Ted Cruz Lambastes DOJ For Refusing To Appoint IRS Special Prosecutor: 'Height of Hypocrisy'

Cruz, concerned that the DOJ investigation was compromised due to the political proclivities of the lead investigator, had sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder back in January, asking for the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the IRS’s targeting practices.

The DOJ responded in a letter dated March 10 and made public Wednesday, saying that a special counsel is typically appointed when “an investigation or prosecution by the DOJ presents a conflict of interest, or in other extraordinary circumstances, such that the public interest would be served by such an appointment.”

The letter, which was signed by Peter Kadzik, the principal deputy assistant attorney general, says the request was denied because a conflict of interest did not exist.

Senator Cruz fired back with a blistering statement slamming the DOJ for refusing to appoint a special prosecutor in spite of the obvious conflict of interest of having a partisan Democrat leading the investigation.

“It is the height of hypocrisy for the Obama Administration to claim that the investigator leading the investigation into the IRS’s illegal program has no conflict of interest. The investigator is a partisan Democrat who has donated over six thousand dollars to President Obama and Democrat causes. Just as nobody would trust John Mitchell to investigate Richard Nixon, nobody should trust a partisan Obama donor to investigate the IRS’s political targeting of President Obama’s enemies. Sadly, “in the discretion of the Attorney General,” Eric Holder has chosen to reject the bipartisan tradition of the Department of Justice of putting rule of law above political allegiance.

“Both Nixon Administration Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Clinton Administration Attorney General Janet Reno appointed special prosecutors whose integrity was beyond reproach; Eric Holder should do likewise. To date, nine months after a damning Inspector General report, nobody has been indicted, many of the victims have not even been interviewed, and Lois Lerner has twice pleaded the Fifth. And yet the Attorney General refuses to allow a genuine–and impartial–investigation.

“The integrity of the Department of Justice deserves better. The American people deserve better.”