John McCain and those newly released Lois Lerner emails

[Valin]

Power Line:

Paul Mirengoff

April 10, 2015

 

According to Judicial Watch, documents it has released show that top staffers from the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee met with Lois Lerner and others in a “marathon” meeting to discuss concerns raised by Senators John McCain and Carl Levin that IRS was not reining in political advocacy groups in response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. The meeting took place 11 days prior to Lerner’s admission at an ABA meeting that the IRS had inappropriately targeted conservative groups.

 

Judicial Watch’s report is a useful reminder that McCain, author of the McCain-Feingold legislation, is terrible on this particular issue of free speech. However, it looks to me like some media outlets are overstating what the documents reveal.

 

The Washington Examiner says: “Sens. McCain and Levin urged IRS to target Tea Party, conservative groups.” Politistick declares: “BREAKING: John McCain Pressured Obama IRS’s Lois Lerner to Attack Tea Party Conservatives.”

 

But Judicial Watch does not claim that the documents demonstrate that McCain’s staff called for the “targeting” of conservatives or for “attacking” them in particular. It states: “Documents reveal that Lerner was pressured by both Democrat Sen. Carl Levin and Republican Senator John McCain for IRS action against political advocacy groups.” Amplifying on this headline, Judicial Watch adds:

 

(Snip)