Ted Cruz, R-Texas, arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 29, 2015, to preside over the subcommittee’s hearing where Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen testified on IRS targeting, focusing on progress of agency reforms and congressional options.
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Now a federal judge is issuing his own threat – declaring that he will take punitive action against the Obama administration for not complying with his order to release IRS documents, including Lois Lerner’s emails that Koskinen and others long claimed were missing, inaccessible, or destroyed.
In other news pertaining to the case this week, Sen.
The Judicial Watch release also contains a fairly damning email from an IRS official in Cincinnati admitting that she had sent a follow-up email to one applicant asking for additional information not because the agency needed it, but because officials were concerned that the group, in frustration with the process, would take its complaints to Congress.
The lawsuit focused on the 2013 scandal in which the IRS acknowledged agents had improperly singled out Tea Party and other conservative groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections.
Last week, Cruz raised the ire of fellow Republicans when he accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of lying. Delaware’s mild-mannered Chris Coons, given the task of following Cruz, said the Texan was basically rehashing debunked conspiracy theories and offering up “unfounded allegations” that anyone in Washington directed targeting of conservative groups.
As with many scandals, the cover up is proving to be nearly as damning as the actual civil rights violation the IRS committed against President Obama’s political opponents.
This week, 21 Republican House members called on Obama to fire IRS Commissioner Koskinen, saying he has obstructed congressional investigations.
But the agency failed to fully comply.
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan had ordered the IRS on July 1 to turn over Lerner emails on a weekly basis in response to a lawsuit by the watchdog group Judicial Watch. The IRS disputed the accusation and the Treasury Department issued a statement supporting Koskinen.
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“While I greatly appreciate Commissioner Koskinen’s word that he will not target religious institutions for their religious beliefs”, Lee said after the hearing, “it worries me and it should worry every American that the IRS does not absolutely disavow the power to target religious institutions based on their religious beliefs, even if the current IRS commissioner has committed not to use that power for the time being”. “But think about these court orders”. Judge Sullivan referenced his contempt findings against Justice Department prosecutors in the prosecution of late Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) and reminded the Justice Department attorney he had the ability to detain him for contempt. Warning he would tolerate no further disregard of his orders, Judge Sullivan said, “I will haul into court the IRS Commissioner to hold him personally into contempt”.
