Report: IRS e-mails not intentionally erased

WASHINGTON - Investigators found no evidence that IRS employees were told to destroy or hide information from Congress, the Justice Department or an inspector general in the probe of erased e-mails related to the tax agency's tea party scandal, according to an internal report released late Thursday.

While the 22-page report found no evidence that IRS employees intended to destroy data or hard drives, it also found that employees made no effort to uncover additional e-mails as Congress pressed for information.

The report reiterates many of the details spelled out in congressional testimony last month, when government investigators said IRS employees erased computer backup tapes a month after officials discovered that thousands of e-mails related to the scandal had been lost.

The investigators, however, concluded that employees erased the tapes by mistake, not as part of an attempt to destroy evidence.

As many as 24,000 e-mails were lost because 422 backup tapes were erased, according to J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.

George says those tapes "most likely" contained e-mails to and from former IRS official Lois Lerner, who has emerged as a central figure in congressional investigations into the treatment of conservative groups when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections.

The report also said Lerner described herself as having a "rudimentary" understanding of computers.

The inspector general interviewed 118 witnesses and reviewed extensive data.

"No evidence was uncovered that any IRS employees had been directed to destroy or hide information from Congress, DOJ or TIGTA," the report said. DOJ is the acronym for the Justice Department; TIGTA is the inspector general.

Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, released the report and said the results underscore that it is time for Republicans to end their probe.