Way past time for some cuffing and stuffing.
Republicans are still not giving up on the case against former IRS official Lois Lerner and the tax collection agency’s treatment of conservative groups, despite the IRS’ apology last week.
Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Florida Republican and chairman of the oversight subcommittee responsible for the IRS, on Monday called for the Trump Justice Department to revisit prosecuting Lerner, who was at the center of the scandal.
“Lerner betrayed the nation’s trust yet managed to avoid prosecution,” Buchanan said. “Heads should roll and people should be held accountable for this gross abuse of power.”
The Jeff Sessions-led Justice Department told the House Ways and Means Committee in September that it would not prosecute Lerner, after conducting its own review of the case against her. That decision elicited outrage from Republicans.
Last week, however, the IRS issued an apology for the scandal in a settlement with conservative and Tea Party groups over targeting them for added scrutiny in applying for nonprofit status starting around 2010. Lerner was the head of the division responsible for handling those applications and later left the agency after the backlash gathered strength. After an investigation, Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee had referred her to the Obama Justice Department for prosecution.