by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News September 9, 2025

A top aide to Obama era IRS official Lois Lerner, who targeted conservatives and conservative groups, has been fired a report said.

Holly Paz, who served as the IRS Commissioner of Large Business and International Division, was terminated on Monday, Fox News Digital reported.

Paz was placed on administrative leave last month and was subsequently fired following an internal review, sources told Fox News Digital.

While the Treasury Department did not comment on the move to fire Paz, it represents the latest step in Secretary Scott Bessent’s efforts to “de-weaponize” the IRS in his role as acting commissioner.

Paz was Lerner’s deputy during the two years under President Barack Obama that the IRS spent targeting tax-exempt conservative groups.

“Paz reviewed and helped oversee the handling of tax-exempt applications, and has been described as a key link between the Cincinnati, Ohio IRS office where the screenings of applications took place and the IRS headquarters,” the report said.

In 2013, it was revealed that the IRS, under Lerner, had wrongfully scrutinized tax-exempt applications related to the phrases “Tea Party,” “9/12” and “Constitution.” The Treasury’s inspector general later confirmed “inappropriate criteria” were used to target conservative groups and criticized ineffective oversight of systemic bias.

In a 2017 settlement, the IRS offered an apology to the conservative groups, saying the agency “admits that its treatment of Plaintiffs during the tax-exempt determination process, including screening their applications based on their names or policy positions, subjecting those applications to heightened scrutiny and inordinate delays, and demanding some Plaintiffs’ information that TIGTA determined was unnecessary to the agency’s determination of their tax-exempt status, was wrong.”

Beat The Press

  IRS fires official who served as top aide to Lois Lerner