This is getting interesting – Jason Chaffetz responds to IRS claim of “lost emails” with prior congressional testimony specifically about that issue:

FRIDAY FEDERAL NEWS DUMP –  Well, they didn’t lose all of them, just the important ones – you know, the early emails between Lerner and various Democrats in office requesting her to take action and the construction of a plan of action – just those.

(Via Washington Times) The IRS has told Congress that it has lost some of former employee Lois G. Lerner’s emails, including some covering communications with Democrats in Congress and with other parts of the government, the House’s top tax-law writer said Friday.

Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said he was stunned that it took more than a year into the investigation for the IRS to inform Congress that it didn’t have those emails.

The agency blamed a computer crash for the mishap.

“The fact that I am just learning about this, over a year into the investigation, is completely unacceptable and now calls into question the credibility of the IRS’s response to congressional inquiries,” Mr. Camp said. “There needs to be an immediate investigation and forensic audit by Department of Justice as well as the Inspector General.”

Ms. Lerner ran the division that gave unwarranted scrutiny into tea party groups’ applications for tax-exempt status. She retired from the agency last year while under scrutiny for her actions.

The House has since voted to hold her in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify under oath.

Her lawyer has said she did not break the law, but said she doesn’t trust the congressional investigation.

In emails that were turned over to Congress, Ms. Lerner describes some of the files lost in the 2011 hard drive crash as “irreplaceable.”

Mr. Camp said the emails lost were “critical years” from the beginning of the targeting of conservative groups.

He said the White House must now get involved and demand other federal departments and agencies scour their records for emails to or from Ms. Lerner, since those records will not be available from the IRS.

“Frankly, these are the critical years of the targeting of conservative groups that could explain who knew what when, and what, if any, coordination there was between agencies,” Mr. Camp said. “Instead, because of this loss of documents, we are conveniently left to believe that Lois Lerner acted alone.”

Previous emails did show Ms. Lerner had communicated with the Federal Election Commission about the tax status of some applicants.  (read more)