House Republicans for the first time Wednesday linked new IRS rules designed to clamp down on nonprofits with embattled former IRS employee Lois G. Lerner, saying her involvement taints the entire process and should force the tax agency to cancel its crackdown.

Republicans argue that the rules, proposed in November, are designed to silence interest groups’ free speech — which they say was the same reason the IRS asked intrusive questions and delayed tea party groups’ applications for tax-exempt status over the past few years.

SPECIAL COVERAGE: Tea Party Voices

Ms. Lerner, a former head of the division that reviewed those applications, was included on an email in 2012 in which staffers hinted at a secret effort to write the crackdown rules.

The email was released Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee, which said it shows Ms. Lerner’s involvement and proves that the rules were in the works for years, not a response to the scandal revealed in June. Republicans said that taints the whole process.
more @ http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/5/irs-email-reveals-lerners-role-in-tax-rule-to-rest/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS