FEC vice-chair says e-mail raises questions of improper conduct with IRS

The plot thickens. Before the IRS, she was general counsel and head of the enforcement office at the FEC since 1986. Craig Engle, a D.C. attorney had worked with her and testified that she felt conservative groups should be subjected to more vigorous investigations and backed Republicans against the wall while giving Democrats a pass. Contributions from foreign nationals drew more scrutiny when they went to Republicans than when they went to Democrats. Nice. Shows she wasn't exactly neutral and this explains the treatment of conservative groups from the IRS.

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Washington (CNN) -- The vice chairman of the Federal Election Commission told CNN on Monday he has seen numerous undisclosed e-mails between FEC staffers and the Internal Revenue Service that raise new questions about potential improper contact between two federal agencies in the alleged targeting of conservative political groups.

Don McGahn, a Republican FEC commissioner, said an investigator from his agency contacted Lois Lerner, the IRS employee at the center of the political storm now engulfing that agency.

He said the contact was made to discuss the status of one such conservative political advocacy group, the American Future Fund.

Shortly after Lerner was contacted, the IRS sent a questionnaire to the American Future Fund, McGahn added.

"Who's the dog and who's the tail (in this case)? Who knows," McGahn said. But "dealing with Lois Lerner is probably out of the ordinary."

The answers, McGahn stressed, "could be benign (or) could be more sinister."

McGahn, who did not provide a timeline of events, said FEC commissioners had not given their staffers permission to reach out to the IRS on the matter, which is generally required for such inquiries.

The e-mails McGahn described to CNN are exactly what Republican congressional investigators are asking IRS and FEC officials to turn over to Congress as part of its investigation.

Ellen L. Weintraub, the Democratic chairwoman of the FEC, said she does not know about the e-mails between the FEC investigator and Lerner to which McGahn is referring.

"If there was any evidence or targeting based on ideology, that would be extremely serious, but I have not seen any evidence of that," she said.

"I am not aware of requesting or receiving any confidential taxpayer information. I am not aware of any requests for anything that wasn't publicly available."

Last week, congressional Republicans disclosed several e-mails between Lerner, the former head of the IRS division handling tax exempt organizations, and an unnamed FEC attorney inquiring about the status of the American Future Fund and another conservative outfit, the American Issues Project.

The e-mails were first uncovered by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Michigan, who sent a letter last week to acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel requesting additional details regarding exchanges between Lerner and the FEC.

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http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/05/politics/irs-fec-controversy