Trump Admin Should Purge IRS Of Officials Who Targeted Conservatives

On Wednesday, a conservative group appeared in court in its ongoing lawsuit that challenges the same provisions the IRS weaponized against right-leaning groups seeking nonprofit status more than a decade ago. The case is a reminder that Americans’ least favorite federal agency has long been used by the permanent bureaucracy to target conservative organizations and donors. But with Billy Long in place as IRS commissioner, the Trump administration has a rare opportunity to strike a decisive blow against rank partisanship and lawfare operations run out of the permanent bureaucracy.

DOGE was an encouraging start to the long campaign against waste, fraud, and abuse, but those victories will be all for naught if openly hostile, corrupt, and partisan executive agencies remain intact. Long no doubt understands that the lawfare operations used to target President Trump were at least inspired by the successful IRS targeting of conservative groups during the Obama administration.

Under Lois Lerner’s leadership, the IRS unfairly denied conservative groups tax-exempt status on the basis of their political leanings. In the ensuing investigation, Lerner, who served as director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations Unit, admitted to targeted denials for otherwise deserving organizations due to their conservative leanings.

Lerner resigned in disgrace in 2013, but few Americans comprehend that the scandal had almost zero effect on the agency. Instead of following her out of the agency, many of her co-conspirators remained and have since been promoted through the ranks. Unsurprisingly, many other IRS employees with enforcement authority are serial Democrat donors who flaunt their opposition to the Trump administration and support Democrat policies on social media. In fact, anti-conservative bias seems key to getting ahead at the agency.

A decade of lawfare against conservatives is simply too long. We can no longer give partisan bureaucrats the benefit of the doubt. If Trump