RE: Orders or not they knew what they were doing was wrong.
Here’s an interesting question — Will the IRS employee simply following orders be liable for criminal prosecution? Should he be?
Yes, they should be but only if the person giving the orders receive a greater criminal punishment.
I hope so. Let them all lose their jobs and pensions, pay fines and do jail time. Every employee in all the alphabet agencies need to see the proverbial hangings.
I don’t know the answer to your question, but we have to remember that when the order came down, those people working at IRS were probably more than happy to follow that order.