IRS's Lois Lerner Has History Of Harassing Religious Groups

Lois Lerner, director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations Division and a central figure in the recent IRS scandal, has been accused of a number of untruths since she admitted the agency has targeted hundreds of conservative and Tea Party groups for over two years.

Though some of her defenders claim she is "apolitical," prior to joining the IRS, Lerner’s tenure as head of the Enforcement Office at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) was represented by what appears to be politically motivated harassment of conservative groups, particularly those with religious ties.

According to Mark Hemingway at the Weekly Standard, Lerner was head of the FEC’s enforcement division between 1986 and 2001. In the late 1990’s, the FEC initiated a burdensome investigation of the Christian Coalition, an endeavor that ended up costing the organization hundreds of thousands of dollars and many hours of time.

Hemingway indicates that the investigation was particularly notable because the FEC claimed that “the Christian Coalition was coordinating issue advocacy expenditures with a number of candidates for office.” Though there was no proof that this was occurring, the question remained of whether the FEC actually had the authority to bring these charges at all.

More