IRS Scandal--Does The Buck Stop At The Oval Office?

How High Does It Go?: New Emails Could Implicate Holder’s DOJ In IRS Targeting Of Conservatives

April 17, 2014 by Sam Rolley 

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New emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit indicate that former Internal Revenues Service official Lois Lerner’s targeting of conservative groups was part of a broader assault on right-leaning groups by other Federal agencies.

The emails, obtained by Judicial Watch, reveal communication between Lerner and Justice Department officials regarding the possibility of prosecuting tax-exempt groups for making “false statements.” The email exchange took place just days before Lerner was forced to apologize for the IRS’s unfair targeting of conservatives.

In a May 8 email to Nikole C. Flax, former chief of staff to former-Acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller, Lerner wrote:

I got a call today from Richard Pilger Director Elections Crimes Branch at DOJ … He wanted to know who at IRS the DOJ folk s [sic] could talk to about Sen. Whitehouse idea at the hearing that DOJ could piece together false statement cases about applicants who “lied” on their 1024s –saying they weren’t planning on doing political activity, and then turning around and making large visible political expenditures. DOJ is feeling like it needs to respond, but want to talk to the right folks at IRS to see whether there are impediments from our side and what, if any damage this might do to IRS programs. I told him that sounded like we might need several folks from IRS …”

Lerner, who was heading up the IRS’s tax-exempt organizations division at the time, was referencing suggestions Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) made during a Senate hearing on campaign finance last April.

In a reply, Flax said, “I think we should do it — also need to include CI [Criminal Investigation Division], which we can help coordinate.” She went on to suggest that the IRS should partner in the undertaking with the Federal Elections Commission.

In a later email to top IRS staff, Lerner sought to alleviate any concern that the targeting was politically motivated:

As I mentioned yesterday — there are several groups of folks from the FEC world that are pushing tax fraud prosecution for c4s who report they are not conducting political activity when they are (or these folks think they are). One is my ex-boss Larry Noble (former General Counsel at the FEC), who is now president of Americans for Campaign Reform. This is their latest push to shut these down. One IRS prosecution would make an impact and they wouldn’t feel so comfortable doing the stuff.

So, don’t be fooled about how this is being articulated — it is ALL about 501(c)(4) orgs and political activity

In other emails, however, Lerner acknowledged that the finding a legal means for the prosecutions would be difficult.

The emails largely serve to indicate that in the days leading up to inevitable bad press about the Federal government using the IRS to bully conservatives, top government officials were working feverishly to manufacture evidence that the targeting was justified via criminal prosecution.

They also provide evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder’s DOJ was well-aware of the targeting.

As House Republicans continue to in attempts to get more information about the extent of the IRS targeting, the newly released emails will likely be a major help to Congressional investigators.

“These new emails show that the day before she broke the news of the IRS scandal, Lois Lerner was talking to a top Obama Justice Department official about whether the DOJ could prosecute the very same organizations that the IRS had already improperly targeted,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “The IRS emails show Eric Holder’s Department of Justice is now implicated and conflicted in the IRS scandal. No wonder we had to sue in federal court to get these documents.”