June 7, 2013 5:13PM # *National Journal*: Top Obama Advisers Admit IRS Could Have Been Asked to Suppress Political Dissidents By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) --- SHARE I have already [blogged](https://www.cato.org/blog/there-no-such-thing-good-government-ron-fournier-edition) about Ron Fournier’s remarkable *National Journal* [column](http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/how-obama-scandals-threaten-to-kill-good-government-20130607) on how President Obama’s many scandals make it hard to support big government. But there’s an item buried in that column that bears highlighting: > If investigators uncover even a single email or conversation between conservative-targeting IRS agents and either the White House or Obama’s campaign, incompetence will be the least of the president’s problems. > > > Team Obama has publicly denied any knowledge of (or involvement in) the targeting. ***Privately, top advisers admit that they don’t know if the denials are true, because a thorough investigation has yet to be conducted.*** No emails have been subpoenaed. No Obama aides put under oath. It seems Fournier has multiple sources close to the president who have basically said, “Did someone in the administration tell the IRS to suppress our opponents? Ehh, maybe.” ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Regulation](https://www.cato.org/regulatory-studies), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).