GOP Lawmaker: Tea Party Apology Not Accepted, 'Heads Should Roll' at IRS

Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., did not accept the apology from the Internal Revenue Service for targeting groups based their political leanings.

"Heads should roll and people should be held accountable for this gross abuse of power," Buchanan, chairman of the House Ways and Means Oversight subcommittee said in a press release on Monday.

Court documents filed Wednesday showed that the IRS apologized and agreed not to single out applications based on the political views of an organization. The Trump administration settled lawsuits with dozens of tea party groups over that treatment. 

"An apology five years after the fact is not good enough. The American people need to know they can be critical of their government without fear of retribution," Buchanan said.

The Republican lawmaker also urged the Justice Department to look again at criminal charges for Lois Lerner, a former IRS official.

The Justice Department recently declined to charge Lerner, saying that reopening that probe "would not be appropriate based on the available evidence."

"Lerner betrayed the nation's trust yet managed to avoid prosecution," Buchanan said in the press release.

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