Federal Judge threatens to hold IRS Commissioner in contempt of court over IRS targeting scandal

  Maybe, just maybe, things are starting to get real regarding the IRS targeting scandal and Lois Lerner’s crashed hard drives because today a Federal Judge, Emmet Sullivan, threatened to hold IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and some Department of Injustice lawyers in contempt of court for failing to comply with a court order.

  Here is more:

Judicial Watch announced that U.S District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan today threatened to hold the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department attorneys in contempt of court after the IRS failed to produce status reports and newly recovered emails of Lois Lerner, former director of the Exempt Organizations Unit of the IRS, as he had ordered on July 1, 2015.

During the a status hearing today, Sullivan warned that the failure to follow his order was serious and the IRS and Justice Department’s excuses for not following his July 1 order were “indefensible, ridiculous, and absurd.”  He asked the IRS’ Justice Department lawyer Geoffrey Klimas, “Why didn’t the IRS comply” with his court order and “why shouldn’t the Court hold the Commissioner of the IRS in contempt.”  Judge Sullivan referenced his contempt findings against Justice Department prosecutors in the prosecution of late Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) and reminded the Justice Department attorney he had the ability to detain him for contempt.  Warning he would tolerate no further disregard of his orders, Judge Sullivan said, “I will haul into court the IRS Commissioner to hold him personally into contempt.”

  The court order in question required the IRS to begin handing over emails related to the Tea Party targeting scandal to Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act but we know how the IRS feels about the law because the agency would not have been in this position in the first place if it did not have a complete lack of respect for the law so it should come as no surprise that the agency did not comply.

  The question is; will John Koskinen really be willing to take the bullet for Lois Lerner? I find it hard to believe he will be willing so it will be interesting to see what the next move is–if anything come from this at all, after all there is not even a smidgen of corruption here…

Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium