Another GOP Conspiracy Theory Proved False As DOJ Finds No Illegal IRS Activity Against Tea Party

The Dept. of Justice has just completed an investigation into the IRS, proving charges by conservatives of illegal activity are false.

Remember Lois Lerner, the official in charge of overseeing the IRS’s Tax-Exempt Organizations Unit?

For more than two years Republicans have been claiming Lerner, and the Internal Revenue Service, targeted Tea Party groups applying for tax-exempt status, in an attempt, they claimed, to silence conservatives.

Friday afternoon those claims were proven false, when the Department of Justice notified Congress it has concluded a two-year investigation into IRS activities and has found no evidence of illegal activity. 

Despite media investigations that found liberal and progressive groups also had difficulties obtaining tax-exempt status – a benefit not a right, as opposed to the tax-exempt status most religious groups automatically get without even having to file a request – Tea Party groups and their right-wing media supporters screamed foul, claiming they were illegally targeted.

But as ThinkProgress reported last year, the IRS “targeted progressive groups more extensively than Tea Party” groups.

What IRS employees did was create keyword lists, be it “Tea Party” or “blue” – in other words, politically conservative or politically liberal – that could indicate their request for non-profit status might be questionable because they would not be non-partisan. They then investigated further.

CNN reports today that Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik sent a letter to Congress stating that the DOJ investigation found “substantial evidence of mismanagement, poor judgment and institutional inertia leading to the belief by many tax-exempt applicants that the IRS targeted them based on their political viewpoints.” But Kadzik noted, “poor management is not a crime.”

“We found no evidence that any IRS official acted based on political, discriminatory, corrupt, or other inappropriate motives that would support a criminal prosecution,” Kadzik said in his letter to Congress. “We also found no evidence that any official involved in the handling of tax-exempt applications or IRS leadership attempted to obstruct justice. Based on the evidence developed in this investigation and the recommendation of experienced career prosecutors and supervising attorneys at the department, we are closing our investigation and will not seek any criminal charges.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, responded to the news with a statement noting that for “the past five years, Republicans in the House of Representatives have squandered literally tens of millions of dollars going down all kinds of investigative rabbit holes — IRS, Planned Parenthood, Benghazi — with absolutely no evidence of illegal activity.”

GOP Congressman vented their hypocritical anger on Twitter.

Rep. Darrell Issa of California, who led the charge in the House against the IRS, tweeted his thoughts this afternoon:

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, whose performance Thursday during the House Benghazi Committee’s interrogation of Hillary Clinton was among the most caustic and partisan, just sent this tweet:

And Rep. Paul Ryan, likely to become House Speaker, promised to waste more taxpayer dollars “investigating” the IRS conspiracy theories:

Other conservatives on Twitter expressed their opinions:

 

Image by Jeffery Scism via Flickr and a CC license