--- ---  # Former IRS Official Says Politics Didn't Affect Her Work by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Sep 22, 2014 11:51 AM UTC  Lois Lerner, the director of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) exempt organizations office, listens during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in Washington on May 22, 2013. Lois Lerner, the director of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) exempt organizations office, listens during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in Washington on May 22, 2013.Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Sep 22, 2014 11:51 AM UTC The IRS official at the center of a scandal over alleged targeting of conservative groups [says in a new interview](http://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/lois-lerner-breaks-silence-irs-scandal-111181.html) that her personal political leanings never impacted her work. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” Lois Lerner told _Politico_ in an interview published Monday, her first since the scandal broke more than a year ago. “I’m proud of my career and the job I did for this country.” Lerner was drummed out of the agency and became a lightning rod for conservative criticism after reports detailed how the tax agency gave extra scrutiny to conservative political groups seeking nonprofit, tax-exempt status. Later reports showed liberal groups were also given extra scrutiny, but the issue quickly became a political headache for the Obama Administration. Congressional Republicans investigating the matter have accused Lerner of letting her liberal political leanings influence her work, but she was unapologetic in the interview. “What matters is that my personal opinions have never affected my work,” Lerner said. She again denied being involved in a cover-up by destroying emails saying, “How would I know two years ahead of time that it would be important for me to destroy emails, and if I did know that, why wouldn’t I have destroyed the other ones they keep releasing?” \[[_Politico_](http://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/lois-lerner-breaks-silence-irs-scandal-111181.html)\] Lois Lerner Scandal: Former IRS Official Speaks Out ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3417943/lois-lerner-irs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3417943/lois-lerner-irs/"},"headline":"Former IRS Official Says Politics Didn't Affect Her Work","datePublished":"2014-09-22T11:51:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:19:45.163Z","description":"Lois Lerner spoke out for the first time since a scandal led to outrage from Tea Party groups","url":"https://time.com/3417943/lois-lerner-irs/","keywords":["IRS","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4f2d9e3d4c9ed158/6986a4891eebf7858f372c0c/lois-lerner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4f2d9e3d4c9ed158/6986a4891eebf7858f372c0c/lois-lerner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"IRS'S Lerner Invokes Her Constitutional Right To Silence","caption":"IRS'S Lerner Invokes Her Constitutional Right To Silence","creditText":"Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3417943/lois-lerner-irs/","name":"Former IRS Official Says Politics Didn't Affect Her Work"}}]}] ```