Remember Lois Lerner? If not, she was basically the person that Obama put in charge of weaponizing the IRS so that it could be used by the Democratic party as a political weapon of mass destruction to suppress Tea Party groups back in 2012. Ring any bells yet?
Well, as a testament to the efficiency of our legal system, it turns out that the case is still ongoing some 5 years later. Of course, this has to be a simple bureaucracy issue because there is no way that the Obama administration, you know, the only scandal-free White House in modern history, played any role in delaying the completely transparent transmission of information about this shocking threat to our Democracy...just ask CNN...we're sure they'll confirm the same.
Be that as it may, after years of litigation over what conservatives have long called “chilling” behavior by one of the government’s “most feared” agencies, a federal judge has finally ordered the IRS to release the names of specific employees involved in targeting Tea Party groups in the lead up to the 2012 presidential election. Per Fox News:
Judge Reggie B. Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia also said the IRS must provide information about which groups were targeted and why, along with a strategy to make sure such targeting doesn't happen again.
The IRS is involved in multiple lawsuits with conservative groups related to the Tea Party targeting scandal; this particular case involves True the Vote.
“We’re thrilled the judge has taken this step and it feels good to have it recognized that they need to be held to account,” True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht told Fox News on Monday. “What happened to me was very personal—my name was thrown around the IRS, and the names of the people involved need to be known. What they did was criminal.”
Of course, as Judicial Watch's Chris Farrell notes, this single court decision managed to accomplish more in getting to the bottom of the IRS scandal than the Obama administration and Congress did in multiple years.
But director of investigations and research at Judicial Watch Chris Farrell, whose organization is also involved in litigation with the IRS on this issue, told Fox News that the IRS owes litigants “real accountability.”
“This was creepy, chilling stuff,” Farrell told Fox News.
“Judge Walton has accomplished more with one ruling than all of the rest of the federal government - all three branches - over the last six years.”
Farrell added: “The IRS is one of the most feared government agencies, and they’ve gotten a pass, in part. Walton is looking for real accountability and that’s so important.”
That said, we're certain that if we failed to pay taxes for 6 years that the IRS would be equally understanding.