Though Congress may not be able to do more than rail at Koskinen and the IRS, the Z Street case will not only open up a window on their behavior but, as the Wall Street Journal editorial page wrote earlier this week:
Attorney General Eric Holder won’t name a special prosecutor, but there’s still plenty of room for the judge in the Z Street case to force the IRS to explain and answer for its “willful spoliation” of email evidence.
The spectacle of a ruthless tax agency acting illegally and with seeming impunity undermines the rule of law and faith in our democratic system. And since neither Democrats nor their cheering section in the media appear willing to rise up and pressure the administration to appoint a prosecutor who will investigate these extremely suspicious coincidences and missing evidence (which would have liberals screaming for impeachment if the two sides were reversed and a Republican administration behaved in this manner), not much may happen to anyone in the scandal and the agency may escape accountability. But the Z Street suit has the potential to reveal more about this scandal than all the committees in Congress may ever be able to produce.
*The president of that pro-Israel group now works for The Jewish Press.
Originally published at Commentary Magazine.com ./Jonathan Tobin