On May 10, 2013, former top IRS official Lois Lerner appeared before a gathering of the American Bar Association. Responding to a question that she had planted in the audience, Lerner apologized for what she acknowledged was “inappropriate” targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election.
Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level rogue employees in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias.
Fast forward to today – on the eve of the one-year anniversary of that bombshell. Lois Lerner faces a vote in the full House of Representatives – a vote to hold her in contempt of Congress.
What a difference a year makes.
As we know, that’s exactly what happened in this case.
Under the direction of Lois Lerner, there was a coordinated nationwide effort – not the work of a few rogue agents – to target conservative and Tea Party groups that applied for tax-exempt status. Lerner and others (we still don’t know how high the involvement goes) employed a strategy to delay these applications – effectively silencing these conservative organizations – putting them on the sideline in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election.
Our federal lawsuit challenging this unlawful and unconstitutional action by the IRS is moving forward. We represent 41 organizations in 22 states. Eleven of our clients are still waiting for an answer – one group has been waiting for a response for nearly five years.
As if this deliberate targeting scheme was not enough, we now know that Lerner was truly a partisan bureaucrat – her politically-charged conduct outlined in a letter released recently by the House Ways and Means Committee.
Make no mistake about it. The actions of Lois Lerner, which I detailed in an earlier post, clearly reveal what can only be described as stunning political bias and manipulation.
