Federal judge makes it official: The IRS is an ‘untrustworthy’ rogue agency that targets political enemies of the administration

(BigGovernment.news) Many Americans already suspected that the Internal Revenue Service, weaponized as a political machine by the Obama White House, was not an agency that could be relied upon to do the right thing, constitutionally and statutorily, when it came to interaction with taxpayers. And now, a federal appeals court judge has officially confirmed our suspicions.

As reported by the Washington Times, Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said last week that the much-distrusted agency can’t be trusted as he and colleagues attempted to figure out if it is still targeting Tea Party groups for illegal and overly-intrusive scrutiny.

Sentelle said there is strong evidence that the IRS violated the constitutional rights of several of the groups when it delayed granting them non-profit status in the run-up to the 2012 election, as well as when it asked inappropriate questions about their political philosophy.

“It’s hard to find the IRS to be an agency we can trust,” Sentelle said during court proceedings.

Meanwhile, on nearly Capitol Hill, a group of conservative House Republicans were calling for IRS Commissioner John Koskinen to be impeached, delivering speeches on the floor of the chamber saying his efforts to clean up the agency have not been successful.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, didn’t go as far as calling for impeachment, but he did say “the IRS is not being led well.”

That’s putting it mildly. As the Times noted further:

The agency’s myriad problems include ignoring many taxpayers’ calls and succumbing last year to a massive computer hack in which hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ most sensitive information was stolen from IRS computers.

The agency continues to grapple with fallout from the tea party targeting. An inspector general said hundreds of groups’ applications for nonprofit status derailed while the IRS put them through intense scrutiny.

The targeting was so intense and so uncalled for that some groups actually dropped out of the process rather than face the inquiry. Other groups, however, decided to fight the inappropriate probing; at least two groups have been waiting for a court decision for more than five years, which, honestly, is also inappropriate, given the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a “speedy” trial.

The Times noted that IRS officials have admitted they “erred” but blamed those errors on bad training and confusion over a 2010 Supreme Court decision rather than intentionally targeting the groups because of their political affiliation. Of course, if you believe that, then you’d have to also believe that the official in charge of that division of the IRS at the time, Lois Lerner, really didn’t mean it when she called Republicans “crazies” and “a**holes,” and that she kept pleading her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a series of House appearances because she didn’t do anything wrong.

“IRS responded enthusiastically” to a series of inspector general recommendations, argued Judith A. Hagley, the Justice Department lawyer representing the agency.

The judges Thursday were not convinced.

“How much has really changed?” said Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg.

More:

• Uncle Sam’s growing appetite for our earnings is transforming America into a modern-day feudal state
• New bill would scrap most of the federal tax code so we could start all over again with a fairer system
• It’s no longer a question: Americans HAVE lost control of the political process and the ruling elite couldn’t care less

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