Lois Lerner Mistakenly Received an Email to Senator Chuck Grassley Inviting Him to Speak at an Event.
She Immediately Asked If She Should Refer Him For an Audit.

Here's the email in which Lerner asks if she should refer him to "Exam," which is IRS Examinations Department, aka "the Audit department."

More at Twitchy.

The House Ways and Means Committee exploded:

"We have seen a lot of unbelievable things in this investigation, but the fact that Lois Lerner attempted to initiate an apparently baseless IRS examination against a sitting Republican United States Senator is shocking," said Camp. "At every turn, Lerner was using the IRS as a tool for political purposes in defiance of taxpayer rights. We may never know the full extent of the abuse since the IRS conveniently lost two years of Lerner emails, not to mention those of other key figures in this scandal. The fact that DOJ refuses to investigate the IRS's abuses or appoint a special counsel demonstrates, yet again, this Administration's unwillingness to uphold the rule of law."

@drewmtips clarifies one thing -- it's unclear if Lerner intends to refer Grassley, the organization inviting him, or both for a nice fat audit.

By the way, in the email chain, another IRS official tells Lerner she should not recommend this for an audit -- because while it seems to him that while, if Grassley accepted airfare for his wife to attend, this would be reportable income for his wife (or for Grassley and his wife, if they filed jointly), which would be legal, so long as they do what anyone usually does when they have reportable income, which is to report it.

Thus, Lerner is springing to recommend an audit despite another IRS official having to restrain her -- she in her mad-dog biting frenzy -- that one does not send someone to the audit department for something that isn't a breach of any law.

So this is like Lois Lerner finding out I offered to pay my friend $500 to fix my plumbing, and without finding out if the exchange ever occurred or if my friend planned to report the income (as required), Lois Lerner just immediately recommends the both of us be audited, because-- You Never Know.

So here's a summary of the exchange:

LOIS LERNER: Maybe I should recommend these people for an audit

OTHER IRS OFFICIAL: Um yeah maybe but there's nothing at all illegal here

LOIS LERNER (implied): That attitude isn't going to win us the White House in 2012

Meanwhile, Chuck Todd just demanded to know if there were any "actual victims" in the IRS scandal, suggesting that there weren't any, and it wasn't "black and white."

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posted by Ace at 05:10 PM

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