Judicial Watch: IRS Officials Knew About Tea Party Targeting

Former IRS official Lois Lerner on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 5, 2014. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke, File)

By Mark Swanson | Thursday, 28 Jul 2016

Judicial Watch released nearly 300 pages of FBI documents that reveal top IRS officials knew of the targeting of conservative groups two years before disclosing it to Congress.

Top IRS officials Lois Lerner and Holly Paz "knew that agents were targeting conservative groups for special scrutiny as early as 2011," Judicial Watch reported.

Judicial Watch was able to obtain the new treasure trove of documents through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

According to the docs obtained by Judicial Watch, Paz, a senior member of the IRS, was informed in the spring of 2011 that agents in Cincinnati had put out "Be On the Look Out" guides to flag "cases using the tea party term."

According to the docs, IRS senior official Nancy Marks, who was appointed to conduct an internal investigation said, "Cincinnati was categorizing cases based on name and ideology, not just activity," Judicial Watch reported.

"These new smoking-gun documents show Obama FBI and Justice Department had plenty of evidence suggesting illegal targeting, perjury, and obstruction of justice," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

"Both the FBI and Justice Department collaborated with Lois Lerner and the IRS to try to prosecute and jail Barack Obama's political opponents. These FBI documents show the resulting compromised investigation looked the other way when it came to Obama's IRS criminality."