North Cook News

U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL), a member of the Ways and Means Committee, is calling for the prosecution of a former Internal Revenue Service employee whom Roskam says helped "weaponize" the IRS by targeting conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.

Roskam sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions reminding him that the statute of limitations hasn’t run out on the crime he accuses Lois Lerner of committing.           .

Roskam called into Chicago’s "The Morning Answer" radio show on Wednesday to explain why he thinks Lerner should be prosecuted and IRS Commissioner John Koskinen should be fired.

“Every Republican on the Ways and Means Committee has written to President Trump saying please dismiss John Koskinen for all the obvious reasons,” Roskam said.

Roskam and Kevin Brady, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, are leading an ongoing push for Lerner’s prosecution. Three years ago, the committee sent a criminal referral to then-Attorney General Eric Holder, showing what it called probable cause that Lerner denied conservatives due process and equal protection and impeded an official investigation with the inspector general.

“These are actionable items," Roskam said. "These are felonies."

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice decided not to prosecute Lerner, according to World Net Daily.

Radio show host Dan Proft asked whether infighting at the senior level of the Trump Administration might be distracting Trump from firing Koskinen.

Proft is a principal of Local Government Information Services, which owns this publication.

Roskam said he didn’t know if infighting is the cause, but he hopes Sessions will revisit the case.

“The attorney general has an outstanding reputation of enforcing the law," he said. "When the IRS is weaponized, and it is used to target, it is incredibly corrosive."

Lerner faces a class-action lawsuit from 428 conservative groups that say they were targeted by her department, according to World Net Daily. Lerner claims she's received death threats over this case.