Lois Lerner: My Life Will Be in Danger if Real Reason Why IRS Targeted Tea Party Goes Public
By Andrew Kerr
November 20, 2017 at 9:10am
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Former IRS director Lois Lerner told a federal court last week that she and her family could face death threats and physical violence if her testimony of why tea party groups were targeted under her watch becomes public.
Lerner and her former deputy at the IRS, Holly Paz, filed court documents Thursday, saying their depositions given in a court case this year should remain sealed from the public forever, according to The Washington Times.
“Whenever Mss. Lerner and Paz have been in the media spotlight, they have faced death threats and harassment,” their attorneys said.
As previously reported by The Western Journal, the IRS settled two lawsuits in October alleging the agency illegally targeted conservative groups under the Obama administration.
One of the settlements stipulated the IRS issue a formal apology for illegally singling out conservative and tea party groups due to their political beliefs dating back to 2010.
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The other settlement, a class-action lawsuit brought by the NorCal Tea Party with 428 members, includes a $3.5 million settlement, according to one of the plaintiffs.
Lerner reportedly claimed that she and her family, including “young children,” have been subjected to death threats since the targeting scandal broke in 2013.
“The voluminous record of harassment and physical threats to Mss. Lerner and Paz and their families during the pendency of this litigation provides a compelling reason to seal the materials,” their attorneys said.
Their attorneys pointed to statements made by Mark Meckler, a tea party activist whose organization helped drive the class-action lawsuit. Meckler once called IRS agents involved in the targeting scandal “criminal thugs.”
“These words matter. They have created a fertile environment where threats and harassment against Mss. Lerner and Paz have flourished,” their attorneys said.
Lerner and Paz previously argued in May for their testimony about how IRS employees managed tax-exempt applications from tea-party groups, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer.
“This documentation, as the court will see, makes very personal references and contains graphic, profane and disturbing language that would lead to unnecessary intrusion and embarrassment if made public,” their attorneys said.
“Public dissemination of their deposition testimony would put their lives in serious jeopardy,” they continued.
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However, Meckler accused Lerner and Paz of deliberate deceit.
“Four years of harassing innocent American citizens for their political beliefs, and she’s scared of a guy in a cowboy hat talking to a bunch of little old ladies at a tea party event?” he said.
Meckler said Lerner is trying to hide her disposition from the public, “because she knows she is guilty as the day is long and she doesn’t want people to know what she actually did.”
“It’s hard to have any sympathy for the women. And frankly, I don’t believe she’s genuinely scared,” Meckler said. |
