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Cruz Puts IRS On Notice: Preserve Your Documents

   DailyWire.com

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) sent a letter on Tuesday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking the Department of Justice to keep documents related to the investigation of the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of Tea Party groups.

As The Daily Wire previously reported, Lois Lerner, the former director of the IRS Exemption Organization Unit, was cleared of any wrongdoing by the DOJ on Oct. 23. Cruz was unhappy about this, saying the next presidential administration would give a more impartial investigation into the issue.

“Bluntly stated, your decision is disappointing but also not surprising, and only confirms suspicions that the current Department is equipped to neither handle an appropriate investigation nor make appropriate judgments regarding existing conflicts of interest, based on its failure to appoint a special prosecutor,” Cruz wrote. “Despite numerous requests for a fair and impartial process, you, your predecessor, and this Administration generally have been dismissive of congressional and other calls for an appropriate accounting of the IRS’s abusive behavior.”

“Make no mistake: the IRS’s targeting of ordinary citizens for their political viewpoints under this Administration is not a minor issue, and represents a significant breach of the public trust,” Cruz continued. “Even a casual observer of the IRS targeting scandal could not help but come to the conclusion that there is a strong appearance that the IRS, under this Administration’s political leadership, used the coercive tools available to the tax collection agency to harass people with conservative viewpoints. The little information that is available in the public domain about what happened at the IRS also makes it appear that laws, including criminal laws, may have been broken.”

Cruz then called for a special prosecutor to be appointed, and told Lynch that a request to keep documents was necessary because of “this Administration’s poor track record for recordkeeping.”

“I have previously warned Treasury and IRS officials that such consequences could also result for any such destruction of records within their control, and those warnings stand.”

Ted Cruz

“I will also take this moment to remind you, your fellow political appointees within the Department, and any other Department employees, advisors, or contractors that destruction of any of the requested documents or information could subject those responsible for such destruction to criminal prosecution in the future,” Cruz warned. “I have previously warned Treasury and IRS officials that such consequences could also result for any such destruction of records within their control, and those warnings stand. One’s position as a past or present federal employee does not afford immunity from the federal criminal justice system. It is my hope that a future administration would pursue justified prosecutions with all due energy.”

Cruz then made the following requests:

1. Preserve all paper-based documents, e-mail-based communications, e-mail-based calendar appointments, electronic documents, electronic communications (including voicemails, SMS (i.e., text) messages, and instant messages), and all other electronic data regardless of format, created since January 1, 2010, that:

a. Are records, regardless of content, that were originally produced or possessed by the IRS or any of its employees, contractors, subcontractors, grantees, subgrantees, or consultants;

b. Are communications, regardless of author, source, or content, that in any way address the IRS or any of its past or current employees; and

c. Include or reference the names Douglas Shulman, John Koskinen, Lois Lerner, William Wilkins, Holly Paz, Judy Kindell, and/or Carter Hull, or any versions of these names, including initials or nicknames.

For the purposes of this request, “preserve” means taking any and all reasonable steps to prevent the partial or full destruction, alteration, overwriting, formatting, deletion, shredding, incineration, wiping, relocation, migration, theft, revision, or mutation of electronic and non-electronic documents, records, and logs, as well as negligent or intentional handling that would make such records incomplete or inaccessible.

2. Exercise any and all reasonable efforts to identify and notify former Department employees, contractors, subcontractors, grantees, subgrantees, and consultants who may have access to such electronic or non-electronic records that these records are also to be preserved.

3. If it is a practice of the Department, any Department component, any federal employee, any contract employee, any grantee or subgrantee, or any consultant to destroy or otherwise alter such electronic or non-electronic records, either halt such practices immediately, or arrange for the preservation of complete and accurate duplicates or copies of such records, suitable for production if requested.

Cruz also asked for the DoJ to give copies of the records to the Inspector General and Archivist of the United States.

The presidential candidate is right about the administration’s recordkeeping, given that there are important emails from Lerner’s server that have gone missing. The idea that Lerner did not act out of political motives and that the IRS was simply mismanaged–as the DOJ has said–is bogus. Emails show that Lerner hated the Tea Party, referring to them as “crazies” and “a**holes.” Conservatives groups were solely targeted, and it’s still happening.

Cruz is right to request that these documents be preserved and open the door for a new investigation in the next presidential administration.

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