By Robert Schmad
Washington Examiner
An official involved in the Obama-era Internal Revenue Service scandal, which involved IRS officials singling out conservative groups for increased scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status, is now the acting director of the agency’s ethics watchdog department.
Elizabeth Kastenberg, the new acting director of the IRS’s Office of Professional Responsibility, was directly involved in the Obama administration’s audit of conservative nonprofit organizations, which prevented them from taking part in the 2012 election, according to new research compiled by the American Accountability Foundation and obtained exclusively by the Washington Examiner. Katsenberg worked to find ways to deny tax-exempt status to groups linked to the Tea Party movement and even admitted that the agency’s behavior was politically motivated.
In addition to Kastenberg, Jacqueline Bennett, a supervisory legal administrative specialist, is listed as a member of the office’s “management team.” Bennett has a history of making social media posts critical of the conservative movement, including at least one instance where she compared the United States under the Trump administration to Germany under the Nazi Party.
Bennett and Kastenberg comprise two of the four individuals tasked with leading the IRS’s ethics office. Together, they are responsible for “ensuring all tax practitioners, tax preparers, and other third parties in the tax system adhere to professional standards and follow the law.”
Even after the transfer of power between former President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump in January, many leadership positions in the IRS continued to be occupied by liberals.