Lois Lerner, key player in the IRS scandal regarding alleged targeting of political 501(c)(4) groups claimed this week in congressional hearings that a computer crash caused the loss of emails between the Obama Administration and the IRS department responsible for reviewing 501(c)(4) statuses.
While this investigation proceeds, a couple of questions come to mind. First, since operating for political purposes is illegal, and these conservative groups claim to have been targeted for their political activity contrary to the President, doesn’t this “scandal” really mean that the conservatives have already conceded that the IRS should have scrutinized these 501(c)(4) applications?
Second, and this is the important one: since the law appears in my eyes to be quite clearly in favor of the IRS’ ability to investigate these applications, why is there so much objection to the investigation, because it seems to me they should get out in front of the issue and just point out that they were stopping unlawful groups from obtaining non-profit status.