The Federal Election Commission (FEC) and IRS may have colluded to target conservative organizations according to revelations from FEC Vice Chairman Don McGahn, CNN reports:
The vice chairman of the Federal Elections 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 collusion between the 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 -- 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."
McGhan also told CNN it was not clear from the e-mails he has seen whether the FEC was only seeking information publicly available on the conservative groups.
The email from the unnamed FEC attorney to former head of the IRS Tax Exempt Division Lois Lerner (a former FEC employee) raises the specter of impropriety and targeting, McGhan added.
The American Future Fund released a statement calling the e-mail exchanges "questionable behavior."
CNN's report adds fuel to speculation that Lerner may exchange immunity for testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.