The Holder Department of Justice (DOJ) rejected a request from Texas Senator Ted Cruz to appoint a special prosecutor for the investigation into the IRS scandal in a letter released this week. The DOJ argued that it saw no apparent conflict of interest with its current investigator Barbara Bosserman–who has contributed thousands of dollars to Obama and other Democrats according to recent Breitbart News reports.
Despite the DOJ’s denial of his request, the junior Texas Senator’s office said it will not give up the fight to hold the Obama Administration accountable. A Cruz spokesperson told Breitbart Texas, “We will certainly push back…This is an issue that Cruz remains committed to.”
In response to the DOJ’s denial of his request, Cruz said in a statement, “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… Nobody should trust a partisan Obama donor to investigate the IRS’s political targeting of President Obama’s enemies.”
Cruz sent his initial request to Attorney General Eric Holder on January 22. He wrote in a letter, “It strains credulity to say that, out of the over 114,000 employees of the Department of Justice, the only possible choice to lead the investigation was a major political donor to President Obama. This, on its face, is a significant conflict of interest… General Holder… I would ask you to immediately appoint a special prosecutor, with meaningful independence, to investigate the IRS’ illegal targeting of conservative groups.”
Nearly two months later on March 10, the DOJ responded to Cruz in writing. A letter signed by Peter J. Kadzik, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, said that the appointment of a special prosecutor “is not warranted.” Kadzik admitted in his letter that such an appointment is permitted when a DOJ investigation presents a conflict of interest–but he denied the presence of any such conflict. Bosserman’s name was not mentioned in the letter.
Cruz responded to the rejection by citing the Nixon and Clinton administrations, which both appointed non-partisan investigators in relation to major scandals. “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,” Cruz said. “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.”
He concluded, “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.”
“It is going to take the grassroots across the nation, as well as other members of Congress, to hold this administration accountable,” Cruz’s office told Breitbart Texas. “This is an issue [Cruz] will continue to shine a light on.”
DOJ Special Prosecutor Response by BreitbartTexas
201478237 Letter From Sen Ted Cruz to Eric Holder on the IRS s Targeting of Conservative Groups by BreitbartTexas
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