DOJ: There’s No Need For Special Prosecutor in IRS Scandal
By: Bernie Becker (The Hill)
A top Justice Department official on Thursday brushed aside GOP requests for a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS’s treatment of Tea Party groups, saying the evidence didn’t warrant such a appointment.
“It is very, very rare to use a special prosecutor,” Deputy Attorney General James Cole told a House Oversight subcommittee, adding that he and Attorney General Eric Holder determined the IRS case "didn’t meet any sort of standard to warrant a special prosecutor."
Cole tried to assure Republicans at a House hearing that his department was taking seriously a criminal investigation that a host of GOP lawmakers have accused of being shoddy.
A top Justice Department official on Thursday brushed aside GOP requests for a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS’s treatment of Tea Party groups, saying the evidence didn’t warrant such a appointment.
“It is very, very rare to use a special prosecutor,” Deputy Attorney General James Cole told a House Oversight subcommittee, adding that he and Attorney General Eric Holder determined the IRS case "didn’t meet any sort of standard to warrant a special prosecutor."
Cole tried to assure Republicans at a House hearing that his department was taking seriously a criminal investigation that a host of GOP lawmakers have accused of being shoddy.
Cole
stressed that the department had made no final decisions about whether
anyone — including former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner —
would be charged with a crime as a result of their investigation. News
reports have suggested that Justice and the FBI had already determined
that no charges would be filed.
Cole’s testimony gave
little comfort to Republicans, who have intensified their investigation
into the IRS ever since the agency acknowledged that some of Lerner’s
emails over a two-year span had gone missing
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