A federal judge recently dismissed charges against former President Donald Trump for his handling of classified documents, finding that the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutional. This news comes weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuked Smith’s separate prosecution of Trump’s actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election. The court found that the president has absolute immunity from prosecution when executing official duties that fall within his “conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority.”
While the prosecutions of Donald Trump brought Smith to public attention, it was not the first time he was accused of weaponizing the federal government against conservatives. Over 10 years ago, Smith was a central figure in the IRS Tea Party targeting scandal that similarly ended in admonishment for the agency — but not before the actions of Smith and others successfully stifled and smeared nonprofits advocating for conservative policies. As Smith’s eventual role in the Trump case attests, the leaders of the IRS targeting scandal largely escaped accountability for their abuse of power, and some remain influential in government to this day.
In 2013, the IRS apologized for subjecting applications for tax-exempt status from conservative organizations to extrajudicial review. The activity occurred during the peak of the Tea Party movement, shortly before the 2012 presidential election, when activists were speaking out loudly against then-President Barack Obama’s policy agenda. We’ll never know how big that movement could have grown, however, because the IRS slammed the brakes (and, in some cases, the door) on the application process for groups expressing conservative viewpoints