Judge threatens IRS, Justice Dept. with contempt

Judge Emmet Sullivan

Attorneys for the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice in Judicial Watch’s FOIA lawsuit seeking documents about the targeting and harassment of tea party and conservative opponents of President Obama have tested U.S District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan’s patience one too many times.

On Wednesday, Sullivan threatened the agencies’ attorneys with contempt of court for failing to produce mandated status reports and newly recovered emails from Lois Lerner, former director of the IRS’ Exempt Organizations Unit. He added that he would hold IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in contempt as well.

Calling failure to follow his order “serious” and the IRS and Justice Department’s excuses for not following his July 1 order to produce the documents “indefensible, ridiculous, and absurd,” Sullivan asked IRS’ Justice Department lawyer Geoffrey Klimas, “Why didn’t the IRS comply” and “why shouldn’t he hold the commissioner of the IRS in contempt.”

Sullivan, who officiated at the trial of the late Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) in 2009, reminded the government attorneys that he had found government prosecutors in contempt in that case, even initiating a criminal contempt investigation of six members of the federal legal team. He warned the DOJ attorney that he had the authority to detain him for contempt.

If his orders continue to be disregarded, “I will haul into court the IRS Commissioner to hold him personally into contempt,” Sullivan warned.

“The case for personal freedom” is made in Judge Andrew Napolitano’s “It Is Dangerous To Be Right When the Government Is Wrong.”

Sullivan today ruled in the following “minute order” that his original ruling still stands, now backed with the threat to charge the government with contempt:

“At the July 29, 2015, status hearing, the government agreed that the court’s July 1, 2015, oral order from the bench was clear and enforceable. Nonetheless, the government reasoned it inappropriate to file a motion for reconsideration until a written order was issued. As expressed at the hearing, the government’s reasoning is nonsensical. Officers of the court who fail to comply with court orders will be held in contempt. Also, in the event of non-compliance with future court orders, the commissioner of the IRS and others shall be directed to show cause as to why they should not be held in contempt of Court. The Court’s July 1, 2015, ruling from the bench stands: (1) the government shall produce relevant documents every Monday; (2) the government’s document production shall be accompanied by a status report that indicates (a) whether TIGTA (Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration) has turned over any new documents to the IRS, (b) if so, the number of documents, and (c) a timeframe for the IRS’ production of those documents.”

Three weeks ago, WND reported Judicial Watch’s release of documents – initially claimed to have been lost – obtained from the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service that confirm a strategy to prosecute conservatives who publicly oppose President Obama’s policies.

The internal documents uncovered by Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act request confirm the transfer of millions of pages of confidential taxpayer records from the IRS to the DOJ.

The IRS scandal has been in the headlines for several years, since it was revealed the agency selectively impeded the applications for tax-exempt status of conservative, Christian and tea party organizations.

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“In a dramatic court hearing today, Judge Sullivan made it clear he would personally hold accountable the IRS Commissioner Koskinen and Justice Department attorneys for any further contempt of his court orders in the Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

“The missing and-then-not missing Lois Lerner saga is a stark example of the Obama administration’s contempt for a federal court and the rule of law. That Obama administration officials would risk jail rather than disclose these Lerner documents shows that the IRS scandal has just gotten a whole lot worse.”

The developments come in Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:13-cv-01559). Judicial Watch’s litigation forced the IRS first to admit that Lerner’s emails were supposedly missing and, then, that the emails were still on IRS’ back-up systems.

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