011 about the crash of Lois Lerner’s hard drive, according to a committee release.
Jordan and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa wrote to Holder on Aug. 25 requesting Strelka be made available for questioning, as well as reiterating their demand for a special counsel to investigate the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups.
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