No wonder Eric Holder was equivocating when asked by a House committee about the Justice Department’s investigation of Lois Lerner. His department appears to have had an advisory role in the IRS’s targeting of conservative tax-exempt groups during the run-up to the 2012 elections.
From the Daily Caller:
According to the conservative government accountability group Judicial Watch, email exchanges between Lerner and Nikole C. Flax, the Chief of Staff to then-Acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller, reveal there were discussions [with the DOJ] about possible prosecution of tax-exempt groups that were believed to have “lied” about political activities.
Some highlights from the e-paper trail follow:
In a March 27, 2013 group email to top IRS staffers, Lerner offered some background about the hearing:
In a follow-up email, Lerner notes that such alleged activity would be difficult to prosecute under current law.
Far from the “phony scandal” Barack Obama once portrayed the IRS’s targeting of right-wing groups to be, the investigation could conceivably turn out to be the straw that broke his administration’s back. Only time will tell how deeply the malfeasance runs and possibly the extent to which it influenced the outcome of the election.
