Corrupt IRS Official Lerner Does Not Want her Testimony Public

The former IRS executive Lois. G. Lerner and her deputy, Holly Paz have filed court documents claiming that their statements made in their depositions earlier this year, should remain private. 

Lerner claims that if released the documents would put her family in immediate danger.

“Whenever Mss. Lerner and Paz have been in the media spotlight, they have faced death threats and harassment,” said the attorney representing both of the women.  

Lerner and Paz appeared in court for a class-action lawsuit by tea party groups after the IRS was discovered illegally targeting groups based on their political beliefs.

Lerner was forced to resign back in 2013 after she was accused of specifically targeting conservative groups and purposely delaying nonprofit applications for these groups.

In 2015, Obama’s Justice Department didn’t file charges, which many disapproved of.

“The notion of weaponizing the IRS is so corrosive to our democracy, we ought not to let the statute of limitations lapse without taking another look at it,” said Peter Roskam (R-IL), a member of the Ways and Means Committee.  

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX,) chairman of the committee, asked AG Jeff Sessions to consider prosecuting Lerner.

“The Committee found that Ms. Lerner used her position to improperly influence IRS action against conservative organizations, denying these groups due process and equal protection rights under the law. The Committee also found she impeded official investigations by providing misleading statements in response to questions from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration,” said Roskam and Brady. “Finally, Lerner risked exposing, and may actually have disclosed, confidential taxpayer information, in apparent violation of Internal Revenue Code section 6103 by using her personal email to conduct official business.”  

The former government officials are still desperately trying to make this scandal disappear and are willing to pay millions to do so.  

“The government settled the class-action lawsuit in Ohio and another tea party challenge in the District of Columbia in two agreements last month, admitting to the illegal behavior. The Ohio settlement also called for the government to pay $3.5 million to the tea party groups, according to one of the plaintiffs,” writes The Washington Times.

Lerner’s actions were especially shameful because she was not only caught targeting groups unfairly but also hid it from her superiors in Washington.  

The tea party groups presented thousands of pages of documents for the case, that are public record. Lerner and Paz’s testimonies have been left out after they requested privacy, permitted by Judge Michael R. Barrett. 

The attorney, arguing on Lerner and Paz’s behalf, said that the case is already settled so this there is no need for the statements to be released to the public and would only lead to putting them and their families in jeopardy.  

“The voluminous record of harassment and physical threats to Mss. Lerner and Paz and their families during the pendency of this litigation provides a compelling reason to seal the materials,” said the attorney. 

They also blame tea party leader Mark Meckler for encouraging a hostile environment by calling IRS agents “criminal thugs.”

Meckler believes the recent filing is ridiculous and that the former IRS agents shouldn’t have committed a crime in the first place if they didn’t want the details to get out to the public.

“Four years of harassing innocent American citizens for their political beliefs, and she’s scared of a guy in a cowboy hat talking to a bunch of little old ladies at a tea party event?” he said, recounting the speech where he called IRS agents “thugs,” said Meckler. “The reality is because she knows she is guilty as the day is long and she doesn’t want people to know what she actually did. It’s hard to have any sympathy for the women. And frankly, I don’t believe she’s genuinely scared.”

Author’s note: If she really did the things she is accused of, it should be known. This is a major scandal in the Obama Administration, where federal resources were used for partisan political purposes. Why isn’t this being covered more by all media outlets? Isn’t a special prosecutor warranted in this case? 

Editor’s note: Criminals should not have the choice as to whether their crimes are made public. The corrupt Obama administration DOJ did not press charges, but it was clear this was malicious and illegal effort on her part.