title: UNREAL! IRS USED ‘HUNDREDS OF LAWYERS’ TO HIDE INFORMATION FROM CONGRESS
text: So much for the promise of transparency from Obama. Hundreds of lawyers?  The  special project  this team was given? Concealing information from Congress.The IRS s director of privacy, governmental liaison, and disclosure division, Mary Howard, testified that soon after the IRS targeting scandal was revealed, the IRS  amassed hundreds of attorneys to go through the documents [requested by Congress] and redact them.  She told Congress that once the  special project team  was created and operational, she never saw requests for information.Members of Congress have long complained that many of the documents produced by the IRS have been  redacted to the point of absurdity.  Now we know why.Her testimony is clear: As soon as the IRS targeting scandal broke, the IRS set up a special team of hundreds of attorneys, including President Obama s political head of the Chief Counsel s office, to keep requests for publicly available information away from the person who would normally review those documents and turn them over to Congress and the public. That  special  team then overly redacted, delayed, and determined which documents it wanted Congress to see.After setting up a special  group  to target and delay applications by Tea Party groups for tax-exempt status, the IRS set up a new  special project team  to delay and redact information from Congress about that targeting. Talk about a cover-up.When asked about these revelations and the ongoing investigation by Congress into the IRS and former top IRS official Lois Lerner s involvement, Howard testified,  I think that Lois Lerner was the tip of the iceberg. This is what we at the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) have been arguing all along. The targeting of conservative groups, the delays, the unconstitutionally abusive questions go far beyond Lerner. We expect to learn more about Lerner s role and the disappearance and later recovery of many of her emails later this month as the Inspector General for Tax Administration is due to issue its report.Congress s investigation is far from over. At the ACLJ, our ongoing lawsuit on behalf of dozens of conservative and pro-life groups targeted by the IRS is far from over. Our appeal is pending before a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.Unfortunately, the targeting is far from over as well, as the application of one of our clients has been pending for well over five years. We will continue fighting to expose IRS corruption and pursue justice for the American people.Jay Sekulow is Chief Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which focuses on constitutional law. He is a New York Times bestselling author. Jay s latest book is  UNDEMOCRATIC: How Unelected, Unaccountable Bureaucrats Are Stealing Your Liberty and Freedom  (Howard Books May 19, 2015). He hosts  Jay Sekulow Live  a daily radio show which is broadcast on more than 850 stations nationwide as well as Sirius/XM satellite radio. Follow him on Twitter @JaySekulow.Via: FOX News