Ohio AG DeWine wants Lois Lerner's IRS testimony unsealed in tea party case

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has thrown his support behind efforts to unseal testimony by two former IRS officials at the center of the tea party scandal of 2013.

A federal judge previously sealed the depositions of former IRS divisional director Lois Lerner and her immediate subordinate after their personal lawyers said the two were receiving threats.

The Enquirer has since requested the documents be unsealed by U.S. District Court as the case has been tentatively settled. That request has been backed by the U.S. Justice Department and the lawyers suing the government. The two women's lawyers still oppose it.

DeWine joined in on The Enquirer's side last week by filing an amicus brief. The case "involves matters of profound public concern and ... the public’s right of access to documents filed in the litigation,” lawyers with DeWine's office wrote.

The attorney general's office declined to comment.

But DeWine's entry in the federal case comes as his 2018 run for Ohio governor gears up, prompting criticism from the state Democratic Party.

"This is part of a pattern where DeWine turns the office to suit his political views instead of representing the people of Ohio," said David Pepper, chair of the Ohio Democratic Party and DeWine's previous Democratic opponent for attorney general.

"He intervenes in cases all over the country that have nothing to do with Ohio," Pepper said. "It appears that he once again is trying to curry favor with those right-wing tea party groups in this case."

DeWine has gotten involved in several national cases, including a 2014 federal lawsuit involving Hobby Lobby and its fight against the birth-control mandate of the Affordable Care Act.

He also announced in late 2015 that Planned Parenthood was improperly disposing of fetal remains from abortions – a claim later proven false. That led to a lawsuit from the organization that the state paid more than $45,000 to settle.

DeWine also has weighed in on the IRS tea party lawsuits previously, filing a brief in April 2014 arguing against dismissal of one of the cases.

Why do the depositions even matter?

Lerner and Holly Paz were seen as key to the 2013 scandal, in which the IRS was found to have given close scrutiny to hundreds of conservative groups seeking nonprofit status leading up to the 2012 presidential campaign.

Those actions, primarily taken by officials at the IRS' nonprofit determination offices in downtown Cincinnati, were later deemed "improper" by the agency. Lerner and Paz headed the division from Washington.

The revelations led to the resignations of several top officials, including the former head of the IRS.

The cases have tentatively settled for an unspecified amount of money – believed to be in the millions of dollars – and an apology. However, the depositions could provide details never revealed about what happened and whether the improper actions were a mistake or intentional.