IRS Official Once Targeted Christian Coalition
- Religion Today
- Published May 21, 2013
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An official at the center of the Obama administration's IRS scandal is now reported to have a history of harassment, according to CBN News. Lois Lerner, director of the IRS' Exempt Organizations Division, is the official who first publicly admitted that the IRS unfairly targeted groups with the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications. Now, The Weekly Standard is reporting that Lerner was accused of politically motivated harassment after a huge investigation into the Christian Coalition in the 1990s. Lerner worked for the Federal Election Commission's enforcement division at the time, and the FEC accused the Christian Coalition of working with candidates to spend money on certain issues. In the end, the FEC lacked proof, but the investigation cost the Christian Coalition hundreds of thousands of dollars. Questions were also raised about whether the FEC had the authority to bring such charges.