Lois Lerner Emails Just Released: Tea Party is “Very Dangerous”, GOP Congressman Calls for “Criminal Penalties”

From Gateway Pundit:

Shady former IRS official Lois Lerner has been the prime operative of one of the biggest IRS scandals in history.  Lerner purposely targeted Tea Parties across the country as well as other conservative groups.

The IRS Scandal involves:

• At least 292 conservative groups targeted
• At least 5 pro-Israel groups targeted
• Constitutional groups targeted
• Groups that criticized Obama administration were targeted
• At least two pro-life groups targeted
• A Texas voting-rights group was targeted
• Conservative activists and businesses were targeted.
• At least 88 IRS agents were involved in the targeting scandal
• At least one conservative Hispanic group was targeted
• IRS continued to target groups even after the scandal was exposed

Now, newly released emails between Lois Lerner and her colleagues reveal she was targeting Tea Party groups and referred to them as “very dangerous”.  Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) is calling for criminal penalties against Lois Lerner for lying to congress.

Daily Caller reported:

House Ways and Means chairman Rep. Dave Camp vowed that “there will be consequences” after revealing secret emails that embattled Washington-based IRS official Lois Lerner sent to her colleagues suggesting collusion between the IRS and Democratic operatives and claiming that tea party applications should not be processed through the agency’s Cincinnati office.

“Tea Party Matter very dangerous… Counsel and Judy Kindell need to be in on this one… Cincy should probably NOT have these cases,” Lerner said in a February 2011 email, despite the fact that IRS officials initially claimed that the agency’s Cincinnati office was solely responsible for the improper targeting of tea party and conservative groups.

“Perhaps the FEC will save the day,” Lerner said in an email, responding to a complaint the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee registered with the Federal Elections Commission. The IRS and FEC reportedly collaborated on tea party targeting.

“There is increasing and overwhelming evidence that Lois Lerner and high-level IRS employees in Washington were abusing their power to prevent conservative groups from organizing and carrying out their missions. There are still mountains of documents to go through, but it is clear the IRS is out of control and there will be consequences,” Camp said.

The IRS did not immediately return a request for comment, but is “working on a statement.”