Emails delivered to the House Oversight Committee by the IRS have revealed shocking collusion between committee Democrats and the IRS bureaucrats in the targeting of conservative groups. Moreover, the staff of Rep. Elijah Cummings, who has done everything in his power to obstruct and denigrate the inquiry, are revealed to have secretly collaborated with the IRS in the targeting, despite Rep. Cummings’ denials. This is serious stuff. CJ Ciaramella of the Free Beacon reports:

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sent tax documents on a targeted conservative group to Democratic staff on the House Oversight Committee, newly released emails show, despite previous denials by ranking Oversight Democrat Elijah Cummings (D., Md.) that such contact had occurred.

Emails released by the GOP-led Oversight Committee show Democratic staff requested information from the IRS’ tax-exempt division on True The Vote, a conservative group that monitors polling places for voter fraud. (snip)

Cummings publicly requested information from True the Vote in October 2012 on its volunteer activities and training.

Five days later, the IRS sent True the Vote a letter requesting the group provide the agency with copies of its volunteer registration forms and additional information on its volunteer activities.

Cummings’ staff requested more information from the IRS about True the Vote in January 2013.  The request was channeled from the IRS’ Legislative Affairs office to several other IRS officials, including Lerner.

Three days later, Lerner wrote to her deputy Holly Paz: “Did we find anything?” Paz wrote that she hadn’t heard back, to which Lerner replied: “thanks—check tomorrow please.”

In a February 2014 Oversight Committee hearing, Cummings denied allegations by True The Vote attorney Cleta Mitchell that his staff had worked with the IRS in targeting the group.

We can expect Cummings to play the race card soon, because he has been caught red-handed. But he will still have some awkward questions to answer:

Oversight chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) and five subcommittee chairmen sent a letter to Cummings Thursday demanding an explanation for his staff’s activities.

“Although you have previously denied that your staff made inquiries to the IRS about conservative organization True the Vote that may have led to additional agency scrutiny, communication records between your staff and IRS officials—which you did not disclose to Majority Members or staff—indicates otherwise,” Issa wrote. “As the Committee is scheduled to consider a resolution holding Ms. Lerner, a participant in responding to your communications that you failed to disclose, in contempt of Congress, you have an obligation to fully explain your staff’s undisclosed contacts with the IRS.”

The IRS still has not released many emails. Who knows what depth charges remain to be exploded?

Despite media efforts to downplay the serious corruption involved when the tax authority collaborates with one political party ( so serious an issue that it was one of the articles of impeachment for Richard Nixon, drafted in part by young Hillary Clinton), the GOPhaas the upper hand here. The IRS is not popular, and anyone who seeks to abuse it for poltiical gain will not be a sympathetic figure, no matter what race the person.