December 7, 2013
Six months after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced they would launch an investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) targeting of conservative and tea party groups, a lawyer who represents 41 such groups said they have yet to be contacted by the FBI and there is no visible evidence an investigation is underway.
“It is extremely troubling that after more than six months since Lois Lerner revealed the targeting scheme aimed at conservative and Tea Party groups that there is no visible evidence of an investigation taking place,” Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), told the Capitol City Project in a written statement. “From the beginning, the Obama Administration – including the White House – assured the American people that there would be an investigation and that those responsible for this unlawful scheme would be held accountable. It appears that is simply not the case. To date, none of our 41 clients has been contacted by the FBI, the Department of Justice, or any other investigative agency. To assert that an investigation is underway with no contact with the organizations that were targeted is absurd.”
Mr. Sekulow added that instead of conducting an actual investigation into the IRS’s wrongdoing, the Obama administration is taking the opposite approach and implementing more regulations against free speech.
“Instead of conducting an investigation and interviewing those who were targeted, the Obama Administration apparently believes the next step should be the implementation of even more regulations – which the Treasury Department announced last week – proposed regulations that place the free speech of Americans at even greater risk.”
He continued, “The proposed new regulations is nothing more than a feeble attempt by the Obama Administration to justify its own wrong-doing with the IRS targeting of conservative and Tea Party groups. Instead of holding those responsible for the unlawful targeting scheme accountable for their actions, the Obama Administration is determined to further limit the free speech of Americans by attempting to change constitutional practices that are decades old. With this move, the Obama Administration opens a new front in its war against political dissent. We will file comments with the IRS opposing these new regulations.”
Despite this, Sekulow says they will continue to move forward with the legal challenge.
“This latest development does nothing to alter our lawsuit on behalf of 41 organizations challenging the IRS. We continue to move forward with our legal challenge. For those clients who have been in limbo for as long as three years waiting for the IRS to act on their tax-exempt applications, this development is disturbing and unacceptable. The IRS is now attempting to change the rules to further restrict their free speech even before it acts on pending applications.”
This comes on the heels of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Cali.) saying the FBI is stonewalling inquiries into the IRS’s targeting of the groups.
UPDATE:
Cleta Mitchell, an attorney representing nine tea party groups who were targeted by the IRS, told Capitol City Project that none of her clients have been contacted by the FBI. To her knowledge, no tea party group has been contacted thus far. She also questions whether there is an actual investigation.
“None of my clients – and to my knowledge, no tea party group – has been contacted by the FBI regarding the IRS scandal. In fact, I am highly doubtful that any FBI investigation is even underway, despite what Obama said to the country on May 15,” Mitchell stated in an e-mail.
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