- Tuesday, October 27, 2015

The Obama Justice Department is like the famous Vichy Capt. Louis Renault in the classic movie “Casablanca.” The Obama regime is “shocked, shocked,” to discover mismanagement at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The imagery of what the Obama Justice Department has done could almost be a remake of the scene where Captain Renault shuts down Humphrey Bogart’s club for gambling and is handed his gambling winnings.

The Obama regime made war on real Americans after the Tea Party movement began in 2009. After deciding the movement was here to stay, the regime decided it needed to act. Former IRS executive Lois Lerner led the fight. Under her leadership, Tea Party organizations had their tax-exempt applications delayed, denied and targeted for audits, and their donors were targeted for audits. While Tea Party activists were targeted for audit, a tax-exempt charity founded by President Obama’s brother was approved for tax-exempt status in record time.

This was not simply one person who went rogue. Ms. Lerner has a long history of this, dating back to the 1990s, when she was a lawyer at the Federal Election Commission. At the time the IRS scandal broke, she was discussing trying to prosecute members of the Tea Party movement.

What was their crime?

Being a conservative.

Ms. Lerner violated numerous federal criminal statutes. She isn’t the only one. She is simply the face of the scandal. But of course, justice does not matter to the Obama regime. The Obama regime is the perfect example of Orwellian justice. Instead of “Equal Justice Under The Law” in the Obama regime, all are equal but some are simply more equal than others.

A real and independent Justice Department or independent prosecutor would have indicted Ms. Lerner a long time ago. Ms. Lerner conspired with others to deprive Americans of their civil rights (18 U.S.C § 241) and deprived citizens of their rights under color of law (18 U.S.C. § 242). Section 242 carries a 10-year prison sentence, which seems about right for Ms. Lerner.

In May 2013, the IRS scandal broke. Ms. Lerner was forced to retire but the outrages from the IRS continue. In 2014, every 501C4 organization the IRS audited was a conservative organization.

The news that the Department of Justice was not going to prosecute Ms. Lerner came in a typical Obama regime Friday afternoon news dump. Much of the left-wing, drive-by media are ignoring the story. It isn’t getting past some Republicans in Washington. Congressman Peter Roskam of Illinois and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee oversight subcommittee said, “Lois Lerner clearly acted on her political bias to target conservative groups.”

That’s right. She did and that is a criminal civil rights violation.

If the Obama regime had not been so arrogant, they could have presented the matter to a federal grand jury and let them decide. But the Obama regime could not control a federal grand jury and that grand jury could start asking the kind of questions that could result in a lot of indictments. The regime could not accept that risk.

Instead, the administration just acted on the belief that the left wing, mainstream media would cover for them.

Lois Lerner and other IRS employees can target Americans for harassment by the government, simply because those Americans decided to exercise their First Amendment rights. And now, nothing will happen to Ms. Lerner.

Virginia Congressman and Tea Party favorite Dave Brat summed it up in one word: “Unbelievable.”

Copyright © 2024 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

Please read our comment policy before commenting.

Click to Read More and View Comments

Click to Hide