Former IRS Official Reportedly Wanted to Audit a U.S. Senator

The Lois Lerner saga bubbled back up to the surface again after it was revealed the former IRS exempt organizations official had suggested auditing Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. It all started when Lerner, who has been accused of unfairly targeting conservative groups for IRS scrutiny, accidentally received an invitation meant for Grassley for a panel they had both been invited to speak to. From ABC News:

The group mixed up their tickets and Grassley’s invitation indicated that the group was also paying for Grassley’s wife to travel and attend the seminar. Grassley’s wife, Barbara, is a lobbyist." 

Grassley's office says invite which went to Lerner was in Spring '13. Says he rejected invite because Congress was in session. #IRS

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) June 25, 2014

And so the back-burnered scandal has come roaring back again. The e-mails, which were uncovered earlier today, signaled what could be construed as distaste for Grassley by Lerner:

Don’t think I want to be on stage with Grassley on this issue.”

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Dave Camp, who released the e-mails had this to say: 

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 development also unleashed a torrent of internet scorn against Lerner. 

And some sarcasm from the Washington Free Beacon, which has been all over the loss of the emails, that the IRS blames on a computer crash.

We'll be hearing more about this in coming days, you can bet on that.