Tuesday, January 14, 2014
IRS Off the Hook: No Criminal Charges Over Tea Party Targeting
The FBI is not planning to file criminal charges involving the Internal Revenue Service’s extra scrutiny of the Tea Party and other conservative groups, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing law enforcement officials.
The newspaper quoted officials as saying that investigators probing the IRS actions, which unleashed a political furor in Washington, did not uncover the type of political bias or “enemy hunting” that would constitute a criminal violation. The evidence showed a mismanaged agency enforcing rules it did not understand on applications for tax exemptions, the Journal reported.
The case is still under investigation, but criminal charges were unlikely unless unexpected evidence emerged, officials familiar with the probe told the paper.
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment when queried by Reuters.
If there are no criminal charges as expected, the FBI is likely to see a backlash from already skeptical conservative groups which had raised the idea that the administration would not police itself.
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa last week questioned whether a prosecutor handling the case for the Justice Department could remain impartial when he donated to the Obama campaign.
And just last week, The Washington Times reported that some conservative groups were only just being contacted by the IRS, raising the question of just how thorough an investigation the FBI conducted.
Full article: http://www.newsmax.c … 2014/01/13/id/546869
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