I’m not sure why this isn’t getting more attention – Judicial Watch says they have obtained documents that show intent from Lois Lerner to use the power of the IRS to RUIN organizations that they didn’t like.
BREAKING: JW released new IRS notes revealing Senator John McCain’s former staff director & chief counsel for Senate Homeland Security – Henry Kerner – urged top IRS officials like Lois Lerner to “audit so many that it becomes financially ruinous.” (1/8)https://t.co/Z6YxSZsmt4
— Judicial Watch ⚖️ (@JudicialWatch) June 21, 2018
Here’s part of their explosive report:
Judicial Watch today released newly obtained internal IRS documents, including material revealing that Sen. John McCain’s former staff director and chief counsel on the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee, Henry Kerner, urged top IRS officials, including then-director of exempt organizations Lois Lerner, to “audit so many that it becomes financially ruinous.” Kerner was appointed by President Trump as Special Counsel for the United States Office of Special Counsel.
The explosive exchange was contained in notes taken by IRS employees at an April 30, 2013, meeting between Kerner, Lerner, and other high-ranking IRS officials. Just ten days following the meeting, former IRS director of exempt organizations Lois Lerner admitted that the IRS had a policy of improperly and deliberately delaying applications for tax-exempt status from conservative non-profit groups.
Lerner and other IRS officials met with select top staffers from the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in a “marathon” meeting to discuss concerns raised by both Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that the IRS was not reining in political advocacy groups in response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Senator McCain had been the chief sponsor of the McCain-Feingold Act and called the Citizens United decision, which overturned portions of the Act, one of the “worst decisions I have ever seen.”
So why would McCain be a part of this? Because he lost his idiotic bid to shut down the first amendment speech of Americans of course:
“The Obama IRS scandal is bipartisan – McCain and Democrats who wanted to regulate political speech lost at the Supreme Court, so they sought to use the IRS to harass innocent Americans,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The Obama IRS scandal is not over – as Judicial Watch continues to uncover smoking gun documents that raise questions about how the Obama administration weaponized the IRS, the FEC, FBI, and DOJ to target the First Amendment rights of Americans.”
The only thing that makes me doubtful here is that they had this meeting 10 days before Lois Lerner admitted they were doing this. Could they have believed what they were doing was illegal if they announced it? And what kind of damage could she have really done in just ten days? Aside from that, this is pretty damning. So will Trump do something about it?