Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas will have a lot on his plate should he be elected president. It looks like one of those items will be to order his Justice Department to reopen the investigation of the IRS’s harassment of tea party and conservative groups. Monday, Cruz sent a letter to the current Attorney General Loretta Lynch to preserve all documents and other materials related to the scandal. The Justice Department recently closed its investigation and had declined to prosecute any of the tax agency officials, even Lois Lerner, who weaponized the IRS and turned it against President Obama’s political opponents.
“Bluntly stated, your decision is disappointing but also not surprising, and only confirms suspicions that the current Department is equipped to neither handle an appropriate investigation nor make appropriate judgments regarding existing conflicts of interest, based on its failure to appoint a special prosecutor. Despite numerous requests for a fair and impartial process, you, your predecessor, and this Administration generally have been dismissive of congressional and other calls for an appropriate accounting of the IRS’s abusive behavior.
“Make no mistake: the IRS’s targeting of ordinary citizens for their political viewpoints under this Administration is not a minor issue, and represents a significant breach of the public trust. Even a casual observer of the IRS targeting scandal could not help but come to the conclusion that there is a strong appearance that the IRS, under this Administration’s political leadership, used the coercive tools available to the tax collection agency to harass people with conservative viewpoints. The little information that is available in the public domain about what happened at the IRS also makes it appear that laws, including criminal laws, may have been broken.”
The reopening of the investigation under a Cruz administration would likely be done by a special prosecutor, something that the Obama administration has failed to pursue. Cruz believes that a special prosecutor would take the matter out of the political realm.
“Bluntly stated, your decision is disappointing but also not surprising, and only confirms suspicions that the current Department is equipped to neither handle an appropriate investigation nor make appropriate judgments regarding existing conflicts of interest, based on its failure to appoint a special prosecutor. Despite numerous requests for a fair and impartial process, you, your predecessor, and this Administration generally have been dismissive of congressional and other calls for an appropriate accounting of the IRS’s abusive behavior.
“Make no mistake: the IRS’s targeting of ordinary citizens for their political viewpoints under this Administration is not a minor issue, and represents a significant breach of the public trust. Even a casual observer of the IRS targeting scandal could not help but come to the conclusion that there is a strong appearance that the IRS, under this Administration’s political leadership, used the coercive tools available to the tax collection agency to harass people with conservative viewpoints. The little information that is available in the public domain about what happened at the IRS also makes it appear that laws, including criminal laws, may have been broken.”
The reopening of the investigation under a Cruz administration would likely be done by a special prosecutor, something that the Obama administration has failed to pursue. Cruz believes that a special prosecutor would take the matter out of the political realm.