House chairman: Documents
prove IRS 'political targeting' of conservatives
The chairman of the top House committee probing the
IRS political witch hunt of President Obama's foes said
documents prove that the agency targeted conservatives
and then tried to destroy the evidence and he promised
"news" on the panel's investigation next week.
"I promise you – there will be news on the IRS side
as early as next week. So stay tuned," said Rep.
Jason Chaffetz, chair of the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee.
Chaffetz this week detailed elements of his panel's
probe in an address to the Ripon Society in
Washington, accusing the IRS of violating a
House subpoena in destroying evidence and
mocking President Obama's claim on Jon
Stewart's Comedy Channel show that "the
real scandal around the IRS" is
underfunding the agency.
"Probably the biggest thing our committee
is looking at is the IRS," said the Utah
lawmaker. "You have political targeting that
is factual at this point. There are no ifs,
ands or buts. You had groups within the
IRS who were politically targeting conservatives
and impeding their First Amendment rights," he added.
What's more, because the panel sought documents
from the IRS when the targeting of Tea Party and
other conservative groups made headlines, there
is still information coming out about the episode.
"You're going to continue to hear more about this.
Because when the targeting became evident, the
Oversight and Government Reform Committee put
in place a subpoena for the documents – a small
window of Lois Lerner's e-mails. Internally, the
IRS put a preservation order in place -- don't
destroy or get rid of any of these documents.
These documents and e-mails were in the
possession of the IRS. And on March 4, 2014,
they destroyed them" he said.
"Imagine if the IRS had given you a summons
for you to produce documents. You had them
in your possession, and then you destroyed them.
What would happen to you? Do you think they
would say, 'Oh, darn it!' No, which is why Congress
has to stand up for itself. You cannot -- with a duly
issued subpoena and eternal preservation order
in place -- go out and destroy documents and say
there is no consequence to that; nobody's going
to be held accountable, and nobody is at fault.
"And yet that's essentially what we've heard from
the President, who has said repeatedly there is
not even a 'smidgeon' of corruption. He was on
the Daily Show with Jon Stewart the other night
and said, 'You know what the real scandal is? The
real scandal is that the IRS is underfunded. They
need more agents, more people, and Congress
passed a bad law.' You know this ridiculous
law the president is talking about? It was
passed in 1913. He makes it look as if we had
passed this law. That little detail he said on
the Daily Show, you're going to see that
surface. We will continue to pursue this,
and I promise you – there will be news
on the IRS side as early as next week. So stay tuned."
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can
be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com.
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