Last week the Department of Justice officially issued settlements to a pair of conservative tea party groups after they were inappropriately targeted by the IRS under President Obama. It was the first time the IRS admitted the wrongdoing and Attorney General Jeff Sessions classified the extra scrutiny as "inexcusable."
"There is no excuse for this conduct. Hundreds of organizations were affected by these actions, and they deserve an apology from the IRS. We hope that today’s settlement makes clear that this abuse of power will not be tolerated,” Sessions said.
But settlements aren't enough and mechanisms to prevent the same type of targeting from happening in the future still don't exist.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton whose organization is responsible for obtaining and publishing most of the documents involved in the scandal, wants the IRS targeting investigation reopened in order to address the government abuse of power in the case. During a recent interview on Fox News, Fitton argued the Obama Justice Department shouldn't be trusted as the final word.
"The IRS is a political tool for politicians in power and we have to understand that and take that tool away from them because it's liable to be abused and it's been abused repeatedly over the years. I don't know how many lessons we learn before taking action," Fitton said. "Abuse of power necessarily means something was done inappropriately and the question is can we trust the last administration, the politicized Justice Department under Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch and the FBI under James Comey to honestly investigate the IRS and I don't think you can."
You can read more about the IRS and the Department of Justice discussing the prosecution of conservative groupshere.