Would anyone be all that surprised if it turns out the Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service are working in collusion to keep Congress from getting to the bottom of the tea party targeting scandal? It certainly looks that way. DOJ officials are making it unusually difficult for a House panel to talk to Andrew Strelka, a former DOJ employee who once upon a time worked as an attorney for the IRS under ex-official Lois Lerner:
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa of California and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who heads one of the panel’s subcommittees, asked DOJ Aug. 25, 2014, to make Andrew Strelka available for a transcribed interview, but were told he no longer worked for the department. When the committee asked for Strelka’s subsequent contact information, DOJ declined to provide it.
Prior to joining DOJ, Strelka worked for the IRS under Lerner from 2008 to 2010 while she headed the federal tax agency’s exempt organizations division. Lerner and other government officials at the IRS and DOJ targeted Tea Party and conservative non-profit applicants for illegal harassment, intrusive questioning and lengthy processing delays.
Among the emails obtained by congressional investigators looking into the IRS scandal was one to Strelka in 2010 telling him “to be on the lookout for a Tea Party case.”
So where does Strelka work now if he’s no longer with the DOJ? Unsurprisingly, the answer to that question is unclear. According to Rep. Jordan, he was detailed to the White House from DOJ for six months, but according to a senior DOJ official he left the department voluntarily to accept a position outside the government. Strelka’s LinkedIn profile lists him as working for Washington, D.C. law firm Miller and Chevalier, but his name doesn’t appear on the firm’s employee page.
As Rep. Jordan wrote to DOJ in a Sept. 3 letter, “Obstructing a congressional investigation is a crime. Additionally, denying or interfering with a federal employee’s right to furnish information to Congress is against the law.” Clearly, DOJ — and IRS — officials both have something to hide and believe they’re above the law. Jordan has given DOJ until Sept. 8 to respond.