The IRS' targeting of conservative groups goes "to the level of the president's inner ring of advisers and handlers," Chris Farrell, director of research and investigation at Judicial Watch, said
on Newsmax TV's "America's Forum."
"This did not happen by accident," Farrell said. "This is a concerted political campaign and effort to undermine the outcome of an election and to target political opponents. It's very serious stuff. This is not a joke."
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In addition, Farrell said, former IRS official Lois Lerner was a political operative for the Democratic Party for years, and the current scandal is nothing new for her.
"There's documentation of her being involved in a side campaign going all the way back to 1996, so this is nothing new," Farrell said. "This is a pattern of practice of her sort of maneuvering within the system for political purposes, but when it comes to the here and now of this crisis, this abuse of power at the IRS, it really goes much higher than her.
"She's not operating on her own dreaming this stuff up, this is part of an orchestrated campaign by the Obama political machine and by the DNC. She just happens to be the agent, the actor in the right place at the right time."
Farrell also said he is thankful on the
Supreme Court's ruling Monday that Hobby Lobby and other closely held businesses would not have to finance birth control for their employees, if doing so violates the religious beliefs of their owners.
"Given that the chief justice got it so terribly wrong two years ago and upheld Obamacare when it really should've been struck down then, it's reassuring that people can still exercise their conscience," Farrell said.
He also welcomed a
second Supreme Court ruling that employees need not donate money to unions when they do not belong.
"Again, they made the right decision here," Farrell said. "The unions will scream, the unions will go out of their minds over this one, but you can't jam people into positions they don’t wish to participate in and take their money."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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