Former IRS official Lois Lerner
Two years ago, Republicans grew instantly hysterical when conservative groups—with their typical penchant for rigor and rectitude—started accusing the IRS of targeting tea party-themed non-profits for extra scrutiny over their names. It was exactly the stuff GOP fever dreams are made of. You could even say conservatives were thrilled to find reasons to stoke their unending sense of persecution and victimhood.
Except it all turned out to be bullshit—total, utter, complete, fantastical bullshit:
The Justice Department notified members of Congress on Friday that it is closing its two-year investigation into whether the IRS improperly targeted the tea party and other conservative groups.
There will be no charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner or anyone else at the agency, the Justice Department said in a letter.
The probe 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 poor management is not a crime," Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik said in the letter.
"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. "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."
There's an amazing irony in this. Conservatives have railed against the IRS from the moment it was born, and Republicans have done everything in their power to starve it of funds and undermine its very existence. As a result, the agency was unable to process applications for non-profits in an efficient manner, which those very same conservative haters decided was proof that the IRS was out to get them.
That's a pretty neat trick. It's also a load of bollocks, but for the party that believes there's a "War on Christmas," it's not much of a stretch to imagine that the tax man has your number, too. Conservatives may not be able to tell fact from fiction, but at least the Department of Justice still can.