An employee at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) who was involved in targeting conservative groups during the Obama administration is now leading the same IRS division, according to a new memo from the American Accountability Foundation (AAF) obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Robert Choi served as the director of the IRS’s Tax-Exempt Organizations Rulings and Agreements division in 2010, when the agency began applying heightened scrutiny to organizations associated with the Tea Party movement seeking tax-exempt status, the AAF found. Despite this history, Choi was reportedly recently promoted to acting commissioner of the Tax Exempt and Government Entities division, which handles the administration of tax laws that govern tax-exempt organizations.
Choi led the Tax-Exempt Organizations Rulings and Agreements division between 2007 and 2010, reporting to Lois Lerner, who admitted in 2013 to singling out applications containing the words “tea party” or “patriot” for tax-exempt status, resulting in her resignation. Emails showing Lerner describing Republicans as “crazies” and “a**holes” also fueled allegations of anti-conservative bias within the agency. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: IRS Quietly Puts On New Face, Ousts Anti-Trump Spokeswoman With Drunk Driving Record)
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 05: Former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner (C) exercises her Fifth Amendment right not to speak about the IRS targeting investigation before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee during a hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building March 5, 2014 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The IRS website and an IRS organization chart dated May 8 both indicate that Choi is actively employed by the IRS. The White House, Choi, and the IRS did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
Although Choi faced no disciplinary actions at the time, publicly available records show he was involved in email communications related to the Tea Party cases the agency was handling, and that IRS employees sought “clearance” from him. Records also show that Choi — who is a registered Democrat in Maryland — was interviewed by lawmakers on the scandal in 2013.
Choi is not the only IRS employee linked to the Tea Party scandal who currently holds a high-ranking position at the agency.
The May 8 IRS organization chart lists Holly Paz, who worked under Choi and later succeeded him as the director of the Rulings and Agreements division, as commissioner of the agency’s Large Business and International division. Paz was placed on administrative leave in 2013 due to her involvement in the scandal, but was later elevated to a prominent position in the agency during the Biden administration.
Paz, who donated $4,000 to benefit the Obama campaign in 2008, told investigators at the time that she reviewed 20 to 30 applications for tax-exemption from Tea Party groups, many of which were held up for over a year.
“The Trump Administration should ensure the Tax-Exempt and Government Entities division of the IRS is free of its long-standing left-wing bias and ensure that any IRS employee involved in the tax scandal is removed from the agency writ large,” the AAF said in a statement to the DCNF.
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