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House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) issued a subpoena Friday for White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, arguing he has not cooperated with a GOP probe of President Obama's political office. Issa accused McDonough in a letter of failing to accept investigators' "good faith" effort to address concerns about revealing privileged communications between Obama and his staff. "The White House has acknowledged that the dialogue has been constructive and that progress has been made. Unfortunately, these characterizations represent the total sum of what the White House has provided," Issa wrote on Friday. "The White House has not produced...

The revelation that Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Marilynn Tavenner did not retain her e-mails means that more than 20 witness in the Obama administration to lose or delete e-mails without notifying Congress, according to the top House investigator. “The Obama administration has lost or destroyed e-mails for more than 20 witnesses, and in each case, the loss wasn’t disclosed to the National Archives or Congress for months or years, in violation of federal law,” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) said of Tavenner’s lost e-mails. “It defies logic that so many senior...

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington, D.C.'s non voting delegate to Congress, has a novel definition of the separation of powers. Becoming exasperated at House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa's insistence that a subpoena to David Simas, director of the administration's Office of Political Strategy, should go forward, Holmes Norton dressed down Issa by claiming the Oversight Committee, which oversees the executive branch, didn't have the right to investigate the White House. Washington Examiner: "You don't have a right to know everything in a separation-of-powers government, my friend. That is the difference between a parliamentary government and a separation-of-powers government," Norton...

Top White House political adviser David Simas refused again Friday to honor a congressional subpoena, prompting Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to vote to rebuke the administration. The Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted 19-14 to reject the White House’s claim that Simas has absolute immunity from a subpoena from Congress. Republicans said they were standing up for the principle that no one is above the law, and Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa quoted a long list of Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of...

Press releases: July 17, 2014 Justice Department Investigating the IRS Commissioner’s Delay in Notifying Justice, Congress about Lerner’s Lost Emails DAG Cole: We are looking into Koskinen’s delay in reporting the revelation that key witness’s evidence was lost In today’s House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Job Creation, and Regulatory Affairs hearing on the U.S. Department of Justice’s response to the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative… http://oversight.house.gov/release/justice-department-investigating-irs-commissioners-delay-notifying-justice-congress-lerners-lost-emails/ Justice Department’s IRS Targeting Investigation Only Learned of Lois Lerner’s Missing Emails After Media Reports Revelation raises questions about the seriousness of DOJ effort, reinforces need for special prosecutor...

The director of the White House's political office defied a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, setting up a new high-profile fight between the White House and House Republicans. Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said administration claims that White House political director David Simas was immune from testimony were “absurd” and “deeply disturbing.” “The American people have a right to know if their tax dollars are being used for political activity,” Issa said, adding that Simas's testimony was “critically important” to his investigation into whether the political office had violated the Hatch Act, a law prohibiting executive...

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is highlighting a a fundraising phone call former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis made to an department employee as evidence that the Obama administration has a history of illegal fundraising activities. During a Wednesday Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, Issa played a recording of a voicemail message from March 2012 that he said Solis left on the phone of a Labor Department subordinate asking the person to contribute to Obama's re-election campaign, Organizing for America, at a restaurant that Friday. “Hi, this is Hilda Solis calling, um, just calling you off the record here. Wanted to...

"As Senior White House Advisor Defies Congressional Subpoena, Committee Releases Audio Recording of Cabinet Secretary Making Illegal Campaign Solicitation" Then Labor Secretary: “Off-the-record here—Wanted to ask you if you could help us get folks organized to come to a fundraiser that we’re doing for Organizing for America for Obama campaign” As Director of the White House Office of Political Strategy and Outreach, David Simas, in defiance of a congressional subpoena, failed to appear today to testify before a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on taxpayer-funded political campaign activity by government officials, the Committee released an audio recording of...

David Simas, director of the White House Office of Political Strategy and Outreach, will not comply with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s subpoena for him to testify, White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said in a letter Tuesday to panel Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). “The committee’s effort to compel Mr. Simas’s testimony threatens longstanding interests of the executive branch in preserving the president’s independence and autonomy, as well as his ability to obtain candidate advice and counsel to aid him in the discharge of his constitutional duties,” Eggleston wrote.

"White House to Defy Congressional Subpoena, Prevent Top Political Aide From Testifying at Hearing" WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is defying a congressional subpoena by keeping a top political aide to President Barack Obama from testifying at a hearing Wednesday. The White House is arguing that Obama adviser David Simas (SEE’-muhs) is immune from subpoena by the House Oversight Committee in its investigation into the political office that he directs.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Monday made yet another request to the federal government for details about a crashed hard drive that may have contained information allowing criminal charges to be brought against a federal official. Issa’s newest letter concerns the hard drive of April Sands, a former employee at the Federal Election Commission who resigned in the spring after admitting to violations of the Hatch Act. That law puts restrictions on the ability of government officials to conduct political activities while on the job, or from government offices.

The White House is asking Rep. Darrell Issa to withdraw a subpoena of a senior adviser to President Barack Obama and is offering instead to a hold a private briefing on activities in the administration’s political affairs office. In a letter sent Monday, White House Counsel W. Neil Eggleston offered to brief Issa, a California Republican who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on the role of the the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach on Tuesday. That’s one day before the office’s director, David Simas, is under subpoena to testify on potential violations of the Hatch Act.

WASHINGTON – Top Republican Rep. Darrell Issa Friday accused the State Department of trying to repeatedly dodge congressional efforts to look into the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman sent a 37-page letter to the newly-created House Select Committee on Benghazi detailing attempts he claimed were made to sidestep providing documents and answering questions about the attack from September 2012 until May 2014. Issa said the State Department promised to cooperate with Congress but failed to actually provide information requested and missed many

6 days before tax day liberal Christmas in 2013 Lois Lerner was emailing with one of her fellow cronies and warning them to be careful, “we need to be cautious about what we say in emails”.

California Republican Congressman Darrell Issa indicated Sunday that upcoming testimony from Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen could further incriminate embattled former IRS official Lois Lerner. “Either Lois Lerner’s attorney is outright not telling the truth…or the commissioner was inaccurate in his testimony before Congress,” Issa said on Fox News Sunday. “Now the lawyer, Mr. (William) Taylor, is not under oath. The commissioner is.” Issa, chairman of the House Committee On Oversight and Government Reform, was referring to statements made by Lerner’s legal team that contradicted claims made by Koskinen during recent House testimony. Lerner, former director of the tax...

A top Republican who spent the past two days investigating the border surge of illegal immigrants from Central America said Thursday that most of them are trying to reunite with relatives who are already living illegally in the U.S., and the best way to stop the surge is to speed up the threat of deportations. Virginia Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said that after speaking with immigration agents who are on the front lines intercepting and processing the families and unaccompanied children, it’s clear illegal immigrants don’t believe there are any consequences for jumping the...

More than 30 Republican lawmakers are calling on President Obama to end his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and make a public assertion that new arrivals will not receive legal status. In response to the ongoing flood of unaccompanied immigrant minors illegally crossing the nation’s southern border, 33 Republican congressmen, lead by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), are pressing Obama to roll back policies and perceptions that they say have helped spur the onslaught. "As our country faces an unprecedented surge in the arrival of unaccompanied alien children (UACs) at our southwestern border, we call on you to immediately end...

Issa to IRS Commissioner: Want to Revise Your Testimony? Sharyl Attkisson Today, House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) sent a letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen asking if he wants to amend his earlier testimony about Lois Lerner. Koskinen testified on June 23 that Lerner, a former IRS official at the center of the controversy over the tax agency’s targeting of conservative groups, followed terms of the Federal Records Act in her handling of public records and materials. When asked about emails that have been reported as lost when Lerner’s hard drive crashed in 2011, Koskinen stated, “The responsibility is,...

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa battled this past Sunday with Candy Crowley on CNN's State of the Union over the ex-IRS official’s lost emails. The IRS has informed congressional investigators probing the tea party targeting that Lois Lerner's emails from 2009 through mid-2011 were lost when her hard drive crashed. Coincidentally, the time period encompasses the first year IRS agents in Cincinnati began pulling tea party applicants for a closer look.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrel Issa (R-CA) demanded a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS over its targeting of conservative groups and the disappearance of emails from key officials. Issa declared that IRS Commissioner John Koskinen is “not the ideal person, not even an appropriate person” to oversee the investigation into the IRS’ conducts, and that this case calls for a true, special, independent prosecutor who has the ability to issue warrants, to seize materials, to safeguard documents and other information before it goes away and get to the truth.” He added that a special prosecutor will almost certainly...