Following up on last week's post, IRS Heads Of Large Business And Professional Responsibility Units Placed On Leave Pending Investigation Of Their Conduct Against Republicans:  Bloomberg Law, Decade-Old Tea Party Case Looms Over IRS Probe of Career Leaders:

In the decade since the IRS’s tax-exempt division was found to have flagged conservative-leaning nonprofit applications, Republicans haven’t forgotten.

Both of the senior career officials—Holly Paz and Elizabeth Kastenberg—put on administrative leave last week for unspecified, alleged conduct against Republicans worked for Lois Lerner, the central figure of the 2013 controversy. And while Lerner, the tax-exempt division head, and other top leaders were ousted amid investigations and congressional hearings, Paz and Kastenberg remained at the IRS.

Now other employees may worry that they’ll be fired or put on leave if their work or views don’t align with the Trump administration’s priorities, former IRS officials said. It could hinder the IRS’s work to implement the GOP’s massive tax law, especially since a quarter of the agency has exited amid President Donald Trump’s federal workforce cuts.

“When people are scared, they don’t make decisions, and that’s not good for taxpayers,” said Sunita Lough, former commissioner of the Tax-Exempt and Government Entities Division following the fallout who is now retired.

The move to investigate Paz and Kastenberg depicts a battle over politicization of an agency that’s widely seen as nonpartisan. Trump put a former Republican congressman at the helm of the IRS and called on the agency to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status while Republicans have long pointed to the case as evidence of bias inside the agency.

New Commissioner Billy Long voted to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress when he served there for refusing to answer questions about her involvement and urged the IRS to investigate its treatment of nonprofits.

“The IRS’s conduct appears widespread and almost certainly has a chilling effect on the right to free speech,” Long said in a 2014 statement. “It is imperative we get answers for the American people and hold those who are found guilty responsible.”

The IRS said in a statement that it doesn’t comment on personnel decisions. Kastenberg, Paz, and Lerner couldn’t be reached for comment.

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