IRS fears employees being “seized with spontaneous diarrhea”

Hey, remember the Reader Poll we did about whether it was okay to follow and try to interview Lois Lerner in her neighborhood?

Do you approve of media confronting Lois Lerner in her neighborhood? (Reader Poll):

Jason Mattera of the Daily Surge recently filmed an unannounced confrontation with former IRS employee Lois Lerner in her own neighborhood.Lerner fled his camera and tried (unsuccessfully) to seek refuge in a neighbor’s home:… This may seem invasive and inappropriate, but as Jason Mattera asks her in so many words, is it any more inappropriate than the way Lerner used her position at the IRS to target average Americans?So what do you think. After viewing the video, and considering how it must feel for any controversial public figure (do unto others?) to be confronted where s/he lives, was the questioning of Lerner a good thing?

The result of the Reader Poll was overwhelming:

Just another Legal Insurrection fun time, right?

Someone noticed the comments to the blog post.  The IRS.  And it’s not happy.

In a federal FOIA lawsuit by Judicial Watch seeking records of Lerner emails and IRS efforts to retrieve the emails, the IRS used two of the comments to the Legal Insurrection Reader Poll post to justify the IRS no longer disclosing the identities of IRS personnel.

Think about that. The IRS is reading our comments. Don’t they have anything better to do, like hassle conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status? On second thought, keep reading our comments and leave conservative groups alone.

It’s all set forth in the IRS’s opposition to Judicial Watch’s Motion to Compel Discovery. You can read the whole thing here.

The Legal Insurrection post is Exhibit D to the IRS affidavit.

Footnote No. 2 of the IRS brief explains why one of the comments constitutes a supposed threat to Lerner and IRS employees such that their names need to be kept private [note – the IRS mistakenly refers to the post as Exhibit C, but it’s really Exhibit D]

Here’s the full comment by reader “Orwellington“:

And by “C. Lashawn“:

Does the IRS really fear “public whipping with a buggy whip” and being in such fear its employees are “seized with spontaneous diarrhea”?

Where does one even find a buggy whip these days?

I think the commenters were just being snarky.  You know, internet.

Now if they had wished to see Lerner hit over the head with a wet noodle resulting in spontaneous projectile vomiting, that would have had even me worried.

(added)

Judicial Watch v IRA – IRS Opposition to Discovery Motion – Exh D Legal Insurrection

Tags: IRS, Lois Lerner

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