Judicial Watch released a new batch of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) documents which included an email from former IRS official, Lois Lerner in February 2012. She asked for a program to be set up to “put together some training points to help them [IRS staffers] understand the potential pitfalls” of revealing too much information to Congress.
February 2012 Email:The documents released also include a 2013 email from Lerner to Troy Paterson, audit manager for the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), saying that she is unwilling to take the blame on some aspects of the scandal. She also states that she understands why the IRS criteria leading to the targeting of groups such as the Tea Party and other opponents of President Obama “might raise questions.”
Do you think the 2nd Amendment will be destroyed by the Biden Administration?(2)
Link to 2013 Email (4 pages): http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/JW1559-007620.pdf
The following are some excerpts from Lerner’s 2013 email:
I’m not sure how [the TIGTA] investigators are looking at [whether] we were politically motivated, or what they are looking for with regard to targeting. . .They didn’t seem to understand the difference between IRS acting in a politically motivated manner and front-line staff people using less than stellar judgement. . .
I am willing to take the blame for not having provided sufficient direction initially, which may have resulted in front-line staff doing things that appeared to be politically motivated. . .
I am not on board that anything that occurred here shows that the IRS was politically motivated in the actions taken. . .
Lerner oversaw the IRS division that singled out the organizations at the time. After the debacle happened she retired in September 2013. The Justice Department last week in a seemingly politically bias move said they would not hold Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about it even though the law clearly states one waves the ability to exercise their 5th Amendment rights if they make any statements during a hearing. Ms. Lerner started the hearing with an opening statement.
Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch president had the following to say about the emails:These new emails show that the IRS scandal is not over. These documents point to document gaps caused by the refusal of the Obama IRS to search for Lois Lerner’s emails. The incredible email from Lois Lerner admitting (and denying) culpability by her and the IRS in the scandal further undermines President Obama’s lie that the IRS scandal was entirely the fault of ‘bonehead decisions in local offices'”