Tuesday’s Republican sweep of the midterm elections should clear the way for getting the whole truth about IRS targeting and harassment of Tea Party nonprofit applicants, according to an attorney who represents dozens of the groups.
“The U.S. House of Representatives has carried the congressional load when it came to investigating these critical matters,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice.
Sekulow’s group represents more than 40 of the Tea Party and conservative groups that claim they were subjected to illegal discrimination by the tax exempt division of the IRS during the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns.
More than 200 such groups have come forward with similar claims about harassment by the tax exempt division, which was led by former IRS senior executive Lois Lerner.
Lerner was found in contempt of Congress after refusing to answer questions about the scandal from members of the House Oversight and Government Reform and Ways and Means committees.
“Now with a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate, we welcome the full engagement by the Senate — finally an opportunity to remove Senator [Majority Leader Harry] Reid’s roadblock, clearing the way for serious hearings and investigations into scandals that must be addressed.
“The American people deserve answers and now with the Senate involved, it will be even more difficult for the Obama Administration to continue its policy of dodging, deceiving and delaying. We look forward to aggressive investigation in the U.S. Senate on these most critical issues.”
The two House panels have been actively investigating the IRS scandal for nearly two years, but the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs has not.
Earlier this week, Judicial Watch announced that IRS attorneys told a federal court that, despite a court order that it do so, the tax agency had not searched its email archives for Lerner’s emails and other documents sought by the House panels.
That will change in January when the newly elected Republican Senate majority is sworn in and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson is expected to succeed Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., as the panel’s chairman.
There will be changes on the House side as well. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has headed the oversight panel, while Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., leads Ways and Means, for the past several years.
But Camp is retiring at the end of the present Congress and Issa is term-limited under House rules and must step down from the chairmanship.
Editor’s note: Judicial Watch is representing the Washington Examiner in the newspaper’s federal lawsuit seeking access to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau records under FOIA.
Mark Tapscott is executive editor of the Washington Examiner.
