Former President Barack Obama frequently likes to repeat the myth that his administration was devoid of scandal, but the repetition doesn't make his statements any more true.
Here are just three occasions where he trotted out the line:
"We're probably the first administration in modern history that hasn't had a major scandal in the White House."
"There were mistakes. We'd screw up, but there wasn't anything venal during eight years. I know that seems like a low bar, but you look at the presidency. That's no small thing."
"I didn't have scandals, which seems like it shouldn't be something you brag about."
We admit the current president is somewhat of an exaggerator in chief, but Obama was talking about an administration in the rear-view mirror, where facts can demonstrably be separated from fiction.
One of his scandals was in the news this week, but you weren't likely to read about it in the national media. They were too busy trying to find dirt on the current occupant of the White House, the one who crushed their dreams with his upset win of the presidency in November 2016.
We're referring to the approval of the settlement between the Internal Revenue Service and scores of tea party groups who were targeted for political purposes, a very Nixonian deed if there ever was one.
The IRS now must pay $3.5 million to the groups that received the illegal and unwarranted scrutiny.
"It shows that when a government agency desires to target citizens based on their viewpoints, a price will be paid," Edward Greim, the lawyer who led the class action case in federal court in Cincinnati, said, according to the Washington Times.
Although the settlement doesn't include an admission of wrongdoing by the IRS, critics say it's tantamount to one.
"I'm not frankly aware of any other class action lawsuit against the IRS for anything where the IRS paid money," Mark Meckler, who as president of Citizens for Self Governance funded the class action challenge, previously told The Washington Times when the settlement was submitted for final approval earlier this year.
However, the groups did get a "sincere apology," and the government did agree to a declaratory judgment that "it is wrong" to scrutinize a tax return because of a taxpayer's name or political philosophy.
The scandal began in 2010, a year after Obama became president, when tea party groups applied for tax-exempt status. Instead of being checked and approved, as left-leaning organizations were during the period, those with a title that included words such as "tea party" and "patriot" were given extensive delays and had to face intrusive questions the government admits should never have been asked.
One such entity, the Albuquerque Tea Party, had to wait eight years before getting its tax-exempt status.
The then-senior executive of the IRS, Lois Lerner, became aware of the targeting in 2011, according to court documents and, instead of stopping it, told auditors to keep up the work.
"She put in place new processes that guaranteed even more delay," Greim said.
Lerner, who eventually resigned, denied she encouraged the activity, and the Obama Justice Department tried to make her the hero in the mess by saying she tried to stop it.
A class-action lawsuit was filed in 2013, with the California- based Norcal Tea Party Patriots as the lead plaintiff.
At this point, the public doesn't know what all Lerner admitted to, or didn't, because her private deposition on the matter is sealed. However, the federal judge who presided over the case, after receiving requests from the state of Ohio, the Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper and legal watchdog Judicial Watch, is weighing whether or not it needs to remain sealed.
For its part, the IRS says it has made changes so such targeting will not take place in the future. Indeed, former Commissioner John Koskinen testified to Congress as much.
However, Meckler isn't so sure. He says he doesn't believe the agency has improved and hasn't noted any policy changes that would prevent such targeting from occurring again.
"I'm a hundred percent certain it could happen again," he said, according to the Washington Times.
We're not sure what Obama classifies as a scandal, but an administration agency targeting political opponents of the White House is not insignificant. It should never happen, regardless of the party in power. We should be able to have more faith in government agencies, especially one that oversees the relentless collection of our taxpayer money every April 15.