The Washington Times recently reported that the IRS had acknowledged the existence of some 7,000 hitherto undisclosed documents that may offer further insight into the Tax Agency’s relentless targeting and harassment of Tea Party and other conservative groups. The IRS, at least for the time being, is refusing to release those documents.
One of the most egregious unsolved scandals of the Obama presidency has been the revelation that the IRS slow-walked the application for nonprofit status of the tea party and other conservative groups in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election.
The tax agency would often demand answers to outrageous and intrusive questions and would employ similar delaying tactics to stop the groups from gaining the status that would have exempt them from most taxes. The IRS has claimed that no high official, not to mention President Obama, knew what was going on. The official story is that the campaign was undertaken by a few rogue employees, such as the disgraced Lois Lerner.
An Obama-era investigation by the Justice Department essentially whitewashed the matter, finding no evidence of criminal wrongdoing. The revelation that there is a treasure trove of more documents that have not been hitherto disclosed or even made available to the FBI might warrant a reopening of the investigation.
The campaign against the Tea Party was likely carried out as a result of the political tsunami that swept away many Democratic lawmakers in 2010. Some in the Obama government, whether they were lower level “rogue” bureaucrats or higher officials, feared that the same thing might happen to President Obama when he ran for reelection.
Many of the groups targeted spent the 2012 election cycle tied up fighting with the IRS and not organizing for the election. Whether or not the campaign was decisive is something that will likely never be known.
Ironically, the Republicans took the Senate in 2014 and then swept back into the White House in 2016 with the most unlikely presidential candidate in the form of Donald Trump.
The Tea Party spent previous election cycles asking for redress politely and peacefully. The Obama government have the movement the back of its hand. The result, it could be argued, is President Donald Trump, a man with whom the term polite will never be associated,
