WASHINGTON — Lois Lerner, the former IRS official accused of leading the agency’s targeting of tea party groups, called some conservatives “crazies” and “a–holes,” according to e-mails released Wednesday.
Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said the e-mails reflect Lerner’s “deep animus toward conservatives” and offer motivation for her agency’s stricter scrutiny of conservative groups applying for nonprofit status.
Lerner made the comments during an e-mail discussion about conservative talk radio hosts shortly after the contentious 2012 presidential election.
“So we don’t need to worry about alien terrorists. It’s our own crazies that will take us down,” Lerner said in an e-mail from her IRS account to an unknown acquaintance in November 2012.
Camp turned the e-mails over to the Justice Department Wednesday as further evidence that Lerner should be prosecuted for denying conservative groups due process and equal treatment.
“This e-mail shows that Ms. Lerner’s mistreatment of conservative groups was driven by her personal hostility toward conservatives,” charged Camp, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.
Lerner, then director of the IRS Exempt Organizations Division, revealed the targeting of conservative groups in May 10, 2013, when at an American Bar Association event she apologized for the practice.
The Treasury Department inspector general reported four days later that the IRS used inappropriate criteria starting in 2010, such as “tea party” and “patriot,” in reviewing groups for nonprofit 501(c)(4) status and such groups experienced delays.
Lerner has resigned and has refused to testify before Congress, citing constitutional protections against self-incrimination.
The derogatory remarks came in response to an e-mail her friend sent on Nov. 9, 2012.
The friend told Lerner: “You should hear the wacko wing of the GOP. The US is through; too many foreigners sucking the teat; time to hunker down, buy ammo and food, and prepare for the end. The right-wing radio shows are scary to listen to.”
Lerner replied 15 minutes later: “Maybe we are through if there are that many a–holes.”
The GOP-led House voted in May to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress, and Camp has asked the Justice Department to criminally prosecute her for discriminating against conservative groups — which Justice hasn’t done.
Lerner, through her attorney, maintains she has broken no laws. She has been the focus of a yearlong congressional investigation that gained new steam in June when the IRS revealed it had lost more than two years’ of her e-mails in a computer crash.