Status of Justice Department IRS Investigation

Much of the D.C. brain trust has concluded that the IRS targeting scandal doesn’t need a special counsel to do the investigating. The folks who are against the appointment of a special counsel, for whatever reason, are happy to allow Attorney General Eric Holder to continue to run the criminal investigation from inside the conflicted Department of Justice. I couldn’t disagree more. 

I still think this case needs a special counsel and here’s why: there’s evidence that the Justice Department investigation is being slow-walked.  Should that surprise anyone?

The Daily Caller reported this week that the FBI hasn’t even done the “no-brainer” work yet, such as contacting the conservative groups who were targeted: “Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service investigators working on the federal government’s probe into the IRS targeting scandal have not contacted any of the conservative groups involved in a class-action lawsuit against the tax agency.”

Nearly two months since the scandal broke–and it appears this investigation has barely gotten off the ground. I’ve never had confidence that Holder’s Justice Department could run a fair and thorough investigation into this politically charged matter. The question is what will it take for the Republican leadership in the House and Senate to feel the same way? Only a special counsel can restore trust in this case.

I sincerely hope that Congressman Issa calls Attorney General Holder to testify on the status of his investigation before the U.S. House leaves for August recess. The first question I would ask is this: has a grand jury been empanelled to question witnesses yet? And if not, is an existing grand jury being used instead? If there is no grand jury hearing witnesses, there is no legitimate criminal investigation being conducted.

If we find that Eric Holder is in fact slow-walking the IRS investigation–seemingly for political purposes–Congress and the rest of the D.C brain trust need to step up and call for a special counsel before it’s too late.