Department of Justice officials appear to be going to unusual lengths to prevent a former government attorney from talking to Congress about his time working for Lois Lerner, the woman at the center of the IRS scandal.
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa of California and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who heads one of the panel’s subcommittees, asked DOJ Aug. 25, 2014, to make Andrew Strelka available for a transcribed interview, but were told he no longer worked for the department. When the committee asked for Strelka’s subsequent contact information, DOJ declined to provide it.
Prior to joining DOJ, Strelka worked for the IRS under Lerner from 2008 to 2010 while she headed the federal tax agency’s exempt organizations division. Lerner and other government officials at the IRS and DOJ targeted Tea Party and conservative non-profit applicants for illegal harassment, intrusive questioning and lengthy processing delays.
Among the emails obtained by congressional investigators looking into the IRS scandal was one to Strelka in 2010 telling him “to be on the lookout for a Tea Party case.”
Strelka left the IRS to work at DOJ in 2012, but maintained close contact with Lerner. He was detailed to the White House from DOJ for six months before, according to Jordan, being removed from the DOJ position earlier this year.
A senior DOJ official, however, said Strelka left the department voluntarily in order to accept a position outside of government.
Strelka’s LinkedIn profile lists him as working for a Washington, D.C. law firm, Miller and Chevalier, but his name does not appear on the firm’s web site listing of its employees.
In a Sept. 3, 2014 letter to DOJ, Jordan said he was puzzled by DOJ’s refusal to disclose Strelka’s contact information, adding that “Obstructing a congressional investigation is a crime. Additionally, denying or interfering with a federal employee’s right to furnish information to Congress is against the law.”
Committee investigators want to interview Strelka on the record about his work for Lerner, as well as about his six-month stint at the White House. They also want to ask him about a June 2011 email he received telling him that Lerner’s hard drive had crashed.
“The department’s efforts to prevent the committee from learning Mr. Strelka’s whereabouts suggest that the department has cause for keeping him from speaking with the committee,” Jordan said in the letter.
Strelka is listed as an adjunct faculty member at American University, but he did not respond to an email message seeking comment.
When asked about the Jordan letter, DOJ spokesman Brian Fallon said “as the chairman’s staff is already aware, the committee’s request to speak with Mr. Strelka is being fielded by the department. The department will be responding to the committee’s request promptly.”
Jordan asked that DOJ respond to his letter by Sept. 8, 2014.
The senior DOJ official told the Examiner that it is not unusual for a federal department to field requests for interviews with former employees when the requests concern work they performed for the government.
The official also disputed Jordan’s claim that DOJ “chided” congressional investigators for contacting Strelka, saying Justice “reiterated to the committee that the department was fielding the request on Mr. Strelka’s behalf – as it would if he was still at DOJ – and would be replying by September 8.”
Mark Tapscott is executive editor of the Washington Examiner.
