No Charges To Be Filed In IRS Case

In an announcement that came as a surprise to absolutely no one, the FBI yesterday said that while the investigation continues they have no current plans to file criminal charges against anyone over the Internal Revenue Service's "heightened scrutiny" of conservative groups.

Investigators apparently did not find the political bias on behalf of the IRS that would amount to a violation of criminal law, officials said. Instead, officials contend what they found was mismanagement of rule enforcement concerning tax-exemption applications it didn't understand. Sure, OK.

Of course, there wouldn't be any conflict of interest or cronyism going on just because the lead investigator, Barbara Bosserman, is a Democrat who donated over $6000 to President Obama's campaign funds in 2008 and 2012 and was appointed as lead investigator secretly. Nah - nothing to worry about there. Nothing but ethics and transparency in that appointment.

On January 8th, Republican Representative Darrell Issa, (CA), sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder that, among other things, said “We request you immediately remove Ms. [Barbara] Bosserman from the ongoing investigation. “By selecting a significant donor to President Obama to lead an investigation into inappropriate targeting of conservative groups, the Department has created a startling conflict of interest.”

“It is unbelievable that the Department would choose such an individual to examine the federal government’s systematic targeting and harassment of organizations oppose to the President’s policies… Please provide a comprehensive explanation of the decision to assign Ms. Bosserman to the DoJ/FBI investigation of the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups,” the letter continued.

“The FBI’s blatant lack of cooperation with the (Congressional) Committee may rise to the level of criminal obstruction of a congressional investigation,” the letter concluded.

I must agree with Congressman Issa. Even if Ms. Bosserman is the most honest and trustworthy person in the world (she's a lawyer so that's somewhat doubtful), her appointment as the lead investigator, given her political history, gives the appearance that the Justice Department isn't truly committed to taking proper action against those who interfered with conservative political action groups at a time when they needed to be most active.

No one but the most staunch Obama supporters truly believes the IRS wasn't intentionally targeting conservatives and breaking the law while doing it. Some on the left even have said it should still be occurring, legal or not, to weed out opposition to Obama and the Democrats. What they don't seem to understand is that an administration which will use secret appointments of people who are favorable to their causes will use those same tactics against anyone who gets in their way. Welcome to the gulag....