Ted Cruz to Eric Holder: Appoint Prosecutor for IRS Scandal or Face Impeachment

June 26, 2014 By Greg Campbell

 

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On Thursday, Tea Party Senator Ted Cruz called for the impeachment of Attorney General Eric Holder if he refuses to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS’ targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups.

 

Sen. Cruz called for unanimous consent to demand that the Department of Justice (DOJ) appoint a prosecutor to investigate the IRS scandal, the years-long campaign of harassment aimed at suppressing Tea Party influence in politics by delaying tax-exempt status to nonprofits by requiring the submission of multiple invasive questionnaires and information that far surpassed any reasonable requests for tax-exempt considerations. 

“Americans need a guarantee that the IRS will never be used again to target an Administration’s political enemies,” Sen. Cruz said. “It saddens me that there is not one Democrat in this body who has had the courage to stand up to his or her own party and say that using the IRS to target citizens for their political beliefs is wrong. We need a special prosecutor with meaningful independence to make sure justice is served and our constitutional rights to free speech, assembly, and privacy are protected.”

 

“If Attorney General Eric Holder does not appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS,” Cruz added, “the House should use its power to impeach him. Impeding justice is intolerable and he should not be permitted to refuse the American people a true investigation into the actions of those who used the machinery of government to target, intimate, and silence them for politically driven reasons.” 

The constitutional scholar-turned senator claimed that should Holder refuse to appoint a special prosecutor, the Attorney General’s crime would make him guilty of a high crime or misdemeanor, which would allow for his impeachment.

 

A press release from Sen. Cruz’s office concluded, 

The failure to fully investigate and prosecute individuals for the illegal targeting of political organizations is just one of many offenses committed by Attorney General Holder. While he has been Attorney General:

 

DOJ was at the center of the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal that led to the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent. The House of Representatives voted him in contempt of Congress two years ago.

 

DOJ has refused to enforce federal immigration laws, federal healthcare laws, federal welfare laws, and federal drug laws as written by Congress.

 

DOJ attempted to bring the 9/11 terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to Manhattan to be tried on U.S. soil.

 

DOJ gave the Obama Administration the green light to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay without giving proper notice to Congress.

 

DOJ helped secretly obtain the phone records of journalists at Fox News and the Associated Press. 

On Wednesday, TPNN reported that the IRS scandal includes the targeting of more than Tea Party citizens, but that Lois Lerner, the head of the department at the center of the scandal, had called for an IRS investigation into conservative Senator Chuck Grassley after obtaining an invitation meant for Grassley to a speaking event.