HOSTILE TERRITORY: Tempers flare as WH lawyer grilled on Lerner emails

Rep. Darrell Issa forced a White House attorney to testify Tuesday as he and other GOP lawmakers seek answers on why years' worth of emails from ex-IRS official Lois Lerner have disappeared.

Tensions flared almost from the beginning. The chairman of the House oversight committee, shortly after White House attorney Jennifer O'Connor began to testify, accused her of being a "hostile witness" when she did not immediately answer one of his questions.

"I'm not a hostile witness," she retorted.

"Yes, you are," Issa, R-Calif., said. He later clarified to say she is "non-cooperative."

O'Connor was brought before the committee because of her work with the IRS in the latter half of 2013, when she was brought on to help the agency respond to congressional requests for documents pertaining to the IRS targeting scandal. More