"Lerner Breaks Her Silence" -- Politico

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She also seemed well aware that these groups had been waiting for years to get an answer from the IRS. As early as mid-2011, she asked IRS lawyers how to get the applications wrapped up.

Yet it’s also clear that she wasn’t the only one who made missteps — she’s just the only name leading headlines.

For example, it was advisers in the IRS chief counsel’s office who requested that agents seek more information on conservative groups’ 2010 campaign activity, even after the organizations were waiting for exempt status for more than a year, according to Democratic congressional reports.

There were also multiple managers on these cases, and former IRS staffers told POLITICO that the IRS commissioners probably knew what was going on because they were always appraised of “hot-button issues.”

Still, none of her former IRS colleagues thought Lerner was working for the White House or biased.

Rather, in general, they say she lost control of her division — and that the GOP is taking advantage of it.

“You could take her out of there and just stand in a different person, and no matter who it is, we would have the same result,” said Karen Gries, a tax lawyer who worked with Lerner. “I don’t believe this is reflective of Lois the individual or Lois the professional.”

Her sympathizers note that she was in a tough spot because many sunlight groups and lawmakers were alleging that big-name nonprofits, like Crossroads, were making hundreds of millions in secret campaign contributions, exceeding IRS limits for campaign activity for tax-exempt groups. Lerner’s division had to enforce the law, they say.

But was the law applied equally to all political persuasions?

Emails show Lerner was looking at political activities of affiliates of liberal group Emerge, which won tax exemptions that were later revoked by her division after Lerner asked “how in the world” they got approved. But the number of conservative groups that were put on hold for years and asked inappropriate questions still far outnumber liberal ones.

Democrats, meanwhile, are still furious that Lerner didn’t tell Congress about the situation sooner.

Eventually, the IRS, Lerner’s employer for more than a decade, would turn 180 degrees against her. After she went on leave, acting IRS chief Danny Werfel tasked his investigators to build the case to fire Lerner, according to a former IRS official who was working on that probe.

But Lerner retired in September before the IRS could fire her.

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