U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi / ALM

The U.S. Justice Department, defending an Internal Revenue Service summons targeting a Colorado marijuana dispensary, said the recent rescission of federal marijuana enforcement policy doesn't ratchet up the risk of cooperating with a tax audit.

Rejecting the dispensary's demand for immunity, Charles Butler, a trial attorney in the DOJ's tax division in Washington, said in court papers filed on Wednesday that the so-called Cole memo—named after Obama-era Deputy Attorney General James Cole—never hindered the IRS from enforcing tax laws.

“Congress, not the Justice Department, sets policy directives,” Butler wrote, “and in any event the Justice Department could 'displace these memoranda at any time.'”