This isn’t a surprise, but it is extremely disappointing. The Daily Caller is reporting today that the Justice Department will not file criminal charges against Lois Lerner. Ms. Lerner, as the head of the Internal Revenue Service, routinely discriminated against conservative groups seeking tax exempt status.

The article states:

“Substantial evidence of mismanagement, poor judgment and institutional inertia leading to the belief by many tax-exempt applicants that the IRS targeted them based on their political viewpoints. But poor management is not a crime,” the letter reads, according to CNN.

The Justice Department opened its investigation of Lerner, then the director of IRS’ exemptions unit, after it was discovered that she had flagged a disproportionate number of conservative groups’ tax-exempt status applications. Lerner was placed on a leave of absence from the IRS in May 2013 and resigned in September of that year.

Just for the record, it wasn’t a belief that conservatives were targeted.

According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Report:

The IRS used inappropriate criteria that identified for review Tea Party and other organizations applying for tax-exempt status based upon their names or policy positions instead of indications of potential political campaign intervention. Ineffective management: 1) allowed inappropriate criteria to be developed and stay in place for more than 18 months, 2) resulted in substantial delays in processing certain applications, and 3) allowed unnecessary information requests to be issued. Although the processing of some applications with potential significant political campaign intervention was started soon after receipt, no work was completed on the majority of these applications for 13 months…. For the 296 total political campaign intervention applications [reviewed in the audit] as of December 17, 2012, 108 had been approved, 28 were withdrawn by the applicant, none had been denied, and 160 were open from 206 to 1,138 calendar days (some for more than three years and crossing two election cycles)…. Many organizations received requests for additional information from the IRS that included unnecessary, burdensome questions (e.g., lists of past and future donors).

We have reached a very dangerous place in America–where people who disagree with the Democrats in power can be targeted by the Internal Revenue Service. When Richard Nixon, a Republican, attempted that, he was impeached, as he should have been. We have come a long way. Understand that if Hillary Clinton is elected, there will be a new enemies list (the Clintons had one the last time they were in office), and the people on that list can expect to be harassed by the government. Please consider that before you vote.