'A lawless freight train': Outrage after bombshell email reveals how Lois Lerner targeted GOP Senator after she accidentally received invitation meant for him

Emails obtained by the House Ways and Means Committee show that the IRS official at the center of the Tea Party targeting scandal also went after a GOP Senator

Lois Lerner and Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley were invited to participate in a panel. Lerner accidentally received Grassley's invite

In the invitation the organization offered to pay for Grassley's wife to attend the event

Lerner suggested that the IRS perform an audit upon receiving the email before Grassley or the sponsoring organization had broken any rules

Grassley didn't end up attending the event, his office says

Congressional investigators say they uncovered emails Wednesday showing that a former Internal Revenue Service official at the heart of the Tea Party targeting scandal also sought to audit Republican Senator Chuck Grassley in 2012.



According to the emails, former IRS official Lois Lerner mistakenly received an invitation to an event that was meant for the Iowa Senator. An event organizer had offered to pay for Grassley's wife, Barbara Ann, to attend the event.



In an email to other IRS officials, Lerner suggests referring the matter for an audit. 'Perhaps we should refer to exam?' Lerner wrote in a December 4, 2012 email.

A Republican staffer on the Senate Finance Committee, on which Grassley sits – and which oversees the IRS – told MailOnline that he wouldn’t be surprised if the IRS were targeting more senior legislators in the GOP.

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Courting controversy: Emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner to a colleague show that Lerner tried to target Republican Senator Chuck Grassley in a probe before he'd done anything wrong

'What we have here is a lawless freight train,' the aide said, 'and we’re only seeing the front end of it at this point. First it was the phony hard drive crash and now Senator Grassley? It's getting clearer and clearer why Lois Lerner pleaded the Fifth so much in the House [of Representatives].'

'Let's just hope that Lerner was a one-woman star chamber. I'd hate to think this is still going on now that she's retired.'

It was unclear from Lerner's emails whether she was suggesting that Grassley or the group should be audited – or both.

Another IRS official, Matthew Giuliano, waved her off, noting that neither party had broken any rules.



'Your and Grassley’s invitations were placed in each other’s envelopes,' Giuliano said in a reply email. 'Not sure we should send to exam. I think the offer to pay for Grassley’s wife is income to Grassley, and not prohibited on its face.'

An audit would be premature because Grassley hadn't even accepted the invitation, Giuliano said. And if the senator did, he would only be in the wrong if he did not report the price of the ticket as income.



The name of the event organizer was blacked out on copies of the emails released by the House Ways and Means Committee because they were considered confidential taxpayer information. Grassley and his wife signed waivers allowing their names to be released.

Grassley had been an outspoken critic of the way the IRS policed tax-exempt groups even before the Tea Party controversy erupted last year.



On the occasion referred to in Lerner's emails, she and the Senator were invited to participate on the same panel.



'Don't think I want to be on the stage with Grassley on this issue,' she said in one email.

In a statement, Grassley's office said neither the senator nor his wife attended the event because Congress was in session. He also said he did not receive any invitation intended for Lerner.

'This kind of thing fuels the deep concerns many people have about political targeting by the IRS and by officials at the highest levels,' Grassley said.



'It's very troubling that a simple clerical mix-up could get a taxpayer immediately referred for an IRS exam without any due diligence from agency officials.'

The IRS said in a statement that it could not comment on the specifics of the case 'due to taxpayer confidentiality provisions.'

'As a general matter, the IRS has checks and balances in place to ensure the fairness and integrity of the audit process,' the IRS statement said. 'Audits cannot be initiated solely by personal requests or suggestions by any one individual inside the IRS.'

The IRS says it has lost an untold numbers of Lerner's emails because her computer crashed in 2011, sparking outrage among Republican lawmakers who have accused the tax agency of a cover-up. The emails released Wednesday were among the thousands that have been turned over to congressional investigators.

'We have seen a lot of unbelievable things in this investigation, but the fact that Lois Lerner attempted to initiate an apparently baseless IRS examination against a sitting Republican United States senator is shocking,' House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp said in a statement on Wednesday.



'At every turn, Lerner was using the IRS as a tool for political purposes in defiance of taxpayer rights.'

After Lerner mistakenly received an invitation meant for Grassley and his wife, she requested that they be audited. Grassley, left, and his wife Barbara Ann, right, are shown here in January of 2011 at a mock swearing-in ceremony presided over by Vice President Joe Biden in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill

Grassley said in a statement that neither he nor his wife attended the event referred to in Lerner's emails. Grassley is pictured here at the Hy-Vee Conference Center in West Des Moines, Iowa, celebrating the Senator's reelection in 2010

Lerner headed the IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status. The IRS has acknowledged that agents improperly scrutinized applications by tea party and other conservative groups before the 2010 and 2012 elections. Documents show that some liberal groups were singled out, too.

Ways and Means is one of three congressional committees investigating the way the IRS processed applications for tax-exempt status. The Justice Department is also investigating.

Also Wednesday, a group of Republican senators — including Grassley — said they want to expand a Senate investigation to look more closely at how the agency lost the emails.

Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee said they want know why the Treasury Department and the White House were told about the lost emails more than a month before Congress was told. They have asked committee chairman Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, to schedule a hearing with IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.

Wyden's office was noncommittal Wednesday, saying he hadn't seen the request.

The Republicans, led by Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, are also asking the Treasury and Justice departments, and the Federal Election Commission, to turn over any emails they might have from Lerner.

'The IRS' failure to inform the committee months or even weeks ago about the missing emails raises serious questions about its commitment to cooperate with this investigation,' the letter said.

In testimony before a House panel this week, Koskinen said the IRS waited to tell Congress until officials knew the full extent of the email loss.

Koskinen said the Treasury Department has agreed to turn over emails it has from Lerner. The White House said last week it has found no emails between anyone in the executive office of the president and Lerner.

At the time of Lerner's computer crash in June 2011 the IRS had a policy of backing up emails on computer tapes, but the tapes were recycled every six months, Koskinen said. He said Lerner's hard drive was recycled and presumably destroyed.