CHICAGO - According to the Oberweis campaign, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin was caught lying today at the Chicago Tribune editorial board session when asked about his role in the IRS scandal.
In a press release, Oberweis said Durbin was asked unequivocally whether he or his U.S. Senate staff had ANY contact with the IRS during the IRS scandal other than the well-publicized letter he wrote asking the IRS to target Crossroads GPS on Oct. 10, 2010.
Durbin responded that there was no other correspondence.
Oberweis then produced an email from a Durbin staffer to an IRS staffer two days after the Crossroads letter. The email was first revealed by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in its June 16, 2014 report titled, "How Politics Led the IRS to Target Conservative Tax-Exempt Applicants for the Political Beliefs."
"Dick Durbin flat-out lied to the Tribune editorial board. This is important because we don't know how deep Dick Durbin's role was in the IRS scandal that he himself characterized as reminiscent of the worst abuses of the Richard Nixon era," Oberweis said.
Oberweis called on Durbin to reveal all emails and correspondence he and his staff had with the IRS.
Durbin has refused to support a special prosecutor in the IRS scandal and is saying that only 2 of 100 people in Illinois care that the IRS illegally attempting to suppress Americans' political speech.
Below is the question Jim Oberweis asked Dick Durbin at today's Tribune session:
During this campaign we have noted that you and a few other Democratic Senators played an integral role in targeting conservative Americans free speech rights by asking the IRS to investigate them. In addition to the infamous Oct. 10, 2010 letter, asking the IRS to investigate the conservative Crossroads organization, we have asked several times for you to reveal any other communication you or your office had with the IRS during the midst of the scandal. You have mostly refused to answer this question, but your campaign sent out a statement recently that included the following assertion: “Sen. Durbin has posted all communication he had with the IRS on his Senate website — and it has been there for four years.” Do you stand by your campaign’s assertion that you and your office had only that one communication with the IRS during the scandal?
