Over at NRO, there is a report detailing how the Federal Election Commission asked for and got confidential information about a conservative group from the IRS. The general counsel's office at FEC asked IRS official Lois Lerner for information about the application for tax exempt status filed by a conservative group that the FEC official was investigating for the Democrat party of Minnesota. Lerner sent the information and then updated it many months later when the general counsel of FEC asked her to do so.
This is bad stuff.
1. The IRS is prohibited by law from disclosing the information in question to the FEC and anyone else. That means that Lerner violated the law when she sent the stuff to FEC. It also means that she violated the law when she update the status. As a high official at IRS, Lerner knew that her actions were illegal. She ought to be prosecuted if the report at NRO is true.
2. The FEC general counsel is prohibited from investigating political groups unless the six commissioners of the FEC vote to authorize such an investigation. There had been no such vote prior to the request to the IRS, so the general counsel was acting outside his authority.
Lois Lerner thumbed her nose at Congress not long ago when she refused to answer questions based upon the Fifth Amendment even though she first testified that she had done nothing wrong. (that waves the right to take the Fifth). She seems to have been in the mix of the persecution of conservative groups for years. Here there seems to be clear evidence of criminal conduct on her part.
Once again, if the evidence portrayed at NRO is real, Lerner ought to be prosecuted.
Don't hold your breath, however, waiting for Eric Holder and the Department of Justice to take action.
This is bad stuff.
1. The IRS is prohibited by law from disclosing the information in question to the FEC and anyone else. That means that Lerner violated the law when she sent the stuff to FEC. It also means that she violated the law when she update the status. As a high official at IRS, Lerner knew that her actions were illegal. She ought to be prosecuted if the report at NRO is true.
2. The FEC general counsel is prohibited from investigating political groups unless the six commissioners of the FEC vote to authorize such an investigation. There had been no such vote prior to the request to the IRS, so the general counsel was acting outside his authority.
Lois Lerner thumbed her nose at Congress not long ago when she refused to answer questions based upon the Fifth Amendment even though she first testified that she had done nothing wrong. (that waves the right to take the Fifth). She seems to have been in the mix of the persecution of conservative groups for years. Here there seems to be clear evidence of criminal conduct on her part.
Once again, if the evidence portrayed at NRO is real, Lerner ought to be prosecuted.
Don't hold your breath, however, waiting for Eric Holder and the Department of Justice to take action.
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