Unsealed Depositions of Former Obama IRS Officials Lerner and Paz Detail Knowledge of Tea Party Targeting

Judicial Watch has unsealed previously sealed depositions of IRS officials Lois Lerner, the former director of the Exempt Organizations Unit of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and Holly Paz, her top aide and former IRS director of Office of Rulings and Agreements, which show that they knew most Tea Party organizations were legally entitled to tax-exempt status in the run up to the Obama reelection in 2012.

• The newly unsealed deposition transcripts reveal through sworn testimony the bureaucratic tangle created by the Obama IRS to single out, delay and deny the processing of conservative, especially Tea Party non-profit groups’ applications for tax exempt status and to disclose their donors’ names.

The End of America

• We are witnessing the end of "America."
• There has always been a struggle between the ideals of capitalism and humanistic ideals
• Religion has usually tempered the selfishness of capitalism
• Money can buy Congress and the Presidency, so in turn, money packs the SCt. and the court backs the money

Lois Lerner worried that Tea Party groups would challenge IRS regulations

• She directed her subordinates to find a reason other than political activity to deny the Tea Party applicants exemption under § 501(c)(3) to prevent them from challenging the exemption rules based on Citizens United
• Lerner retired with full federal benefits in September 2013

The Executive Branch of the federal government brought the vast powers, incomprehensible complexity, and crushing bureaucracy of the IRS to bear on groups of citizens whose only wrongdoing was their presumed dissent from the policies or ideology of the Administration.

• In other words, these citizens were targeted based upon their political viewpoints.

The lawsuit was settled in 2017

• The Justice Department awarded the plaintiffs over $3.5 million in attorneys' fees, costs and expenses, and incentive awards
• In settling the case, the DOJ admitted the IRS abused its power and the criteria it used to screen applications for 501(c) status was inappropriate

The IRS’ use of these criteria as a basis for heightened scrutiny was wrong and should never have occurred.

• 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.

In November 2016, after the IRS refused to acknowledge its targeting of conservative groups, Judicial Watch forced the release of IRS records revealing the agency used "inappropriate political labels" to screen the tax-exempt applications of conservative organizations.

• IRS officials stated that the agency was targeting conservative groups because of their ideology and political affiliation in the summer of 2011.

https://www.judicialwatch.org/tea-party-targeting/