Imagine you are an employee at the IRS or some other government agency and you are deciding whether to look at the actions of an organization to see if it is an illegal Republican front group. But this week you see the IRS commissioner on TV being shamed, harassed and smeared in a Republican Congressional hearing, his bank account being drained paying for legal help. Are you going to risk the same happening to you? It just isn't worth it.
The ostensible reason for the impeachment effort is that the commissioner "lied" when he said emails about checking the status of applicants would be turned over to the Republican witch-hunt investigation, because later it turned out that some email had been routinely destroyed according to IRS procedures.
Even the Republican outlet Fox News admits, in a report on the hearings:
"Despite numerous probes by Congress, the Justice Department and the IRS' independent inspector general, no proof has emerged that the IRS's treatment of conservative organizations was politically motivated or that any documents were purposely destroyed to hide evidence.
No matter. The purpose of the hearings is obviously not what Republicans say it is. Obviously this is about using power and threats and intimidation to "work the ref" and keep government agencies from enforcing laws and rules that would apply to illegal conservative and corporate election activity supporting Republicans.
The Republican hearing on impeaching the IRS commissioner is an obvious attempt to kneecap the IRS and keep it from doing its job. The IRS was legitimately trying to police the misuse of charitable organizations to keep secret the sources of political cash. This Republican war on the IRS is all about Republicans trying to take out the policeman as part of their plan to rob the bank.
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