Dismantle the IRS - Sometimes the Truth Is So Simple

In a decision sure to cause Republicans in Congress to question even further his integrity, Attorney General Eric Holder has denied Senator Ted Cruz's demand for a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS's targeting of tea party groups – a rejection the Texas Republican is slamming as "the height of hypocrisy" by the Obama administration. Cruz had called for the appointment on January 22, writing to Holder that eight months had passed "since both you and President Obama professed outrage at the IRS's wrongful conduct," without beginning any legal action. But in its March 10 reply letter to Cruz, the Department of Justice bristled, asserting that "such an appointment is not warranted" because the case doesn't present a conflict of interest,...career prosecutors and law-enforcement professionals" are conducting the probe. "The Department remains committed to integrity and fairness in all of its law-enforcement efforts, without regard to politics," the letter stated. It was signed by Peter Kadzik, principal deputy assistant attorney general. Republicans have pointed out the investigator in the Justice department probe is Barbara Bosserman, a partisan donor to President Obama and Democratic causes, who is a civil rights specialst and not in the public integrity section, which would be normal. On Wednesday, Cruz fired back at the DoJ rejection, calling it : "the height of hypocrisy for the Obama Administration to claim that the investigator leading the investigation into the IRS's illegal program has no conflict of interest.....Sadly…Eric Holder has chosen to reject the bipartisan tradition of the Department of Justice of putting rule of law above political allegiance," Cruz said, citing attorneys general who've named special prosecutors to investigate Watergate under President Richard Nixon and the Monica Lewinsky scandal under President Bill Clinton. ~~~~~ Cruz's call for a special prosecutor has not been the only one. House Oversight Committee member Jim Jordan also demanded that a special prosecutor be appointed. Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for the American Center for Law and Justice, which is representing 41 groups targeted by the IRS, told Fox News that Holder's rejection showed that "the federal government has no interest in investigating the truth here and to find out exactly what happened." Sekulow noted that President Obama had told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly that there wasn't a "smidgen" of corruption by the tax agency, even though the President should have said nothing because of the ongoing nature of the investigation. "I've got 41 clients that are in civil court,...None of this is adding up, and I'm not shocked that the special prosecutor was denied,....Disappointed, but not shocked," Sekulow said, adding that the civil litigation will go on. ~~~~~ Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are also pressing the DoJ for more information about contact government lawyers reportedly made with Lois Lerner, the former IRS employee at the center of the scandal over the IRS’s targeting of tea party groups for special scrutiny. The renewed push from Committee chairman Darrel Issa and Committee member Jim Jordan comes as the Committee considers whether to pursue possible contempt charges against Lerner after she invoked the fifth amendment right against self-incrimination on two occasions when called before the Committee. “For over eight months, the Committee has sought to carry out its oversight obligations in concert with the Department of Justice’s law-enforcement duties,” the congressmen wrote in a letter to the DoJ dated March 20 : “At every stage, the department has refused to fully cooperate with the Committee. In light of recent reports that the department interviewed former IRS official Lois Lerner, we write to again request information about the administration’s investigation of the IRS targeting,” they wrote. In the letter, they ask Attorney General Holder for specific details about the department’s interview of Lerner, as well as any communications between the department, other law enforcement agencies, Ms. Lerner or her counsel regarding immunity. Earlier this month, Representative Issa had recalled Lerner to testify, in an effort to make her respond to questions about her role in the IRS’s targeting of tea party groups for special scrutiny. After Lerner refused to answer 10 separate questions, citing her right against self-incrimination, Issa gaveled the hearing closed. Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the Committee’s top Democrat, asked to be recognized and Issa said he would entertain a question, but when Cummings began a statement criticizing the IRS investigation, Issa had the microphones cut and left the room. Cummings has circulated a legal analysis, in which he says that Issa’s conduct during the hearing voided the possibility of holding Lerner in contempt of Congress. House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, said last week that he and House counsel “reject the premise of Mr. Cummings’ letter....I do not agree with that analysis in any way, shape or form,” Mr. Boehner said. “I’ve made clear on more than one occasion that Ms. Lerner should either testify or be held in contempt.” Jim Jordan, who is chairman of a House Oversight subcommittee investigating the IRS's targeting of conservative groups, says that "we need a special prosecutor." This came after the Wall Street Journal reported early in March that Lerner has been interviewed by Department of Justice lawyers without being put under oath. Apparently, the long interview included discussions about the unlawful targeting by the IRS of tea party groups, as well as her choosing to invoke her 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to testify before Congress. "There must be something there," says Jordan, who argues that in practical terms Lerner, who wants immunity from prosecution before she testifies before Congress, already has "the best immunity deal." Jordan says that Lerner should tell the American people what she knows about IRS harassment of the President's philosophical opponents because, thanks to explicit signals from the administration, she must already know she is "not going to jail." Jordan referred to a January 13 WSJ report that the FBI has no plans to file criminal charges against anyone in the scandal. The WSJ cited law-enforcement officials who said "investigators didn't find the kind of political bias or 'enemy hunting' that would amount to a violation of criminal law." This report was followed by President Obama's Super Bowl Sunday declaration on Fox News that there was "not even a smidgen of corruption" in the case. Jordan notes that both statements were made before prosecutors had even spoken to most victims of IRS harassment, and that this remains true to this day. The Ohio Republican adds that Lerner can take further comfort from the fact that Bosserman, tasked by the DoJ to head the investigation, donated more than $5,000 to Barack Obama's campaigns. Jordan has also asked Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz to determine how this case landed with Ms. Bosserman, a civil-rights attorney, instead of a prosecutor in the department's public integrity section. Jordan says he'd like to get a transcript of the DoJ's Lerner interview but doubts the department will turn it over since the executive branch still hasn't complied with a congressional subpoena to turn over all of Lerner's emails. While Jordan is not endorsing a revival of the flawed and expired independent counsel statute, he says "we need a special prosecutor." And he believes that Horowitz, an Obama appointee, could conduct a serious inquiry. "I would trust Horowitz," Jordan added. ~~~~~ Dear readers, in analyzing the Justice Department's position concerning the unlawful IRS targeting of conservative tea party groups that were asking for routine status clearances so that they could ask for donations to be used during the 2012 presidential campaign, it is difficult not to see President Obama and White House intervention, asking for the IRS to go very slowly in granting the status clearances. This obviously worked in candidate Obama's favor - keeping conservative political commentary silent while Obama's partisan groups were quickly cleared to collect funds to defend his positions. This is an unconstitutional mis-use of the power of the presidency because it suppresses the first anendment right to free speech. And Senator Cruz may have the right answer, at least for the IRS. During the recent Conservative Political Action Conference – an annual conference held near Washington, D.C., Cruz once again called for the dismantling of the IRS. Last year, Cruz suggested the best way to handle the agency’s long list of problems was to dismantle the IRS entirely. Revise the tax code using a flat tax system - eliminate the all-pervasive IRS for a simple accounting agency - sometimes the truth is so simple.