New documents show that ex-IRS official Lois Lerner inquired about the possibility of the Department 0f Justice taking action against organizations that “lied” about their political activity, adding yet another dimension to the agency’s targeting of conservative groups.
In this May 22, 2013 file photo, Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner refuses to answer questions as the House Oversight Committee holds a hearing to investigate the extra scrutiny the IRS gave Tea Party and other conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Lerner, then the head of the IRS’ tax-exempt organizations division, relayed a conversation she had with Richard Pilger, director of the Justice Department’s elections crimes branch, in an email to the chief of staff for then-acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller, according to documents obtained by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act.
The discussion of prosecution was prompted by a request from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) during a Senate Judiciary Committee.
“He [Pilger] 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,” Lerner wrote to Nikole Flax on May 8, 2013. “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.”
She added, “I told him that sounded like we might need several folks from IRS.” READ MORE ->
