The
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently
obtained an email addressed to former IRS official Lois Lerner sent from
Election Crimes Branch Director Richard Pilger at the Justice Department. The
email addressed to Lerner stated that, “I have been asked to run something by you.”
During the Committee’s investigation, Public Integrity Section Chief Jack Smith
told investigators that officials at the Justice Department
discussed targeting conservative nonprofit groups with Lerner as early as
October 2010. The Committee reasons
that, “[w]hile we knew that the Justice Department engaged
with the IRS in May 2013 to consider prosecution of political active nonprofits,
we were shocked to learn that this engagement started in October 2010.”
After
connecting these two pieces of evidence, the Committee determined it was
necessary to hear Smith’s testimony. Committee
Chairman Darrel Issa and subcommittee chairman Jim Jordan have requested
a transcribed interview with Jack Smith.
Pilger says
that Smith asked him to arrange a meeting with Lerner. Pilger further stated
that the agenda for the meeting was to discuss how the IRS could be, “more
vigilant to the opportunities from more crime in the . . . 501(c)(4) area.”
In their letter to Attorney General
Eric Holder, the Committee said, “The Justice Department convened a meeting
with former IRS official Lois Lerner in October 2010 to discuss how the IRS
could assist in the criminal enforcement of campaign-finance laws against
politically active nonprofits. This meeting was arranged at the direction of
Public Integrity Section Chief Jack Smith.”
It appears that Lerner was not
selected for the IRS by accident, but perhaps was intentionally selected as part
of a more concerted effort to stop non-profit conservative groups after the
Citizens United case. Lerner was recently held
in contempt by the House for refusing to testify regarding her role in the
IRS targeting of tax-exempt 501(c)(4) conservative groups.
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