The people responsible for the IRS targeting scandal will pay no price for the weaponization of one of the nation’s most feared federal agencies.
But hey — at least the conservative victims of the agency’s political witch hunts received an apology this week from the Justice Department.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions conceded in a statement that the IRS acted inappropriately when it singled out right-leaning groups for additional scrutiny, apologizing also for the actions of its current and former bureau chiefs.
“It is improper for the IRS to single out groups for different treatment based on their names or ideological positions. Any entitlement to tax exemption should be based on the activities of the organization and whether they fulfill requirements of the law, not the policy positions adopted by members or the name chosen to reflect those views,” Sessions said.
The attorney general also announced this week that the DOJ would settle with two right-leaning groups that had their applications for tax-exempt status halted by the IRS on account of their political affiliations.
“There is no excuse for this conduct. Hundreds of organizations were affected by these actions, and they deserve an apology from the IRS. We hope that today’s settlement makes clear that this abuse of power will not be tolerated,” Sessions said.
That’s a nice sentiment and all, but it’s hard to take him seriously when the person who headed the IRS during its admitted anti-conservative inquisitions has managed to walk away from this thing relatively unscathed.
When the DOJ announced in September that it was ending its two-year investigation of the targeting scandal, it also announced that it would bring no charges against former IRS non-profit division boss Lois Lerner.
An examination by the Justice Department found “substantial evidence of mismanagement, poor judgment and institutional inertia leading to the belief by many tax-exempt applicants that the IRS targeted them based on their political viewpoints. But poor management is not a crime,” Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik said in a letter.
And all this after Lerner admitted in 2013 during a response to a planted question at an American Bar Association event in Washington, D.C., that the IRS division she headed was indeed targeting specific political groups.
Still, even with her admission and apology, the DOJ determined this year that no criminal wrongdoing had taken place.
“We found no evidence that any IRS official acted based on political, discriminatory, corrupt, or other inappropriate motives that would support a criminal prosecution,” Kadzik said.
He added, “We also found no evidence that any official involved in the handling of tax-exempt applications or IRS leadership attempted to obstruct justice. Based on the evidence developed in this investigation and the recommendation of experienced career prosecutors and supervising attorneys at the department, we are closing our investigation and will not seek any criminal charges.”
The DOJ’s apology and the wrap-up of its IRS probe come amid a renewed push by certain political commentators and reporters to downplay the scandal by claiming left-leaning groups were given equal scrutiny.
It’s true: Many progressive groups have come under the IRS microscope, according to a recent Washington Post report. However, a closer inspection of the Post article, which is based on a recent Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report, shows a major imbalance in the application of scrutiny.
One hundred forty-six left-leaning groups were given additional scrutiny over a ten-year period. That’s an average of 14 progressive groups per year. In contrast, 152 right-leaning groups were singled out for additional scrutiny over a two-year period, according to the inspector general’s report cited by the Post. That’s an average of 76 right-leaning groups per year.
Also, there’s the persistent fact that Lerner admitted to and apologized for targeting right-leaning groups.
For all that, the biggest repercussion that she has faced so far over this scandal is that she is now very unpopular with the Right. Talk about getting off easy.
Hell, she even managed to slink away from this mess with her $100,000 annual pension intact. Lawmakers never even addressed the approximately $129,000 in bonuses she received during the years that her IRS department hunted right-leaning groups.
Nothing says “abuse of power will not be tolerated” quite like letting a person who headed an abusive government agency to walk away with a cushy six-figure pension and nearly half a million in bonuses.
The DOJ is really sending a strong message this week.
(h/t David Burge)
