Last night on Capitol Hill, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified about the inappropriate targeting of conservative tea party groups and about recent revelations thousands of emails belonging to Lois Lerner and six other IRS officials are "lost" due to a "computer crash."
When asked about whether there was any criminal wrongdoing in the case, Koskinen said he had "seen no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing."
That's when Rep. Trey Gowdy came in, pointing out that there's no way Koskinen can know if there has been criminal wrongdoing considering he hasn't evaluated a single criminal statute. Gowdy cited specific criminal codes he believes are applicable in the IRS case. Koskinen said he was using "common sense," not criminal statutes, to evaluate evidence.
GOWDY: You have already said multiple times today that there is no evidence that you have found of any criminal wrongdoing. I want you to tell me what criminal statutes you have evaluated.
KOSKINEN: I have not evaluated any.
GOWDY: Then how can you possibly tell our fellow citizens that there's no criminal wrongdoing if you don't even know what statutes to look at?
KOSKINEN: Because I've seen no evidence that somebody consciously...
GOWDY: Well how would you know what elements of the crime exist if you don't even know what statutes are in play? I'm going to ask you again. What statutes have you evaluated?
KOSKINEN: Um, I think you can rely on common sense. Nothing I have seen...
GOWDY: Common sense instead of the criminal code? You want to rely on common sense?
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