Arent Fox’s Craig Engle Appears on CNN: Provides Analysis on the IRS Scandal to Erin Burnett on OutFront

The story reported new information about Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official who became a political lightning rod for her role in the tax targeting controversy.

“What I saw was a bias against money in politics,” said Mr. Engle, who previously worked with Ms. Lerner at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and now practices intricate tax-exempt law. “Lois’ opinion, and that then of her staff, was that if you had a lot of money, and you were spending it in politics, you needed to be looked into.”

In spring 2010, agents in the Cincinnati office of the IRS, which handles applications for tax-exempt status, faced a surge of filings by new advocacy groups. The decision to single out conservative groups for extra scrutiny has triggered a criminal inquiry, congressional investigations, and the departure of the IRS’s commissioner. CNN reported that, “Lois Lerner admitted her department at the IRS wrongly sought out conservative groups, like the Tea Party. But she clammed up when she was subpoenaed to testify about it.”

Mr. Engle is the founder of Arent Fox’s Political Law group and has extensive experience advising presidential candidates and political committees, tax exempt groups, and corporations on legal, legislative, political, and communications issues.