Catherine Engelbrecht Slams “Lying” Elijah Cummings, Says “The Weaponization of Government is in Play” (Video)

Megyn Kelly had True the Votes’  Catherine Engelbrecht on her show, Thursday night to talk about the newly discovered emails that show collusion between the IRS and Elijah Cummings and his staff.

Kelly noted that the new information shows it’s clear that Elijah Cummings and Democrats wanted information on Engelbrecht,  yet he appeared to have denied that in the February Oversight hearing.

Engelbrecht answered, “I think I would go beyond, ‘he appears to be’ – he LIED.  He impugned me and the work of my organization and he did so with such brazenness that I think we have to call it what it is. He’s lying.”

Kelly noted that the coordination between Cummings’ office and the IRS was happening while the targeting was going on.

“This is the worst of your fears confirmed,” Engelbrecht replied, choosing her words carefully. “That in fact, the weaponization of government is in play. We see the coordination between branches of government to single out citizens who are exercising their constitutional rights. Nothing more and nothing less than that – it’s outrageous.”

Megyn noted how Cummings had “initially expressed dismay” at what the IRS did to conservative groups, but not long into the investigation, he was quick to dismiss it.” She showed a clip from June 2013 when Cummings was interviewed by CNN’s Candy Crowley (who shouldn’t still have a job after Oct 2012 but whatever.) At that point, you may remember, Cummings had declared the case “solved” (as Crowley nodded her head in approval) and called it a “witch hunt.”   (I always thought there was a “thou dost protest too much” aspect to that.) Infuriated, Oversight Chair Darrell Issa had immediately released a statement calling the comments “extreme and reckless”  — a signal that “his true motivation was stopping needed Congressional oversight” and he had “no genuine interest in working, on a bipartisan basis, to expose the full truth.”

It was even worse than that. “He had something to hide!” Megyn Kelly exclaimed.

“Absolutely,” Engelbrecht agreed. “He had every reason to want to shut the investigation down before those emails that he knew existed, were revealed.  He failed in that attempt, and now the truth is coming to light, and mind you Megyn – we haven’t seen all the emails yet. We are just beginning to recognize the tip of a very ugly iceberg.”

Megyn asked, Cummings’ lie aside, what was wrong with his office requesting publicly available information on her group? Engelbrecht revealed that the emails she has seen have been heavily redacted, indicating that more than just “public information” had been disclosed. She sagely noted, “if he’s so confident that his actions were appropriate, why lie about it?”

Engelbrecht went on to say that thousands of Americans had been unjustly targeted by the government, and vowed to continue to point it out with everything she has. “This used to be a country where citizens were lauded for being engaged. And now they’re targeted,” she concluded.

MORE:

CBS News Washington DC: Cruz: Holder Should Be Impeached For ‘Defying Congress And The Rule Of Law’ In IRS Scandal:

Sen. Ted Cruz said Attorney General Eric Holder should be impeached if he doesn’t indict former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner, who is linked to the agency’s targeting of conservative groups.

Speaking on Sean Hannity’s radio program Thursday, the Texas Republican labeled Holder the “most partisan attorney general the country has ever had,” and added that Holder should be impeached for “defying Congress and the rule of law.” Cruz cited the attorney general’s refusal to indict anyone in the months since the inspector general found that conservative and Tea Party groups were singled out for tax purposes.