—
Constitution of the United States
Amendment #14, Section 1.
Where
the tax cheats are. Perhaps it comes as no surprise that Internal Revenue Service
officials have not been held to account for their role in targeting conservative non-profit
applicants. Perhaps the multiple deceptions involved in that scandal — including the
concealment of retrievable emails — just offers another example of what Americans have
come to expect from the federal bureaucracy. That IRS malingering deliberately made this year's
tax filing season harder for taxpayers should surely add to this same impression. So should the
fact that many IRS employees are behind in paying their own taxes — there were 18,300 cases
of this in the last ten years, in an agency with roughly 85,000 employees.
IRS
arguments draw derision from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The IRS was almost laughed out of
court yesterday [5/6/2015] when the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the case Z Street
v. Koskinen. Z Street, founded by AT contributor Lori Lowenthal Marcus, is a pro-Israel educational
group that applied for tax-exempt status, only to encounter delay. When it inquired as to the progress of its
application, an agent told it that auditors had been instructed to give pro-Israel groups special attention, and
that its application had been forwarded to a special IRS unit for additional review. Z Street sued for
viewpoint discrimination, a constitutional no-no, and the IRS went to U.S. District Court in D.C., seeking dismissal
of the case.
IRS
gave promotions to tax cheaters: Audit. The IRS refused to fire most of its own employees
found to be cheating on their taxes — and in some cases even quickly turned around and promoted
them within the year, according to an audit released Wednesday [5/6/2015]. In about 60 percent
of cases of "willful violations," IRS managers found mitigating circumstances and refused to fire the
employees, even though the law calls for that penalty. In some of those cases, the managers didn't
even document why they had overridden the penalty, said Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration
J. Russell George.
IRS
Doled Out $5.6 Billion in Erroneous Stimulus Education Credits. A report released
Tuesday from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reveals that the IRS
doled out more than $5.6 billion in education credits in 2012 for more than 3.8 million
students. The tax credits in question, the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC), were
instituted with the 2009 Stimulus, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
They are intended to help offset the cost of higher education.
IRS
wasted $5.6B on bogus Obama stimulus tax credits: Audit. The IRS doled out more than
$5 billion in potentially bogus college aid payments under an Obama stimulus tax credit in 2012,
according to a new report Tuesday [5/5/2015] from the agency's inspector general that said the
administration still doesn't have a good handle on how to root out erroneous claims. More
than 3.8 million students received more than $5.6 billion in questionable tax credits,
the audit found — more than half of those never filed their tuition statement, while
others were paid tax credits even though the schools they attended weren't acceptable institutions.
Still other students claimed the credit for more than four years.
IRS
Seizes Over $100,000 From Innocent Small Business Owner, Despite Promise To End Raids.
Wielding a banking law intended to thwart drug trafficking and money laundering, the IRS has a new
target in its sights: a rural convenience store that sells catfish sandwiches. Lyndon McLellan
lost over $107,000 in an IRS raid after the agency seized the bank account belonging to his small
business, L&M Convenience Mart in Fairmont, North Carolina. "It took me 13 years to save that
much money and it took fewer than 13 seconds for the government to take it away," he said.
Like thousands of other victims of civil forfeiture, the government never charged Lyndon with a crime.
Now, with help from the Institute for Justice, he's fighting back to regain his hard-earned cash.
United States v. $107,702.66: North Carolina
Civil Forfeiture. Lyndon McLellan has spent more than a decade running L&M Convenience
Mart, a gas station, restaurant, and convenience store in rural Fairmont, North Carolina. Then, one
year ago, without any warning, agents from the IRS seized his entire bank account, totalling more than
$107,000. With that, Lyndon entered the upside down world of civil forfeiture, where the government
can seize and keep ordinary Americans' property without ever charging them with a crime. The IRS
and Department of Justice are pursuing forfeiture of Lyndon's money despite a recent policy change
designed to prevent precisely these kinds of cases.
Ted
Cruz gets specific on 'abolishing the IRS'. Sen. Ted Cruz has been gunning to abolish the Internal
Revenue Service since coming to Washington two years ago. To critics of the Texas Republican in Democratic
and GOP circles, it sounds like bluster. The fiery rhetoric garners hearty applause from conservative
audiences, particularly since revelations in 2013 that the IRS targeted Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny.
But some federal agency is going to have to collect taxes, so Cruz's vow to shutter the IRS smacks of a politically
motivated campaign promise rather than serious policy — at least to some.
House
report: Cash-strapped IRS prioritized bonuses, union activity over helping taxpayers.
While facing budget cuts, the IRS nevertheless prioritized worker bonuses, union activity and the
implementation of President Obama's health care law over assisting taxpayers during tax season,
according to a new report released Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee. The
findings, in a Republican-led report, were released ahead of a subcommittee hearing Wednesday
morning [4/22/2015] with IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. At the hearing, Koskinen stressed
that the agency is significantly under-funded, and those cuts have consequences.
Report:
IRS Deliberately Cut Its Own Customer Service Budget. If you tried to contact the IRS
with a question about your taxes this year, chances are you didn't get a response. The IRS estimated
that it would only answer 17 million of the 49 million calls received this filing season. Taxpayers
lucky enough to have the IRS answer their calls waited an average of 34.4 minutes for assistance —
nearly double the wait time last year (18.7 minutes).
Tax Day is not the reason the tax code
stinks. The tax system is a distortionary mess, but before you complain about filing your return, know that audits are
down, refunds are up, and the income tax isn't the biggest tax burden most taxpayers face.
Governing by fear:
DOJ
Singles Out Tax Cheats in a Pay-or-Else Warning to Taxpayers. The U.S. Justice Department issued a
stern reminder on Monday [4/13/2015] that when it comes to income taxes, "no one is above the law or below the
radar." "With the annual tax filing deadline approaching on Wednesday, April 15, the Justice Department's
Tax Division reminds U.S. taxpayers across the country and around the world of their obligation to file timely and
accurate income tax returns," the news release said. And to reinforce that message, the DOJ news release
listed 23 cases where the government successfully prosecuted tax cheats.
Civil
Asset Forfeiture Case Has a Happy Ending. In 2013, IRS agents showed up at Carole's
door and told her they had seized all the money in the bank account for her business, Mrs. Lady's
Mexican Food. But they didn't charge her with a crime. The only reason her money was seized
was the fact that Carole made frequent cash deposits under $10,000. Even that is not
illegal — it just looks suspiciously like a "structuring" method used by real
criminals to hide illegally gotten gains. The problem is, the IRS didn't stop to
investigate why Carole made deposits the way she did. She became "guilty
until proven innocent."
Everyone Hates
the IRS — But We Hate It In Different Ways. According to the latest data out of the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Americans as a people pay one of the lowest
tax burdens in the developed world. Out of 34 countries with democratic governments and market
economies, the U.S. ranked third lowest for overall tax burden as a percentage of GDP in 2012, and
probably fourth lowest in 2013 (for which data is not yet complete).
Ex-IRS
ethics office lawyer disbarred for ... ethics violations. A lawyer who worked in the
IRS ethics office was disbarred Thursday by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, which
concluded she misappropriated a client's funds from a case she handled in private practice, broke a
number of ethics rules and showed "reckless disregard for the truth" in misleading a disbarment
panel looking into the matter. The lawyer, Takisha Brown, reportedly had bragged that she would
never be punished because her boss would protect her, but an IRS spokesman said Wednesday [4/1/2015]
that she was no longer an employee at the agency.
Koskinen
Says IRS Has Eliminated Backlog of Tax-Exempt Applications. The IRS has eliminated the
backlog of applications from groups seeking nonprofit status, Commissioner John Koskinen told a
gathering in Washington on Tuesday [3/31/2015]. But a conservative civil liberties group says
"the facts show otherwise." The American Center for Law and Justice said two of its clients are
still awaiting a determination on their applications for tax-exempt status — and one of
those groups (the Albuquerque Tea Party) has been waiting for more than five years.
IRS
ignoring 60 percent of taxpayers' calls. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said Tuesday [3/31/2015]
that service at his agency has gotten so bad that they are ignoring more than 60 percent of taxpayers'
phone calls during this tax season. Speaking at the National Press Club, Mr. Koskinen pleaded with more
money, saying a budget boost would help them staff their overwhelmed customer service lines. He also
said it would help reverse staffing cuts in their compliance division, where he said the government will lose
$2 billion this year in money it would otherwise have been able to collect if it had better staffing.
Koskinen:
'I Have Certainly Never Discussed IRS Business on My Own Personal (Email) Account'.
When asked Tuesday whether he had ever used a personal email account to conduct government business,
Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen said he had "never discussed IRS business on my
own personal account" and has a government-issued computer set up at home to avoid mingling business
and personal emails. However, when asked whether other IRS employees only used government email
accounts for agency business, Koskinen said that is the standing IRS policy, but added he "can't
guarantee" it is always followed.
Good
news: IRS has less identity theft security than your average Etsy shop. They rehire
people fired for snooping, they allow pretty much anyone into facilities and restricted areas where
all our sensitive information is kept, and there's no telling how many unauthorized current and
former employees are able to steal identities as a result. And, you thought they just ruined
people's lives with audits. That's novice stuff. This is the IRS. I have personal
experience with this. I had a fraudulent tax return filed under my Social Security number in
2012. As a result, both my refunds from 2012 and 2013 were put under administrative hold or some
such nonsense with no notification to me or indication of how to remove them from hold.
Report
Says Former IRS Employees — Think Lois Lerner — Can Still Peruse Your Tax
Returns. Could Lois Lerner still take a look at your tax returns on IRS computers? It
sounds preposterous, but a new watchdog report says former IRS employees still have access to IRS
computer systems long after they have no official business with the information. The report is
by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for
Congress. The GAO investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars. In the
case of IRS security, the report says not well.
Ted
Cruz Calls for Abolishing the IRS. Sen. Ted. Cruz said in a speech at Liberty
University today that he believes it is time to reclaim the U.S. Constitution and asked his
listeners to "imagine abolishing the IRS." "It is a time for truth. It is a time for
liberty. It is a time to reclaim the Constitution of the United States," Cruz said. "We
stand together for liberty. This is our fight. The answer will not come from Washington.
It will come only from the men and women across this country — from men and women, from
people of faith, from lovers of liberty, from people who respect the Constitution," said Cruz.
Shades
of HealthCare.gov? IRS shifting customer service online to IRS.gov. They may not be
getting help on the phones, but taxpayers this year are increasingly making use of IRS.gov, the tax
agency's website, to answer their questions. Visits are up by 11 percent over last year,
including 15 million in the past week alone, the agency said Friday. Most of the inquiries
are going to the IRS's "Where's my refund?" tool, which tracks where in the process a taxpayer's refund
is. The IRS also said taxpayers can now get return information online, rather than having to order
it by phone and wait up to 10 days for it to arrive. The push to send customers online is
not an accident.
IRS
botches computer security, risks taxpayer info: audit. The IRS sometimes uses old
software without key security patches that leave its computer systems vulnerable and could endanger
taxpayers' private information, the Government Accountability Office said Thursday [3/19/2015].
GAO investigators raised the issue last year, identifying 69 weaknesses. The IRS said it had
corrected two dozen of them, but the new audit found just 14 of them were actually fixed, leaving
dozens of weaknesses still to be resolved. Part of the problem is that the IRS hasn't even always
followed its own guidelines for assessing risks and creating information security plans, the GAO said.
IRS
may broaden rule to police political nonprofits. The IRS may broaden a looming
controversial rule to police political nonprofits to include political parties and political action
committees, the agency's chief said Wednesday [3/18/2015]. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said
the agency may expand a yet-to-be-released rule governing 501(c)(4), "social welfare" groups, to
include political groups known as 527s, which focus on elections. It could require them
both — as well as other types of tax-exempt groups — to operate under
the same definition of "political activity."
Rein
in the IRS. In 2013, [Rep. Peter] Roskam, in a televised committee hearing, told the
story of Al Salvi, who in 1996 was the Republican Senate candidate against the then-congressman, now
senator, Dick Durbin. Democrats filed charges with the Federal Election Commission against Salvi's
campaign, charges that threatened to dominate the campaign's final weeks. Salvi telephoned the head
of the FEC's Enforcement Division, who he says told him: "Promise me you will never run for office again,
and we'll drop this case." That official was Lois Lerner. After Salvi lost, FBI agents visited
his elderly mother, demanding to know, concerning her $2,000 contribution to her son's campaign, where she
got "that kind of money." When a federal court held that the charges against Salvi were spurious, the
FEC's losing lawyer was Lois Lerner.
The
Solution to Tax ID Theft Is an Unpopular One: Slower Refunds. The Government Accountability Office
estimates that $5.8 billion was lost to identity thieves filing fraudulent tax returns in 2013 and that there
may have been as much as $24.2 billion in thwarted attempts. Tax refund fraud losses are estimated to
reach $21 billion by 2016, according to the Treasury Inspector General Tax Administration. While the
massive loss chronicled in the GAO report was big news (for a nanosecond anyway) the GAO's recommendations for
stemming the rising tide of tax-related fraud did not get a lot of attention.
IRS
defends paying refunds to illegals who never filed taxes. The IRS is defending its
decision to let illegal immigrants claim up to three years' refunds on income even if they never
paid income taxes, telling Congress in a new letter last week that agency lawyers have concluded
getting a Social Security number triggers the ability to go back and ask for previous refunds.
President Obama's new deportation amnesty could grant Social Security numbers to as many as 4 million
illegal immigrants, making many of them eligible for tax refunds under the Earned Income Tax Credit even
for years when they cheated on their taxes, working off the books and refusing to file tax returns.
New
Revelations Show IRS Is Judge, Jury, Executioner — And Grave Robber. The
most important piece of information about the IRS's targeting of conservative and pro-Israel groups
is this: it is still going on. Politico reported yesterday [2/26/2015] that there are two
categories of groups still being delayed and silenced by the IRS's tax-exempt apparatchiks. The
first category is Karl Rove (and his Crossroads organization). The second category is financially
strapped mom-and-pop shops who have been driven into debt by the IRS's corrupt practices in which
critics of the Obama administration are deprived of some of their constitutional rights.
IRS
Employee Indicted for Filing False Tax Returns. A former IRS tax examiner was indicted
Friday along with three conspirators for filing false tax returns and making false claims for lost
income related to the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The IRS worker, Jimmie McCorvey of
Pensacola, FL, helped the other three obtain $95,200 from the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF)
based on false claims of lost income from the spill. McCorvey was also charged with identity theft
for filing 25 false tax returns that netted him more than $60,000 in tax refunds.
IRS
Offers Retroactive Welfare To Illegal Aliens Granted Amnesty By Obama. With all the
discussion about amnesty simply being about delaying deportations (we already don't deport people),
Obama's amnesty has been about naturalization. That was obvious when we learned amnestied illegals
would be given social security numbers. They already have ITIN numbers in order to file taxes, so
why is the SSN important? Because you need that to get the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is
automatic welfare through a "refund" check from the IRS. In other words, a massive redistribution
of our wealth, a reward, to millions of foreigners on our soil. And it will be retroactive
for 3 years.
IRS
Seizes First, Asks Questions Later. When Carole Hinders answered a knock at the front
door of her home in August 2013, she was confronted by two IRS agents. They told her they had just
cleaned out the entire bank account of the restaurant, Mrs. Lady's Mexican Food, that Hinders had owned
and operated in tiny Spirit Lake, Iowa, for the past 30 years. The IRS seized more than
$32,000. While Hinders stood in shock, the IRS agents told her that her cash deposits looked
suspicious. Based on that suspicion alone, the IRS had authority to seize her entire bank account
using a federal legal procedure known as civil forfeiture. Hinders protested that she'd get a
lawyer and fight the seizure. She still remembers the disdainful response of one of the
agents: "Well, you can try."
Report:
IRS Seized Thousands of Bank Accounts Without Filing Criminal Charges. The Internal
Revenue Service seized hundreds of millions of dollars from thousands of bank accounts over the past
decade, often without proof of any criminal wrongdoing, according to a report released by the
Institute for Justice this week. The Institute for Justice, a public-interest law firm, said the
IRS practiced a "seize first, ask questions later" strategy when it seized $242 million in
more than 2,500 cases from 2005 to 2012.
IRS rehires
reprimanded ex-staffers. The IRS rehired hundreds of former staffers with conduct
issues, even bringing ex-employees with tax issues back into the fold, a new federal audit has
found. Treasury's inspector general for tax administration said that the IRS generally followed
the federal guidelines, which take into account whether a potential employee has a criminal record
or failed a drug test, when bringing back former staffers. But other staffers rehired had
documented conduct issues from previous tenures at the IRS, including purposefully not filing their
taxes, wrongly authorizing taxpayer information and lying on official forms. Of those rehired,
roughly one in five then went on to have further performance problems.
IRS
knowingly rehired tax cheats, other employees with 'performance' issues: Audit. The
IRS rehired hundreds of employees who had prior records of bad performance at the agency, including
141 former workers who had botched their own tax returns and others who had used their positions to peek at
private tax information, the agency's inspector general said in a report released Thursday [2/5/2015].
94-year-old
vet can't file tax return because IRS says he's dead. There is a 94-year-old World War II vet in Ohio who just
wants to pay his taxes but can't because the IRS says he's dead. Siegfried Meinstein has been unable to convince the
IRS he is alive, living in an assisted living facility near Columbus, Ohio. The IRS has told the nonagenarian it can't
process his tax return because their records indicate he is deceased.
The Editor says...
How much taxable income does a person in an "assisted-living facility" have? If the IRS says you're tax exempt, why
quibble over details? This issue probably has less to do with taxes than with Social Security payments to the place
where he lives; that is, they can't get their payments if the government says he's dead.
Problems
at IRS: Will you get your tax refund on time? The IRS chief is warning of a poor tax
season, with delayed refunds and long waits for customer service help likely after budget cuts.
But could the income tax system and the IRS be overhauled to work for everyone?
IRS
Ignores Phone Calls, Does Not Let Elderly People Leave Messages. Elderly and disabled
people cannot leave messages for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after the IRS fails to pick up
the phone to serve them. The National Taxpayer Advocate, an independent oversight organ within
the IRS, detailed the agency's phone practices in its 2014 Annual Report to Congress Wednesday.
"The IRS does not answer the phone at local offices and has even removed the option it once provided
for taxpayers, including the elderly and disabled, to leave a message," according to the report.
IRS
Warns Of Delayed Refunds, Long Waits For Taxpayers & Possible Shutdown. With a week to
go before tax season opens, taxpayers were already bracing for a potentially "miserable" filing
season. It turns out that it could live up to the hype. Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
Commissioner Koskinen has advised employees that the budget cuts will result in reduced services to
taxpayers.
The Editor says...
It's a classic shakedown: Something bad will happen to you unless you give us more money.
That's what the IRS is saying. Senator Cruz has the right idea: Abolish the IRS.
Cruz: Abolish The IRS.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said Monday that Republicans should take advantage of their control of Congress to
abolish the Internal Revenue Service. "We need to pass fundamental tax reform making our tax code simpler,
flatter, fairer," he said Monday at Heritage Action's 2015 conservative policy summit. "And I'll tell you,
the single most important tax reform, we should abolish the IRS."
5 Federal
Agencies in the GOP's Crosshairs. [#1] Internal Revenue Service: The GOP spent a good
chunk of 2014 grilling IRS officials about targeting conservative groups. Though the scandal
has not proven to reach all the way to the White House, the GOP is not done scrutinizing the IRS.
Report:
IRS 'totally politicized' by Obamacare, targeting of Tea Party applicants. Targeting
conservative and Tea Party nonprofit applicants for harassment during the 2010 and 2012 campaigns
was the most obvious, but far from the only illustration of how deeply President Obama politicized
the daily operations of the IRS, according to a new report from a congressional oversight panel.
"Most American taxpayers find themselves at the mercy of the IRS — they must turn over
sensitive information and even successful efforts to fight off erroneous agency actions can create
life-altering turmoil," said the report that will be made public Tuesday [12/23/2014] by the House
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Report:
IRS Targeted 'Icky' Conservative Groups. Top IRS officials specifically targeted tea
party groups and misled the public about its secret political targeting program led by ex-official
Lois Lerner, according to a bombshell new congressional report. The Daily Caller has obtained an
advance copy of a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee report set to be released Tuesday
morning that definitively proves malicious intent by the IRS to improperly block conservative groups
that an IRS adviser deemed "icky."
The
IRS: Just One of Dozens of Uncooperative Agencies. [Scroll down] Which brings us
back to the IRS scandal, in which agents of that fearsome organization committed the cardinal sin of
democratic governance: They used the power of the state to persecute citizens because of their
political beliefs. Using government power as a means to greater political power is ipso facto
corruption. From the shenanigans involving "lost" e-mails to former commissioner Doug Schulman's
simply lying to Congress, the IRS has done everything in its power to obstruct investigation into its
crimes — not errors, not mistakes: crimes. Issa's last report identifies
by name eight IRS officials who were involved in the political targeting or who had knowledge of
the practice and failed to disclose it.
IRS
warns of possible shutdown. The IRS is considering its own temporary shutdown due to
recent budget cuts enacted by Congress, its chief said Thursday [12/18/2014]. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen
said furloughs — forced unpaid days off for employees as part of an IRS closure —
is one idea reluctantly being tossed about to save money, though they are hoping they will not have to
go there.
The
bipartisan plan to end IRS stealing. The IRS has the power to seize small cash deposits under
$10,000. These deposits seem suspicious because cash deposits over $10,000 trigger a bank report to
authorities. Terrorists, drug dealers, and money launderers all make cash deposits under $10,000 to
avoid triggering the bank report. The illicit practice is called "structuring." The problem is
that many small businesses accept cash payments and make large deposits that happen to fall under $10,000.
Sadly, this attempt to crack down on terrorist funding is used by the IRS to abuse small businesses.
Fox
News Poll: 70 percent want Congress to keep probing IRS. Most American voters want
Congress to keep investigating the IRS targeting of conservative political groups, according to the
latest Fox News poll. Seventy percent say the IRS investigation should last until "someone is
held accountable." That's down from a high of 78 percent in June 2013. About one in
five thinks it is time to move on (22 percent).
Watchdog
Report: IRS Paid Out More Than $20 Billion in Erroneous Low-Income Tax Credits. The
Internal Revenue Service paid out $14.5 billion in erroneous Earned Income Tax Credit payments and
between $5.9 billion and $7.1 billion in improper Additional Child Tax Credit payments in Fiscal
Year 2013, according to a new government watchdog report. The EITC and ACTC are refundable tax
credits intended for lower-income Americans. In Tax Year 2012, the IRS paid out $63 billion
in EITCs and $26.6 billion in ACTC payments.
Obama Says His Job
Is Assuring Equal Protection Under the Law — Really? When it comes to the
great constitutional principle of equal protection under the law in the age of Obama, it is not that
there is a black America and a white America. It is that there are political supporters of the
president who get one quality of justice, and political opponents and convenient political scapegoats
for whom "justice" is a weapon their government has turned against them.
Feds
balk at releasing docs showing IRS sharing tax returns with White House. Dan Epstein,
executive director of Cause of Action, said Treasury was using "sophisticated" lawyering to weasel
out of providing the documents. And he noted that their letter said that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew
is now looking into "potential liability" that his tax aides broke laws in sharing taxpayer information
with the White House. Epstein said that either Treasury was "stonewalling" his group, or that Lew "is
incompetent" for just now looking at potential lawbreaking by his team on the case that is two years old.
Department
Of Justice To Release 30,000 Emails From IRS Exchange With White House. The
investigation began in 2013 when The Daily Caller reported that ex-IRS official Lois Lerner and
White House adviser Jeanne Lambrew allegedly exchanged confidential information about a group
attempting to overturn an Obamacare contraception mandate with a lawsuit. Thousands of emails
between the two were turned over to Congress, providing more information and context about the
relationship between the White House and IRS. The allegations came amid a larger story of claims
that the IRS was targeting conservative groups applying for tax exemptions.
IRS
accused of sharing 2,500 private taxpayer documents with White House. The Internal
Revenue Service may have given thousands of confidential filings from private taxpayers to the White
House to review, a lawsuit against the Treasury Department just revealed. The suit, filed against
Treasury's inspector general by Cause of Action, a legal advocacy outfit, reveals a steady stream of
communication went on between the White House and the IRS — a potentially "improper"
stream, the group alleged, The Daily Caller reported.
IRS
staffers with tax debts eligible for bonuses. In a statement, the agency said it would
keep employees who willfully skipped out on their taxes from getting performance awards, but would
be more forgiving of those who made honest mistakes. John Koskinen, the IRS commissioner, announced
a new round of bonuses this week for 2014, to be paid out early next year.
Top
Republican: IRS planning bonuses for employees who owe taxes. A top Senate Republican
is fuming over an announcement by Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen that he plans
to hand out bonuses to union and non-union members who work for the agency, potentially including
those who owe back taxes. "It's no wonder the American people find it hard to believe the IRS
needs more money when the agency fails to collect back taxes from their own employees and instead
rewards them with bonuses," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who is likely to become chairman of the Senate
Finance Committee in January. "American families have been doing more with less for far too
long now, and it is time the IRS do the same."
The
IRS Scandal Rears Its Head. The Obama Administration's IRS scandal is multi-faceted.
In addition to the persecution of conservative non-profits by Lois Lerner et al., the
question has been percolating for some years whether Obama's IRS has transferred confidential
taxpayer information to Obama's White House in violation of federal criminal laws. The issue first
arose when Austin Goolsbee of the president's Council of Economic Advisers told reporters that he
had information about Koch Industries that could only have come, illegally, from confidential IRS
files. When questions were asked, the administration immediately clammed up.
Records
on Taxpayer Leaks to White House to Be Released. The Obama administration will soon
turn over thousands of documents related to improper disclosures of confidential taxpayer
information by the IRS to the White House, a watchdog group announced Tuesday [11/25/2014]. On
Monday the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) informed the watchdog group
Cause of Action that it will turn over nearly 2,500 documents in response to a Freedom of Information
Act lawsuit filed by the group. In a statement, Cause of Action said the number of documents "signals
that the White House may have made significant efforts to obtain taxpayers' personal information."
IRS
is monitoring comment threads on conservative blogs. The Internal Revenue Service,
which claims to be so understaffed that it can't bother to collect unpaid taxes, or search backup
tapes for Lois Lerner's "missing" emails, apparently has plenty of time to read the comment threads
on conservative blogs that have been critical of the agency (Hi there, IRS agents!).
National
effort to scare churches into silence ahead of elections; ominous IRS warning.
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, an organization that seeks to do exactly
what its name says, has sent letters to thousands of pastors ahead of the midterm elections
reminding them that they can be punished by the IRS if they speak out, according to Fox News.
Law
Lets I.R.S. Seize Accounts on Suspicion, No Crime Required. For almost 40 years,
Carole Hinders has dished out Mexican specialties at her modest cash-only restaurant. For just as
long, she deposited the earnings at a small bank branch a block away — until last year,
when two tax agents knocked on her door and informed her that they had seized her funds, almost
$33,000. The Internal Revenue Service agents did not accuse Ms. Hinders of money laundering or
cheating on her taxes — in fact, she has not been charged with any crime.
It's
Time to Talk About Serious IRS Reform. We have covered here exhaustively the massive
abuse-of-power scandal surrounding the IRS's targeting of conservatives ahead of the 2012
presidential election, and doing so at the encouragement of prominent Democrats. That surely should
be enough to prompt a full investigation — especially since it was revealed that Eric Holder's Justice
Department is apparently coordinating with congressional Democrats to undermine the investigation
and protect the IRS. But there's another IRS scandal brewing, and it suggests the agency is long
overdue for a reckoning.
IRS
Is 'Political Weapon in the Hands of the Democratic Party,' Conservative Attorney Says. Cleta
Mitchell, an attorney who has represented conservative groups in lawsuits against the IRS, says we should
"repeal the 16th amendment and get rid of the IRS," which has become "a political weapon in the hands of the
Democratic party." "What I think we should do is repeal the 16th amendment and get rid of the IRS.
I do not believe this agency can be saved; I think it is corrupt to the core," Mitchell told a recent gathering at
the Heritage Foundation.
Outrageous
IRS Commissioner False Claim: 'Whenever we can, we follow the law'. Internal Revenue
Service Commissioner John Koskinen made a disturbing statement before Congress that the IRS follows
the law "whenever we can." As Thomas Lifson wrote, "The law, to Koskinen, evidently is a
suggestion, not an ironclad requirement." Actually, the situation is even worse than that. [...]
This past year, and without due process, the IRS seized tax refunds of the adult children of
taxpayers who had been overpaid federal benefits decades ago. The IRS was recently caught
opening emails without warrants.
Try telling the IRS, "I report my income whenever I can."
IRS
Commissioner: We Follow the Law 'Wherever We Can'. In responding to a question from the chair of the
House Ways and Means Committee Wednesday [9/10/2014], IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said he and his department
follow the law "wherever we can." House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) asked Koskinen
"Will you be following the law," in collecting money for a certain type of healthcare subsidy. After Koskinen
ducked the question, Brady asked again. Koskinen then admitted: "Yes, wherever we can, we follow the
law." A discouraged Brady chuckled while admonishing the commissioner saying, "I encourage you to follow the
law in all instances."
IRS
chief: 'Whenever we can, we follow the law'. During another grueling hearing on the
ObamaCare rollout, the head of the IRS tried to offer lawmakers an assurance about the soon-to-open
enrollment period. "Whenever we can, we follow the law," IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told the
House Ways and Means subcommittee on health on Wednesday [9/10/2014]. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas),
who leads the subcommittee, immediately expressed his concern with the remarks. "I encourage you
to follow the law in all instances," Brady said.
Gut-Busting
Hilarity: IRS Thug Koskinen Says 'Whenever we can, we follow the law'. Uh, John, this isn't one of those things
where you follow the law when it's convenient. Might be difficult to fathom considering you work for a lawless punk.
Emails:
IRS worker got $138,000 to do 'nothing' — and union saved her job.
Underperforming IRS workers are being protected from firing by the National Treasury Employees Union
in the tax agency that let workers devote 500,000 hours — worth over $20 million in
salary — on labor activities last year, according to internal emails revealed Wednesday
[9/10/2014]. The House Ways and Means Committee said that emails from former IRS executive Lois
Lerner, being probed for her involvement in the agency's targeting of conservatives, show she vented
at being blocked from firing one worker who did "nothing," yet still received up to $138,136 a year.
Dems Rally Around Fave
Corrupt Agency: IRS. Democrats are beyond frustrated that they can't just wish this away. A lot of
that has to do with all of this happening in the social media era (see, it does have some value), which means they
don't have the the Soviet-like control over the narrative anymore. The rest of it has to do with the fact that,
despite the Democrats' protestations to the contrary, there is, and was, definitely something fishy going on.
IRS
Delaying Release of Data on People Leaving High-Tax States. IRS data on internal migration showing how many
people have moved to and from which states generally shows people leaving high-taxed states and states with high unemployment
to states doing better in those categories. Now Obama's IRS is seeking to delay release of these statistics for another
12 months. For decades economists and lawmakers both have used this IRS data as a marker for which states are
succeeding in America, but the Obama administration has show its disdain for this important metric.
IRS
ethics lawyer facing possible disbarment, accused of lying. A lawyer in the IRS ethics
office is facing the possibility of being disbarred, according to records that accuse her of lying
to a court-appointed board and hiding what she'd done with money from a settlement that was supposed
to go to two medical providers who had treated her client. The disciplinary arm of the D.C. Court
of Appeals has recommended that Takisha McGee, a section manager in the IRS Office of Professional
Responsibility, lose her law license over the charge, which stems from a personal injury case she
worked about a year before she joined the tax agency.
Top
IRS ethics lawyer facing possible disbarment, accused of lying. The disciplinary arm
of the D.C. Court of Appeals has recommended that Takisha McGee, a section manager in the IRS Office
of Professional Responsibility, lose her law license over the charge, which stems from a personal
injury case she worked about a year before she joined the tax agency.
IRS Leaves Millions
Vulnerable to Identity Theft. The IRS has put millions of taxpayers at risk of identity theft by failing
to perform background checks on contractors, according to a new inspector general report. An IG audit performed
by the Treasury Department, which oversees the IRS, found that several contractors who are responsible for handling
sensitive taxpayer information do not perform any criminal or credit background checks on their employees. The
agency provided millions of Social Security numbers to one contractor without any screening process in place, according
to the report.
No,
the IRS cannot be fixed — it must be abolished and replaced with the Fair Tax. A
Washington Examiner article asks "Can the IRS be fixed, or should it just be abolished?" The
answer is clear to anybody who has followed the IRS scandal or filed a federal tax return. Washington's
individual income tax and its enforcement agency, the IRS, cannot be fixed, repaired, reformed or
rehabilitated. They are a cancer eating away at this nation, her taxpayers and our economic engine.
Congress created the income tax in 1913, and for 100 years the IRS has operated exactly as intended,
as an agent of control with total impunity, even down to the political targeting of individuals and groups.
The IRS's
God Complex. Is the Internal Revenue Service a threat to religious liberty? As the
IRS continues to come under well-aimed fire for harassing conservative groups, on Friday [8/1/2014]
it secured a final court order formalizing what amounts to a secret agreement to monitor the pulpits of
ill-favored churches. The serious danger, as former Justice Department attorney J. Christian
Adams told Fox News, is that the IRS will start treating "theology as politics," and regulate it
accordingly. Lovers of liberty should be very concerned.
Obama's
Rogue IRS Strikes Deal With Atheists To Monitor Churches — But Not Mosques.
Government's assault on religious liberty has hit a new low as the IRS settles with atheists by
promising to monitor sermons for mentions of the right to life and traditional marriage. A
lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) asserted that the
Internal Revenue Service ignored complaints about churches' violating their tax-exempt status by
routinely promoting political issues, legislation and candidates from the pulpit. The FFRF has
temporarily withdrawn its suit in return for the IRS's agreement to monitor sermons and homilies for
proscribed speech that the foundation believes includes things like condemnation of gay marriage and
criticism of ObamaCare for its contraceptive mandate.
IRS
Strikes Deal With Atheists To Monitor Churches. Government's assault on religious
liberty has hit a new low as the IRS settles with atheists by promising to monitor sermons for
mentions of the right to life and traditional marriage.
Furious
Over Scandals, House Guts IRS Budget, Blocks Performance Bonuses. The House voted to
block performance bonuses for senior Internal Revenue Service executives Wednesday [7/16/2014], The Hill
reported. "Giving out bonuses is ludicrous and amounts to a slap in the face to the American
public," said Rep. Paul Gosar, who introduced the amendment. "They should not be given performance
awards in the wake of one of the largest scandals in recent history." The amendment passed by a
vote of 282-138-1, with only Democrats voting against it.
House
GOP slashes IRS tax enforcement budget. The GOP-controlled House has slashed the
budget for the Internal Revenue Service's tax enforcement division by $1.2 billion, a
25 percent cut that would mean fewer audits of taxpayers and make it more likely that people
who cheat on their taxes will get away with it.
The Editor says...
That's one way to look at it. But this move will get the attention of the partisan hacks at the
IRS who use the agency as a political weapon on behalf of tyrants.
Rep.
Campbell: Government, IRS, EPA Are 'The Police State'. Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.)
called the government, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) "the police state" at a Financial Services Committee hearing at the Capitol on Thursday [7/10/2014].
At the July 10 hearing, Legislation to Reform the Federal Reserve on Its 100-year Anniversary, the
Federal Reserve Accountability and Transparency Act (HR 5018) was discussed, legislation which would
require "the Federal Reserve to provide the Congress with a clear rule to describe the course of
monetary policy." The act would also require the Fed to conduct cost-benefit analysis, require
transparency on bank stress tests and international financial regulatory negotiations, and would
order the Fed to disclose the salaries of highly paid employees.
IRS
worker suspended for pro-Obama activities. The employee, whose name wasn't mentioned
in the announcement from the Office of Special Counsel, admitted to using his job for political
purposes and agreed to the settlement that involved a 100-day suspension. "OSC's complaint alleged
that, when fielding taxpayers' questions on an IRS customer service help line, the employee
repeatedly urged taxpayers to re-elect President Obama in 2012 by delivering a chant based on the
spelling of the employee's last name," the investigative office said. The OSC also announced a
U.S. Postal Service employee was fired after he ran for seats in Congress and solicited donations to
his campaign, violating the Hatch Act that limits government employees' ability to get involved in politics.
Emails: IRS official
sought audit of GOP senator. Congressional investigators say they uncovered emails
Wednesday showing that a former Internal Revenue Service official at the heart of the tea party
investigation sought an audit involving a Republican senator in 2012.
There is no shortage of excuses.
Technology
problems at IRS goes far beyond loss of Lois Lerner's email. Lois G. Lerner's hard
drive isn't the only technological problem at the Internal Revenue Service. The tax agency's
inspector general has been warning for years of lost computer equipment, lax security that could
place private taxpayers' information at risk, and mishandled information technology contracts that
wasted tens of millions of dollars. The reports are being disclosed as the IRS says its technology
budget is strapped for cash, one reason the agency didn't have a backup system to store all of Ms.
Lerner's emails that are the subject of a congressional investigation.
Declarations Of
War. The politicization of the Internal Revenue Service, which has extraordinary powers over
American citizens, is a far graver matter than corruption of specific individuals. It sets the most
feared and fearsome agency of the federal government at war with the citizenry. Indeed, given its
routine guilty-until-proven-innocent practices, under which it may seize a citizen's assets on arbitrary
charges, thus denying him the resources required to defend himself against them, even members of Congress
must feel a tremor or two at the thought of openly going up against the IRS. That's why the charge
in the bill of particulars against Richard Nixon that data from the IRS was provided to the White House
to be used against Nixon's enemies was so serious. Despite the implications for the further use of
the IRS as a weapon against anyone it chooses to target, the Administration is just fine with it.
Supreme
Court Gives Taxpayers More Power To Fight The IRS. The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday [6/19/2014]
ruled unanimously that taxpayers have a right to challenge an Internal Revenue Service summons enforcement action
in court when they can show the tax agency might have issued the summons in bad faith.
House
budget punishes IRS with 15% cut, halts Obamacare enforcement. The Internal Revenue
Service is about to get slapped with a harsh payback for messing around with conservative groups,
blowing wads of tax dollars on employee conferences and helping implement Obamacare. The House
Appropriations Committee is set to OK an IRS budget of $10.9 billion, $1.5 billion under President
Obama's request for fiscal year 2015, reducing the agency's budget to 2008 levels.
77,000
foreign banks to share tax info with IRS. The Treasury Department says 77,000 foreign banks have agreed to
share information about U.S. account holders as part of a crackdown on offshore tax evasion.
IRS
backs off proposal critics warned would 'silence' conservative groups. The IRS has agreed to overhaul a controversial proposal
that Republican lawmakers warned would revive the agency's "harassment and intimidation" of conservative groups, after receiving a record
number of comments on the proposed regulation. The new rules have been in the works ever since the IRS came under fire for its
targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups. In the wake of that scandal, the agency said it wanted to clarify for
everybody how tax-exempt groups can engage in political activity — by reining in the political work those groups do.
IRS
workers spent 521,725 hours on union activities; cost taxpayers $23.5m. The Treasury Department has revealed to
the House Ways and Means Committee that Internal Revenue Service employees spent over 500,000 hours on union activities last year.
They estimated the cost to taxpayers at $23.5 million in salary and benefits. Officials told [the Washington Examiner] that
the exact hours IRS members of the National Treasury Employees Union dedicated to labor activities was 521,725 in fiscal 2013, which
ran from October 2012 to September 2013. That was slightly less than the 573,319 hours in fiscal 2012, according to the IRS,
but the spending was significantly above that year's total of $16 million.
Obama's
IRS spends nearly $100 million on office furniture. The IRS has spent $96.5 million on office furniture
under the Obama administration and is now claiming it has insufficient funding to adequately serve taxpayers. Treasury
Secretary Jack Lew testified before the House two weeks ago about the IRS' need for additional funding for the upcoming fiscal
year. The IRS is currently seeking an increase of $1.2 billion — a 7 percent raise over its
FY 2014 $11.29 billion budget. It would bring the agency's FY 2015 budget to $12.48 billion.
The
IRS Will Raid Your Tax Data Through Obamacare. The Internal Revenue Service this week
will publish a final rule requiring Obamacare health insurance exchanges to hand over key personal
data to the IRS, which will use the information to implement the tax aspects of the controversial
health care law. The IRS rule covers health exchanges that sell insurance to individuals, and it
takes effect this year. That means people enrolled in an Obamacare exchange this year will have
their information given to the IRS as soon as it's needed for tax purposes.
The heavy hand of the IRS seizes innocent Americans'
assets. Terry [Dehko], who came to Michigan from Iraq in 1970, soon did what immigrants
often do: He went into business, buying Schott's Supermarket in Fraser, Mich., where he still
works six days a week. The Internal Revenue Service, a tentacle of a government that spent
$3.5 trillion in 2013, tried to steal more than $35,000 from Terry and Sandy that year.
Sandy, a mother of four, has a master's degree in urban planning but has worked in the store off
and on since she was 12. She remembers, "They just walked into the store" and announced that
they had emptied the store's bank account. The IRS agents believed, or pretended to believe,
that Terry and Sandy were or conceivably could be — which is sufficient for the
IRS — conducting a criminal enterprise when not selling groceries.
The
heavy hand of the IRS seizes innocent Americans' assets. The civil forfeiture law — if something
so devoid of due process can be dignified as law — is an incentive for perverse behavior: Predatory
government agencies get to pocket the proceeds from property they seize from Americans without even charging them with,
let alone convicting them of, crimes. Criminals are treated better than this because they lose the fruits of their
criminality only after being convicted.
Disciplined
IRS workers got bonuses, time off. More than 2,800 Internal Revenue Service workers who had been disciplined
recently received millions of dollars in bonuses and time off as part of an employee recognition program, a new government
audit shows. The IRS has a program that rewards its employees for a job well done, but a report released Tuesday by
the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that, between October 1, 2010, and December 31,
2012, more than 2,800 recently disciplined IRS workers got more than $2.8 million in monetary awards and more
than 27,000 hours in time-off awards.
Bonuses
given to IRS employes who owed back taxes. While some taxpayers are worried about getting steep fines for
fudging on their tax returns, a new government watchdog's report found that the Internal Revenue Service paid $1 million
in bonuses to employees who owed back taxes. In addition, the IRS's inspector general found that the tax agency
had been granting cash and time-off rewards to employees who had faced disciplinary action in the past.
IRS
employees with tax and conduct issues still got awards, watchdog report finds. IRS employees
who had been disciplined for tax and conduct issues were nonetheless rewarded with monetary awards or time
off, according to a watchdog report released Tuesday [4/22/2014]. The report by the Treasury Inspector
General for Tax Administration found that while for the most part the reward program for IRS workers complied
with federal regulations, employees who had themselves failed to pay their federal taxes and had discipline
problems were also rewarded.
IRS
fining business on taxes that were never due. Innovative Title Services, Inc., a real
estate title services company established in 2003, faces a tax penalty that could virtually shut
down the small business. According to the company's President, Michael Day, the nearly $20,000 late
fee is being assessed on taxes that were never due in the first place.
IRS,
other federal agencies reportedly used license plate-tracking technology. The Internal Revenue Service
and other federal agencies reportedly awarded contracts to a license plate-tracking company to provide access to
license-plate recognition databases or technology used to collect plate information. Bloomberg News reported
that the IRS and other government agencies awarded about $415,000 in contracts to Livermore, Calif.-based Vigilant
Solutions before the Department of Homeland Security dropped a plan for similar work after privacy concerns were raised.
On
Tax Day, RNC Sues The IRS. On Tax Day, the Republican National Committee announced it
is suing the IRS for stonewalling Freedom of Information Act request for documents about the tax
agency's politicized scrutiny of conservative and Tea Party groups. The RNC filed the request on
May 21, 2013, in an attempt to expose the documents and emails surrounding agency's process in
handling applications of non-profit organizations such as conservative and Tea Party groups.
IRS
Workers Still on Track to Get Bonuses. In February IRS officials announced employees
will be receiving bonuses in order to boost morale after the scandal broke about the agency
inappropriately targeting conservative tea party groups. [...] Despite declarations from the IRS and
its Democratic defenders, IRS targeting has not ended and dozens of conservative groups are still
waiting for their tax exempt status after years of answering prying and detailed questions from the agency.
IRS
employees accused of donning pro-Obama gear, urging callers to vote for him. IRS workers in several offices
have been openly supporting President Obama, including by donning pro-Obama paraphernalia and urging callers to reelect the
president in 2012, according to allegations contained in a new government watchdog report. A report by the U.S. Office
of Special Counsel, released Wednesday, cited accusations that workers at a Dallas IRS office may have violated federal law
by wearing pro-Obama items like shirts, stickers and buttons. The Hatch Act forbids Executive Branch workers from
engaging in partisan political activity. The report comes as two House committees move to take action against former
IRS official Lois Lerner regarding the agency's targeting of conservative groups.
IRS
under fire: Vote for Obama stickers, campaign cheerleading commonplace. Even as the IRS faces growing heat
over Lois G. Lerner and the tea party targeting scandal, a government watchdog said Wednesday it's pursuing cases
against three other tax agency employees and offices suspected of illegal political activity in support of President
Obama and fellow Democrats. In one case the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates federal employees who
conduct politics on government time, said it was "commonplace" in a Dallas IRS office for employees to have pro-Obama
screensavers on their computers, and to have campaign-style buttons and stickers at their office.
Ethics watchdog:
IRS customer representative urged vote for Obama. A government ethics watchdog agency has filed a complaint
seeking disciplinary action against an IRS customer service worker in Kentucky accused of engaging in political activity
at work by urging callers to vote for President Barack Obama. The Office of Special Counsel filed the complaint on
Tuesday with the Merit Systems Protection Board, according to the OSC, after a probe found the tax advisory specialist
violated a law — the Hatch Act — against such political activity by federal workers.
IRS
employee took home personal info on 20,000 workers, agency says. An Internal Revenue Service employee took home personal
information on about 20,000 IRS workers, former workers and contractors, putting the data at risk for public release, the agency said
Tuesday [3/18/2014]. The employee took home a computer thumb drive containing names, Social Security numbers and addresses of
the workers, and plugged the drive into an unsecure home network, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said in an email to employees.
IRS Currently Employing
Convicted Terrorist Associate. While IRS officials were targeting Tea Party groups for special scrutiny of their
501(c)3 tax exempt applications, the IRS also hired a policeman who had been prosecuted by the Justice Department — and
convicted in federal court — of using his access to the FBI's NCIC system to tip off a terror suspect about the
bureau's surveillance. The leak wrecked a major terror investigation. He is still at the IRS.
IRS: 89K Fewer
Audits in 2013 Because of 'Sequestration and Furloughs'. Because of "sequestration and furloughs" the number of individuals
audited by the Internal Revenue Service fell by 80,000 in fiscal 2013 and the number of businesses audited fell by 9,000, according to the
IRS's Budget in Brief released this week. "As a result of the impacts of sequestration and furloughs, the IRS delivered key
enforcement programs below 2012 levels," said the budget document.
Appeals court quashes IRS tax-return
preparer crackdown. An Obama administration campaign against tax-return fraud suffered a blow on Tuesday [2/11/2014] when an
appeals court invalidated the first federal rules for unregulated tax-return preparers. A three-judge appellate panel upheld a lower
court's January 2013 ruling that said the U.S. Internal Revenue Service does not have the power to impose test-taking and continuing education
requirements on hundreds of thousands of tax-return preparers.
Court Rules IRS May Not Regulate Tax
Preparers. In a unanimous opinion, a 3-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals has handed the IRS another defeat
in that agency's apparently never-ending quest to regulate, control, and dominate as many aspects of American political and financial
life as possible. The court ruled that the IRS's rules regarding the regulation of independent tax preparers were, for at least
six reasons, outside of the IRS's authority — which is to say illegal.
Bill Henck: Inside the IRS. I have
been an attorney in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel for over 26 years. Over a number of years, I have attempted, largely
unsuccessfully, to alert the public to abuse within the IRS. [...] I do not personally know whether the IRS has targeted conservative groups
or individuals, but I do know that the environment within the agency is ripe for such activity and there is nothing to prevent it from occurring.
You're wrong, Mr. Obama, the IRS is
corrupt. In the aftermath of an IRS targeting scandal that may have influenced the 2012 election, in the midst of criminal
and congressional investigations, while civil litigation is pending in federal court, before a single deposition is taken and while the
IRS clings to tens of thousands of documents, the president of the United States has spoken. His meaning is clear. Move along,
nothing to see here.
IRS employees to receive
bonuses. I generally don't think much of bonuses for government workers anyway. Why give someone extra
for just doing his job? If we're going to hand out bonuses, then we should also cut the salaries of people who screw up.
Like IRS employees.
IRS customer service leaves millions
of calls unanswered. Have a question on your tax returns? Don't ask the IRS. As tax day looms, an annual watchdog report to
Congress finds that the agency is falling short when it comes to answering Americans' questions about the convoluted tax code. The National
Taxpayer Advocate found only 61 percent of people seeking to speak with a customer service representative last year got through to
anybody — leaving nearly 20 million calls unanswered.
IRS seizes 60M
medical records for massive tax fraud investigation. The healthcare entity that slapped the Internal Revenue Service
with a class action lawsuit back in March over allegedly seizing the private medical records of 10 million Americans has now
been identified. The company's founder, the subject of extensive investigation by the IRS, was indicted last summer on
13 counts of tax evasion, conspiracy and filing fraudulent tax returns.
IRS
Union Boss Warns IRS Underfunding Jeopardizes IRS' Mission. The head of the union representing the workers at one of
America's most loathed government agencies is predicting dire consequences if Congress doesn't cough up more money to fund
the Internal Revenue Service. Colleen M. Kelley, President of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), must believe
that the majority of American taxpayers care about funding the Internal Revenue Service — much less want it funded.
Nevertheless, Ms. Kelley is on a mission to scare people into thinking that more taxpayer dollars should be spent on funding the
agency that targets Americans based on their political beliefs.
Report: IRS vendor owed $525 million in back taxes. The Internal Revenue Service has been doing business
with nearly 1,200 vendors that owe back taxes, including one unnamed contractor that owed a whopping $525 million, a new inspector general's report says.
The Latest IRS Power Grab. Six
months after the Internal Revenue Service's inspector general revealed that the tax-collection agency had been targeting conservative organizations
for added scrutiny and delaying their applications for tax-exempt status, the IRS has proposed new rules for handling political activity by
nonprofits. The proposed rules would plunge the agency deeper into political regulation.
IRS lost $4 billion to
identity thieves in 2012 as it targeted the tea party. The Internal Revenue Service sent $4 billion to identity thieves filing
fraudulent tax returns in 2012, at the same time it was devoting resources to invasive politically targeted audits of not-for-profit groups,
according to a recent report released by Treasury Inspector General J. Russell George. The IRS, which is now overseeing Obamacare's
complicated implementation and collecting its tax penalties, sent 343 tax refunds to a single address in Shanghai, and another 655 tax refunds
to one in Lithuania, according to CBS News.
IRS Sent Hundreds of Checks to One
Address in China. The IRS, which is adept at targeting conservatives and which is the enforcement arm for Obamacare, sent 655 tax refunds
to one address in Lithuania! They sent 343 tax refunds to one address in China! It apparently never occurred to them that this could be
identity fraud. There is no one minding the store.
Arrival of Obamacare puts
focus on IRS tax-credit scandal. The program is the Earned Income Tax Credit, through which the federal government gives out between $60 billion
and $70 billion to low-income working Americans each year. It's known as a "refundable" tax credit, but it is basically a transfer payment, in which
the IRS sends a check — perhaps even $5,000 every year — to workers who have little or no tax liability. The problem is, the IRS
does little to determine whether recipients actually qualify for the money.
IRS staffers owe $5.4M in back taxes. Nearly 700 employees
of Internal Revenue Service contractors owe $5.4 million in back taxes, said a report Wednesday [10/23/2013] by the agency's inspector general.
Another IRS Triumph. The earned-income tax credit,
or EITC, is a major welfare program intended to supplement the incomes of the working poor. It is "refundable," which means you get the credit even if you
pay no income tax. In 2011, more than 27 million families received EITC payments of nearly $62 billion. But here's the catch: The
IG report says that in 2011 at least 21% of those payments and as much as 26% were "improper." The percentages in 2012 were 21% and 25%. In other
words, at least one of every five dollars, and maybe one in four, of EITC payouts were in some way undeserved.
IRS pays illegal immigrants $4.2 billion while
stalling Tea Parties. While harrying and stalling Tea Party groups seeking nonprofit status, the Internal Revenue Service mailed $4.2 billion in
child-credit checks to undocumented immigrants. Critics say midlevel IRS bureaucrats continue to abuse the Additional Child Tax Credit program by dispensing
$1,000 checks to families in this country illegally.
Report: IRS sent $4.2 billion in
checks to illegal immigrants in one year. The scandal-plagued Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sent $4.2 billion in child tax-credit checks
to illegal immigrants the year the agency began targeting conservative groups, according to a new report from Watchdog.Org. The IRS sent illegal
immigrant families $1,000 checks totaling $4.2 billion through the federal government's Additional Child Tax Credit program in the year 2010, when
the agency's improper targeting of conservative and tea party groups began.
Investigator: IRS paid more than $110 billion in improper tax credits over past decade. The Internal Revenue Service
paid out more than $110 billion in tax credits over the past decade to people who didn't qualify for them, according to a Treasury report released Tuesday [10/22/2013].
The Earned Income Tax Credits were intended for poor working families. In his report, IRS inspector general J. Russell George said more than one-fifth of all
credits paid under the program went to people who didn't qualify.
IRS wins fight to cancel bonuses — for now.
The Internal Revenue Service won a ruling from a third-party mediator that decided the agency isn't obligated to pay $70 million in scheduled
bonus payouts that outraged many in Congress. But the fight isn't over. The mediator's ruling is being appealed to a federal panel by
the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS workers.
Is there a con man in the Oval Office?
Fraud was committed to re-elect Barack Obama. Our country was hijacked due to the efforts of government employees trying to protect their
own cushy lifetime jobs, bloated salaries, obscene pensions, and their biggest defender and protector Barack Obama. Think I'm wrong?
Evidently the IRS officials don't. Several of them have been busy hiring the most famous and expensive law firms in Washington, D.C. to
defend themselves. The kind of lawyers hired by multi-millionaire businessmen and high-profile politicians and lobbyists accused of serious
crimes. Where are they getting the money?
Anger at IRS Powers Tea-Party Comeback.
The uproar has revived media attention and renewed the intensity of many tea-party supporters. Just last week, Mrs. [Jenny Beth] Martin
says, the Patriots received a new letter from the IRS asking for additional information about the group's activities, including copies of all
direct-mail solicitations and telemarketing scripts before the 2012 election and any advertising materials in 2013. "This is beyond anger
and frustration," she says.
Defunding:
Framers' Remedy For Presidential Lawlessness. Two weeks ago, the House Appropriations Committee stripped the scandal ridden
Internal Revenue Service of nearly one quarter of its 2014 budget as punishment for its targeting of political groups and its costly
boondoggles. Shockingly, Senate Democrats voted to increase the IRS' budget.
The Editor says...
That's not shocking at all. The IRS is the gas tank from which the liberals draw the fuel for their tax-and-spend utopia. The
IRS is the best friend the liberals ever had. Nobody but a left-wing liberal politician has any affection for the IRS.
IRS: $9 Million
Travel Costs Not Excessive. IRS executives spent $4.7 million on travel in the 2012 fiscal year and $4.8 million
in the 2011 fiscal year, according to a report released by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) Tuesday. [...] The
report revealed a select few of IRS executives, about 15 people, were responsible for the high travel expenses.
Questions raised about IRS executive
travel. A new report by the inspector general of the IRS found that a small group of top executives at the IRS ran up "extremely high
travel expenses" in recent years, with some basically commuting each week to work in Washington, D.C. by plane from around the nation. [...] An IRS
source told me the most frequent travelers were four different officials inside the tax agency who "work" in Washington, at IRS headquarters, but
actually live in Dallas, Minneapolis and Atlanta.
IRS
Overpaid Earned Income Credit By Nearly $111 Billion, Treasury Report Says. The Internal Revenue Service has overpaid the Earned
Income Tax Credit by at least $110.8 billion since 2000, according to a recent Treasury Department inspector general report. That is
more than double the $53 billion of sequester cuts expected in 2013, totaling less than 2 percent of outlays, and puts the lie to
those who suggest there is nothing to cut in the federal budget.
Another IRS Scandal Waiting to Happen.
The Obama administration claims it wants to ensure that the rank political abuse perpetrated by the Internal Revenue Service is never repeated.
Ask Donald McGahn how that's going. Mr. McGahn is a Republican appointee to the Federal Election Commission, an agency with every bit as much
potential for partisan meddling as the IRS.
Feds Unwilling or Unable To Stop Illegal Checks.
A Long Island, N.Y., woman has spent nearly two years trying to convince the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Postal Service that persons with
Hispanic-sounding surnames using her address to obtain tax refunds from the IRS are part of a fraud scheme. She has not found a government agency
that will stop the phony tax refunds from arriving in her mailbox. Instead, federal and state authorities pass the buck. The checks,
including some offering payment for Hurricane Sandy "relief" to people who may not exist, keep coming.
The IRS
Mistakenly Exposed Thousands of Social Security Numbers. Another day, another slipup by the Internal Revenue Service.
The incident involves the unwitting exposure of "tens of thousands" of Social Security numbers, according to a recent audit by the
independent transparency and public-domain group Public.Resource.org. The identifying numbers were on the Internet for less than
24 hours after being discovered, but the damage was done. And unfortunately, the data-breach concerns some of the most
sensitive types of transactions: Those made by nonprofit political groups known as 527s.
Group:
IRS mistakenly posted thousands of Social Security numbers on website. The IRS mistakenly posted the Social Security
numbers of tens of thousands of Americans on a government website, the agency confirmed Monday night. One estimate put the
figure as high as 100,000 names. The numbers were posted to an IRS database for tax-exempt political groups known as
527s [...]
Coburn, Gingrey demand answers on 201 full-time
IRS union reps. Republican congressional leaders are demanding to know why the Internal Revenue Service pays hundreds of full-time employees to do
union work. As reported last month by The Daily Caller, 201 IRS employees receive full-time pay while doing no actual work, instead devoting their
entire work days to union business. The revelation came as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request from Americans for Limited Government.
FOIA: 201 IRS employees work full-time on union
business. In a response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from Americans for Limited Government, the Internal Revenue Service
revealed this month that 201 of its employees work full-time on union activities. "A lot of people are not aware that under federal law, a federal
agency is allowed to enter into a collective bargaining agreement with a union that has provisions where employees of the agency, in this case the IRS,
are allowed to do union work on the taxpayer's time and get paid for it," ALG president and Nathan Mehrens explained in an interview with The Daily Caller.
Coburn:
Hundreds of IRS employees work full-time on labor union business. The Internal Revenue Service spends
millions of dollars a year for 200 employees who actually work full-time on labor-union business even as it furloughs
employees and cuts taxpayer advice services under the budget sequester, Congress' chief waste watcher said in a new
letter to the tax agency. Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, joined Rep. Phil Gingrey, Georgia Republican,
in a letter asking the IRS to stop paying those employees for work that doesn't benefit the taxpayer.
Cruz Has It Right: Abolish The IRS. Speaking at the Free
Enterprise Institute, Senator Cruz introduced Tea Party groups from the Houston area, Dallas, San Antonio, and Waco, Texas. Representatives of each group
shared their experience of being targeted for extra scrutiny by the IRS when they applied for tax-exempt status. In response Cruz said, "And that's why I believe
the most important outcome that can come from this is substantive and policy-based and going forward, and it is quite simply: We should abolish the IRS."
The
'Very Serious' Tradition of the Internal Revenue Service. [Scroll down] Still, some might have wondered
about the effectiveness of the earlier very serious declaration of a very serious "zero tolerance policy," instituted after
"a probe in 1993 and 1994 turned up more than 1,300 employees suspected of using government computers to browse tax files."
Certainly, the IRS took the 1997 case at least as seriously as the mid-1990s revelation that "a snooper in the IRS's Boston
office turned out to have been a member of white supremacist groups, and a witness testified that the worker said he planned
to use the tax data to build dossiers on people."
IRS tracks your digital footprint.
The Internal Revenue Service is collecting a lot more than taxes this year — it's also acquiring a huge volume of personal
information on taxpayers' digital activities, from eBay auctions to Facebook posts and, for the first time ever, credit card and e-payment
transaction records, as it expands its search for tax cheats to places it's never gone before.
Top Ten Most
Ridiculous Items Purchased with IRS Credit Cards. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)
released a review of the IRS employee credit card program this week. Many of the items that were purchased and approved
may astound you. Taken directly from the report, Americans for Tax Reform has compiled a list of the ten most ridiculous
items purchased with IRS credit cards.
IRS Agents 'Accidentally' Discharged
Guns 11 Times, Possible Injuries. Special agents at the IRS accidentally shot their firearms 11 times between 2009 and 2011, and at
least three of the cases "may have resulted in property damage or personal injury." [...] According to the audit, "there were a total of eight firearm
discharges classified as intentional use of force incidents and 11 discharges classified as accidental during FYs 2009 through 2011."
The Editor says...
It sounds as if there are about four incidents per year in which IRS agents open fire. Do you recall hearing about any of them?
Rep.
Tammy Duckworth takes apart IRS contractor for 'gaming' veterans benefits program. Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who lost both legs and
damaged her arm while serving in Iraq with the National Guard, offered a blistering denunciation of a contractor who used his friendship with an IRS
official to win contracts reserved for the businesses of service-disabled veterans. Strong Castle's Braulio Castillo received the service-disabled
designation because he injured his ankle while attending a military prep school before going to college. "I'm so glad that you would be willing
to play football in prep school again 'to protect this great country,'" Duckworth told Castillo today [6/26/2013] during a House Oversight and Government
Reform Committee hearing. "Shame on you, Mr. Castillo. Shame on you.
Gowdy Grills IRS Official
About Employee's Homophobic Slurs. The House Oversight and Reform Committee held a hearing today to look into the $500 million
government contracts that were awarded to a computer company by the IRS. Gregory Roseman, a Deputy IRS Director plead the fifth, today, rather
than answer questions about the government contracts he awarded to Strong Castle Inc., and whether his friendship with Strong Castle's CEO, Braulio
Castillo, was a factor in the company's ability to win such large contracts with the IRS.
Porn, wine and kazoos on IRS worker charge cards. Like a lot
of big companies, the Internal Revenue Service allows some of its 90,000 employees to use company charge cards to buy work-related items, such as office
supplies. However, employees made a host of "improper" purchases — ranging from a dinner averaging $140 per person to Thomas the Tank
Engine rubber wristbands — according to the Treasury Inspector General for tax administration. The report was released as part of a
regular audit of IRS budget expenses.
Exit the IRS Stage Left. [Scroll down] I say it is time
to limit the IRS's reach. It has too much power over the lives of ordinary citizens. As can be seen by the smog of controversy surrounding the
current scandal, it is virtually unaccountable. Let us scrap the present tax code for a flat tax. Briefly stated, rid us of the nine-million-word
tax code with all its impossible complexity, loopholes, unfairness, and opportunities for IRS snooping. Replace it with a single-rate income tax and
corporate tax of 17 percent. A citizen's income would be taxed only once, encouraging citizens to save and invest, thus encouraging economic growth.
http://spectator.org/archives/2013/06/20/exit-the-irs-stage-left
Incompetence:
IRS Sent $46,378,040 in Refunds
to 23,994 'Unauthorized' Aliens at 1 Atlanta Address. The Internal Revenue Service sent 23,994 tax refunds worth a combined $46,378,040
to "unauthorized" alien workers who all used the same address in Atlanta, Ga., in 2011, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration
(TIGTA). That was not the only Atlanta address theoretically occupied by thousands of "unauthorized" alien workers receiving millions in federal
tax refunds in 2011. In fact, according to a TIGTA audit report published last year, four of the top ten addresses to which the IRS sent thousands
of tax refunds to "unauthorized" aliens were in Atlanta.
IRS Could Revoke Non-Profit
Status for Religious Institutions Refusing to Perform Same-Sex Marriages. The DOMA decision makes clear that marriage is a state-to-state
issue, meaning that religious institutions that receive non-profit status on the federal level but do not perform or accept same-sex marriages in states
where it is legal could have non-profit status revoked. Furthermore, should the IRS move to revoke federal non-profit status for churches,
synagogues and mosques that do not perform same-sex marriage more generally, the Court could easily justify that decision on the basis of
"eradicating discrimination" in religious education.
IRS Scandals
Jeopardize Funding for Obamacare Implementation. The IRS's spending scandals, in which officials spent millions of taxpayer
dollars on lavish conferences from 2010-2012 and forgot to properly record the expenses, may jeopardize funding for the implementation of
Obamacare.
IRS credit cards used for wine,
pornography, IG report says. Another government watchdog report has flagged inappropriate behavior at the IRS, this time claiming
government credit cards were used to make questionable purchases on items ranging from wine to online pornography. The report from the
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that between fiscal 2010 and 2011, the more than 5,000 IRS card accounts racked up
$103 million in purchases.
Senator: IRS to
Pay $70M in Employee Bonuses. The Internal Revenue Service is about to pay $70 million in employee bonuses despite an Obama
administration directive to cancel discretionary bonuses because of automatic spending cuts enacted this year, according to a GOP senator.
The IRS Immigration Fraud Scandal.
For those who came in late, a year before the IRS scandals burst onto the scene in early May of 2013, an alert investigative reporter for
WTHR-Indianapolis (Channel 13), Bob Segall by name, produced a stunning piece of journalism. [...] The tale begins when an Indiana
tax preparer, who requests anonymity, comes to Segall to alert the investigative reporter to a major league tax fraud.
The
IRS And DOJ Raid Small Businesses With Paramilitary, Gestapo Style Tactics. A short documentary by Jan Morgan of
JanMorganMedia, called "Rampant Injustice" exposes the federal abuse of power that has taken place since Obama was elected.
This underexposed video documents the egregious trampling of the Constitutional rights of Americans during white collar crime
investigations by the Department of Justice and the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service.
IRS Hiring 'Diversity
and Inclusion Specialist,' Starting at $123,758/Year. The IRS is looking to hire a "diversity and inclusion" specialist,
with a minimum salary of $123,758 a year. The opening for a full-time "Supervisory Diversity and Inclusion Specialist" at the
agency's national headquarters in Washington, D.C. was announced on June 11 and is open until June 24. The Diversity
Specialist will "serve as a change agent to provide strategies, solutions, training, tools, resources and thought leadership on
diversity and foster inclusion" across the workplace and "build internal awareness" for diversity and inclusion throughout the agency.
IG:
More Than 1,000 IRS Employees Misused Government Charge Cards; Wrote 325 Bad Checks. The Treasury Inspector General
for Tax Administration revealed in a recently released audit report that in fiscal years 2010 and 2011 more than 1,000 Internal
Revenue Service employees misused government charge cards issued by Citibank. The report said that during the two years in
question agency employees sent Citibank a total of 325 bad checks written on personal accounts that had insufficient funds to
cover them, that agency officials with top-secret security clearances had their charge accounts suspended for failure to pay the
balances, and that the IRS had a tendency of being "overly lenient" in disciplining those who misued the cards.
Jeff Duncan questions IRS rifle usage.
Rep. Jeff Duncan wants to know why IRS law enforcement agents are training with AR-15 rifles. As chairman of the House
Homeland Security oversight subcommittee, Duncan (R-S.C.) toured a federal law enforcement facility in late May and noticed
agents training with the semi-automatic weapons at a firing range. They identified themselves as IRS, he said.
"When I left there, it's been bugging me for weeks now, why IRS agents are training with a semi-automatic rifle AR-15, which has
stand-off capability," Duncan told POLITICO. "Are Americans that much of a target that you need that kind of capability?"
Jeff Duncan questions IRS gun usage.
Rep. Jeff Duncan wants to know why IRS law enforcement agents are training with AR-15 rifles. As chairman of the House Homeland
Security oversight subcommittee, Duncan (R-S.C.) toured a federal law enforcement facility in late May and noticed agents training with
the semi-automatic weapons at a firing range. They identified themselves as IRS, he said.
When Your W-2 Meets an AR-15.
When the IRS is accused of "targeting," don't assume they're speaking metaphorically.
House committee
looks into IRS seizure of 60 million medical records. Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are
looking into allegations that the Internal Revenue Service seized 60 million medical records from a California health care provider.
"(T)he Committee on Energy and Commerce is investigating allegations that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in the course of executing
a search warrant at a California health care provider's corporate headquarters in March 2011, improperly seized the personal medical
records of millions of American citizens in possible violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution," members of
the committee wrote in a letter Tuesday [6/11/2013] to Acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel.
House panel to
probe alleged seizure of medical records by IRS. A top House committee launched another probe of the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) Tuesday [6/11/2013] after a lawsuit alleged that the agency improperly seized millions of personal medical records in
California. In a letter, Republican leaders on the Energy and Commerce panel asked the IRS to explain how it handles confidential
medical information. "While [federal] privacy rules restrict the ability of a covered entity to release protected health
information, those rules appear to impose no restrictions on the IRS's ability to use such information after it is obtained,"
the lawmakers wrote.
IRS Buying Spying Equipment.
The IRS, currently in the midst of scandals involving the targeting of conservative groups and lavish taxpayer-funded conferences, is ordering
surveillance equipment that includes hidden cameras in coffee trays, plants and clock radios. The IRS wants to secure the surveillance
equipment quickly — it posted a solicitation on June 6 and is looking to close the deal by Monday, June 10. The
agency already has a company lined up for the order but is not commenting on the details.
Update:
IRS Cancels Order for Spying Equipment.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has cancelled its purchase order for surveillance equipment, which had included coffee trays with
hidden cameras and cameras that could be hidden in plants. The IRS issued the cancellation on Wednesday at 11:49 a.m.
CNSNews.com published an initial story about the IRS's purchase order on Monday afternoon — and that story was linked on
The Drudge Report.
Tea Party Patriots to
Organize Mass 'Audit the IRS Rally' in D.C.. The Tea Party Patriots will organize a mass "Audit the IRS Rally" on June 19th in Washington, D.C.
with local and national Tea Party groups to protest the IRS's targeting of conservative organizations.
IRS Employees Held Four
Conferences at Vegas Casinos; Cost: $671,990. A new Inspector General report on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) conferences
and costs shows that among 225 conferences held around the country between 2010 and 2012, at least four events took place at
luxury hotel-casinos in Las Vegas at a cost to taxpayers of $671,990. Two of the IRS events took place at the luxurious Caesar's
Palace Hotel and Casino, one at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino, and one at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.
IRS Did Mad Men Video Too.
What do Star Trek and Mad Men have in common? They've both been ripped off by the IRS.
Rubio to PJM: 'We Don't Need an IRS as Big as It
Is'. Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio told PJ Media that the Senate should exercise more oversight of the Internal
Revenue Service, adding that Congress should reduce the size of the IRS by simplifying the tax code. PJ Media asked Rubio on
Capitol Hill what he thinks should be the next step for Congress in addressing the IRS targeting tea party and other conservative
organizations. "Full investigation — like they're doing oversight hearings in the House," Rubio said. "I wish
there were more going on in the Senate."
Tightly Closed
Administration Appears to be Coming Apart. President Obama is being hit by new scandals almost weekly in a growing
web of investigations and revelations that have further damaged his troubled administration. The U.S. Treasury's Inspector
General (IG) released a new report Tuesday [6/4/2013] that revealed the Internal Revenue Service spent $50 million on
220 conferences for IRS employees over a three-year period beginning in 2010. Despite annual federal budget deficits
of more than $1 trillion throughout Obama's first term, the IG found many of the IRS' expenditures to be downright wasteful.
The IRS wasn't required to do something taxpayers are.
Bash: IRS Can't Locate Its Receipts. The IRS
spent over 4 million taxpayer dollars on a conference in 2010, CNN reported Tuesday evening [6/4/2013]. The actual amount
wasted is unknown because the IRS was not required to keep its receipts, something that they require taxpayers to do. CNN
correspondent Dana Bash discussed the excesses of the agency in a report on 360, including gifts, video spoofs and upscale hotel rooms
for agency higher-ups, but the cost of those and the conference itself was unclear because the IRS had engaged in poor record-keeping.
IRS mess is bigger than Bam. Abolish the Internal Revenue Service?
So says Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas): "We ought to abolish the IRS and instead move to a simple flat tax where the average
American can fill out taxes on postcard," the GOP's favorite iconoclast told Fox News the other day. How would it work?
"Put down how much you earn, a deduction for charitable contributions, home mortgage and how much you owe — take the
agents, the bureaucracy out of Washington and limit the power of government."
Some Democrats will say anything to keep the IRS from being scrutinized.
How Many Things Can Jim McDermott Get Wrong in Five Minutes?
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) attacked victims of IRS targeting at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing today [6/5/2013], saying
that it was their fault they were targeted because they applied for tax-exempt status.
Two
IRS officials put on administrative leave for accepting gifts at Calif. conference. The Internal Revenue Service
said Wednesday [6/5/2013] that two managers who attended a conference the agency held in Southern California in 2010 have been
placed on administrative leave for accepting free food and other gifts in violation of government ethics standards. Top IRS
officials were notified of the misconduct three months ago by the Treasury Department inspector general, whose office discovered
the gifts in the course of an audit of the conference held in Anaheim, Calif., government sources said.
Audit
finds IRS spent more than $4 million on a single employee conference. The Internal Revenue Service spent
$4.1 million on a single employee conference held in Anaheim, Calif., in 2010, one of 225 such events held over
a two-year period at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $50 million. According to a 63-page report authored by the
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and obtained by The Washington Examiner, the conference costs were approved
by the both of the IRS' deputy commissioners and were paid for by taking money from an IRS account intended for hiring
"enforcement employees."
Ted Cruz: Abolish the IRS.
Sen. Ted Cruz says it is time to abolish the Internal Revenue Service. The freshman Texas Republican and tea party favorite
launched an online petition in which he says the only way to make sure that the agency does not target conservative groups again
or silence the president's critics is to eliminate it altogether.
How the IRS spent $4.1 million on 2010 training conference.
The Internal Revenue Service spent an eye-watering $4.1 million of government money on a 2010 training conference in
California, handing out cocktails, engraved pens and room upgrades to the managers who attended. A report released
on Tuesday [6/4/2013] by the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration reveals the staggering list
of gifts lavished on the 2,609 employees at the conference in Anaheim.
Average Guest
Speaker At IRS Conference Made More Than $9,000. The IRS spent $135,350 on 15 guest speakers at a single conference
in Anaheim, according to a report by the Treasury Inspector General's report, released by the House Government Oversight Committee
Tuesday. The report states that the IRS spent $50 million on such conferences between 2010 and 2012. The average
speaker at the Anaheim conference made $9,000, according to a list of the 15 speakers.
Extensive IRS
conference spending revealed by IG report. A new report on Internal Revenue Service expenditures finds that the
agency spent more than $48 million on 225 conferences over a three-year span, with one conference in Anaheim coming
under particular scrutiny.
IRS Spent
$50 Million in Two Years on 'Conferences'. A report to be released on Tuesday investigating expenditures by the
Internal Revenue Service will reveal that $50 million was lavished on some 220 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012.
In one case alone, the report finds that the IRS spent $4 million on a conference for 2,600 IRS employees held in
Anaheim, California in August of 2010.
IRS Commissioner Aided Tax Cheat
Congressman. [Scroll down] After months of a barrage of stories about Rangel's problems with taxes
and a mere four-plus months after the liberal New York Times was calling for Rangel to step aside, the IRS Commissioner
was in Harlem at that food bank to personally lend the quite public support of the IRS to the embattled, left-leaning,
tax-challenged Rangel. Well aside from the issue of political judgment for the head of the supposedly nonpartisan
IRS to be publicly campaigning for a man so publicly and repeatedly charged with tax cheating — the Rangel
episode raised the obvious issue of whether, under the circumstances, Shulman was as obtuse as he appeared. Was
Douglas Shulman really that politically dumb?
Wife
of Former IRS Chief Campaigned for Obama, Questioned Romney's Taxes. Former Internal Revenue Service
Commissioner Douglas Shulman is under fire from Congress for his agency's targeting of Tea Party and other conservative
organizations. Shulman himself is under suspicion for his numerous visits to the White House compared to other
administration officials. Additionally, Shulman's wife Susan L. Anderson reportedly works for the Washington
D.C. based liberal organization Public Campaign.
The Hollow Core of Obamaism.
Personally, I think some of Obama's rhetoric is partly to blame for the climate that led to the IRS scandal. When you talk
incessantly about how the good, smart, and patriotic people support an ever-larger role for government, people who want a smaller
role for government are going to be treated with suspicion. But that's not the point I want to make here. Rather, I want
to shine a light on what is a relatively minor scandal: the ludicrous conferences the IRS has organized for itself.
Tax Reform Is the IRS Fix.
Apart from criminal prosecution, the best way to strip the power of politics and corruption from the IRS is to initiate broad-based,
pro-growth tax reform and simplification. It's the complexity of the tax code that nurtures the corruptness of the IRS.
New IRS
Comish: My Mission Is to Restore the Trust of American People. In a hearing on Capitol Hill, acting IRS commissioner Daniel
Werfel addressed "missteps" and "failures" of IRS management upon revelations that conservative groups were targeted by the agency.
We're doing a lousy job, so give us more money.
House Dem: If IRS
budget gets cut, they will target you more. Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., called for an increase in IRS funding, on the theory
that budget cuts will "promote more scandals" at the agency that recently admitted to targeting small-government conservatives for
inappropriate reviews. "There is no clearer way to promote more scandals than by cutting funding that could be used for oversight,
training, and reform," Serrano said during a House subcommittee hearing on the IRS today. "At the level this subcommittee is funding
right now, we are just asking for more trouble at the IRS."
House
panel: Report finds $50M for IRS conferences. Already under siege, the Internal Revenue Service was cited by a government
watchdog for a $4.1 million training conference featuring luxury rooms and free drinks, even as conservative figures told Congress
Tuesday [6/4/2013] they had been abused for years while seeking tax-exempt status.
More trouble for the IRS.
The new acting IRS chief acknowledged Friday [5/31/2013] that an upcoming audit would find improper spending at an agency conference,
opening up a new trouble spot for an agency already embattled over its treatment of Tea Party groups. Danny Werfel, the acting
commissioner, said that the conference occurred in 2010, labeling it an "unfortunate vestige" from a time before the agency tightened
its belt.
Former IRS
commissioner's wife tweeted from Occupy Wall Street rally. The wife of the former IRS commissioner who ran the tax agency
when it was singling out conservative groups was apparently involved — at least briefly — in the Occupy Wall Street
movement. Susan L. Anderson sent a tweet in December 2011 asking people in the Washington area to attend an Occupy Wall Street
rally.
Another frivolous
IRS-produced video emerges. The IG will release a report next week titled "Collected and Wasted: The IRS Spending
Culture and Conference Abuses" and it will be the subject of a hearing before the House oversight committee on Thursday [5/6/2013].
IRS
training videos spoof 'Star Trek,' 'Gilligan's Island' and 'Cupid Shuffle'. The Internal Revenue Service is
acknowledging that the agency spent tens of millions of dollars in recent years on conferences for thousands of its
employees. [...] During the conference, employees watched two training videos starring division employees that cost
at least $60,000 to produce, according to the audit's estimates.
IRS Spent $1.1 Million on BlackBerries and
Aircards It Didn't Use. According to an audit report released in January 2013 by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration
(TIGTA), the Internal Revenue Service spent $1 million in taxpayer dollars to purchase BlackBerry™ smartphones and wireless internet
"aircards" — that subsequently went unused. According to the report, "The IRS paid approximately $1.1 million during Fiscal Year
2011 for 13,878 aircards and 754 BlackBerry™ smartphones that were not used for periods of three months to one year. [Moreover,] TIGTA
identified 45 aircards and 68 BlackBerry™ smartphones that were not used at all for the entire 12 months of the fiscal year."
Americans Deserve the IRS. In order to squeeze out
of us half of what we produce, a government tax collection agency must be ruthless and able to put the fear of God into its citizens. The IRS
has mastered that task. Congress has given it powers that would be deemed criminal if used by others. For example, the Constitution's Fifth
Amendment protects Americans against self-incrimination and being forced to bear witness against oneself. That's precisely what one does when
he is compelled to sign his income tax form. However, a Fifth Amendment argument can't be used as a defense in a court of law. The IRS
will counter that you voluntarily provided the information on your tax return.
IRS
knowingly sends Billions in Fraudulent Refunds to Illegal Immigrants. A WTHR-TV Indianapolis investigative report
exposes a fraudulent scheme wherein the IRS is sending $4.2 billion per year to illegal immigrants as an "additional child tax
credit" for children who don't even live in the U.S. Further, the IRS and Congress have been ignoring the scheme for years.
Chief
IRS Counsel Got Jeremiah Wright's Church out of IRS Probe Before Joining Agency. News reports from the time indicate
the now-chief counsel of the IRS, William Wilkins, helped a church connected to President Barack Obama's friend Rev. Jeremiah Wright
get out of an IRS probe in 2008 while working as a private attorney.
IRS Worker Used Federal Plastic
For Amazon Buys. Entrusted with a government credit card, an Internal Revenue Service worker allegedly used the plastic
for a years-long Amazon.com shopping spree that netted her hundreds of items, including a chocolate fondue fountain; Bollywood
movies; Pampers; Harlequin romance novels; Omaha Steaks; Apple Bottoms skinny jeans; mango body wash; and a Ginsu knife set.
Yetunde Oseni, 37, was named this month in a U.S. District Court felony complaint charging her with embezzling government funds.
Oseni has worked since 2000 as a secretary in an IRS office in Lanham, Maryland. According to a court filing, Oseni was given a
Citibank MasterCard for the "purchase of office supplies for her business unit."
Illegal Immigrant Additional Child Tax Credit Fraud.
Illegal Immigrants otherwise known as Undocumented Workers are using an IRS Tax Loophole to take advantage of the Additional Child Tax Credit to obtain tax refunds.
This tax fraud is currently costing U.S. Taxpayers about 4 Billion dollars a year.
Wastebook
2011. [T]he IRS approved roughly $1 billion in tax credits intended for energy efficiency home improvements
to individuals who did not even own a house. These recipients included prisoners and children, some probably not even
old enough to own a doll house. While Congress bickered over whether or not the salaries of federal employees should
be frozen, the federal government paid $120 million to federal employees who were deceased.
IRS
Morality: Defend Planned Parenthood, Deluge Adoptive Families with Audits. [Scroll down] This audit wave got
almost no media coverage, but what was the experience like for individual families? In a word, grueling. Huge document
requests with short turnaround times were followed by lengthy IRS delays in processing, all with no understanding for the unique
documentation challenges of international adoption.
A $4.2 Bil Subsidy For Illegals?
If the federal government had actually wanted to encourage illegal immigration, wouldn't a big tax credit be
the way to bring them in? Lucky us, that's what the IRS is doing — and with our money.
Illegal
Workers Used Tax Credit to Pocket $4.2 Billion, Audit Shows. Undocumented workers
collected $4.2 billion in a certain tax credit last year, up from less than $1 billion
five years ago, according to a new audit. The report from the Treasury Inspector General
for Tax Administration looked only at a tax benefit known as the Additional Child Tax Credit, a
refundable credit meant for working families. The audit found that as a result of vague U.S.
law — as well as an expansion of the tax credit in stimulus legislation and other measures —
the number of illegal workers collecting the money has skyrocketed.
For the good of the country, let's abolish
the IRS. Testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee by the outgoing acting IRS commissioner, Steve Miller, as
well as numerous statements by individuals claiming they have been harassed and intimidated by IRS agents, reveal a government agency
out of control, or more precisely, under the control of political hacks. It's doubtful this was a freelance operation.
J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, testified he knew as early as June 2012 that the IRS
was targeting conservatives, but did nothing to stop it during the presidential campaign. Who else knew?
Just to be sure nobody talked to the press...
IRS
Scandal: Armed Police 'Escort' Reporters Through Cincinnati Office. Monday afternoon [5/20/2013], ABC News released
a chilling report that details what journalists have faced while trying to get some answers from the Cincinnati IRS office, which
is where a majority of the Tea Party targeting took place. According to ABC, an "armed uniform police officer with the Federal
Protective Service" "escorted" reporters through the public building. ABC says if the intent wasn't to "scare off" employees
who might talk, "it was the effect."
Has the IRS Already Seized Your Medical Records?
As gratifying as it was to see the "news" media actually do its job last week when the IRS scandal broke, it was also odd that the coverage focused
exclusively on abuses of power relating to various Tea Party and anti-abortion groups. A much scarier IRS story has been virtually ignored by the
establishment press. On Wednesday, it was reported that a class-action lawsuit had been filed against a group of IRS agents who, according to the
complaint filed by "John Doe Company" in the Southern District of California, "stole more than 60,000,000 medical records of more than 10,000,000
Americans, including at least 1,000,000 Californians."
Fraudulent tax returns surge
181%. The IRS identified 335,341 tax returns claiming $1.9 billion in fraudulent refunds as
of March 4, 2011, according to the findings of an audit conducted by the Treasury Inspector General
for Tax Administration. ... The Earned Income Tax Credit, aimed at helping lower-income taxpayers, has been
a large source of fraud, with people falsely lowering their income to qualify or claiming children they
don't have. The IRS estimates that 23% to 28% of EITC credits are wrongfully paid to Americans every
year, totaling $11 to $13 billion.
The Not-So-Little Engine That Wouldn't Go Away.
While the infamous $436 hammers and $600 toilet seats are distant memories, the current crop of federal spending
excesses are... well, downright excessive. Some of the best examples from 2010 include: $112 million
doled out by the IRS to prisoners filing fraudulent tax returns [...]
Tax Audits Are No Laughing Matter. Our income-tax system is
based on voluntary compliance and honest reporting by citizens. It couldn't possibly function if most people decided to cheat. Sure,
the system is backed up by the dreaded IRS audit. But the threat is, while not exactly hollow, limited: The IRS can't audit more than a
tiny fraction of taxpayers. If Americans started acting like Italians, who famously see tax evasion as a national pastime, the system would
collapse. One reason why Americans don't act like Italians is that they see the income-tax system as basically fair in execution.
Report: IRS Covered Up
Scandal Until After Election. [Scroll down] The third thing, though, is by far the most troubling and was spelled
out perfectly by NBC's Lisa Meyers Friday morning [5/17/2013] on "Morning Joe." From everything she knew before the hearings and
what we are learning from them today, it looks as though, at the very least, the IRS knew of this scandal prior to the 2012 election and
deliberately covered it up until afterward.
Did The IRS Try To
Swing Election To Obama? The inspector general's report on the IRS targeting of conservatives makes it seem like a case
of bureaucratic bumbling. But the more we learn, the more it looks like a concerted effort to hobble Obama's political foes.
The Liberal Union Behind the IRS.
Obama, IG Report refuse to touch powerful Treasury Employees Union headed by ex-IRS agent.
IRS
Overpaid Earned Income Credit By Nearly $111 Billion, Treasury Report Says. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has overpaid
the Earned Income Tax Credit by at least $110.8 billion since 2000, according to a recent Treasury Department inspector general
report. That is more than double the $53 billion of sequester cuts expected in 2013 totaling less than 2 percent of
outlays, and puts the lie to those who suggest there is nothing to cut in the federal budget.
IRS
Data Web Snares Mostly Low-and Middle-Income Taxpayers. The Internal Revenue Service relies on technology more than ever to sniff out tax cheats
using robo-audits and data mining — but so far it has caught lot of minnows, and big fish are still eluding detection. Even as millions of people's
accounts are screened online and matched against their digital files elsewhere, the IRS's data-detection tools come nowhere close to collecting the $400 billion
in tax dodges estimated to take place each year. The area in which its robo-audits have had the most impact is on tax returns for low-income taxpayers
who try to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit.
Report: IRS Issued $1B in Fraudulent Refunds
in 2007. The government sent out more than $1 billion in fraudulent refunds last year and
offered this explanation Thursday [10/30/2008] for the bad checks in the mail: The Internal Revenue
Service has too few resources to pursue every tax fraud case.
This is why we have lawyers and juries:
Social
Security comes after man for $895 overpayment they made to his mom. Imagine if your parent received an over-payment from the
government but decades later, the government took the money out of your tax return.
Stolen Identity Tax Refund Fraud [is] Widespread.
A stolen-identity tax refund scheme uncovered by a Durham retiree in March apparently is so widespread that one federal official has described it as the "No. 1
tax scam for 2013." It's called SIRF, stolen identity refund fraud, and it affects an untold number of innocent taxpayers, costing the federal government
billions. It relies on two weaknesses in the operations of the Internal Revenue Service: its desire to get returns to taxpayers quickly, and a timing
gap in how it deals with employees and employers.
Another IRS
Scandal; Employees Lie to Get Welfare, Food Stamps. On the heels of "Tax Day," 24 Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
employees have been charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in government benefits, including food stamps, welfare
and housing vouchers. The story comes out of Tennessee, where federal prosecutors announced this month that the scheme fleeced
U.S. taxpayers out of at least a quarter of a million dollars in government benefits. The corrupt IRS employees did it by making
false statements to fraudulently obtain the benefits, which also included unemployment insurance.
Treasury Office
Faults IRS Computer Security. Two new IRS computer systems that will eventually cost taxpayers
almost $2 billion are being put into service despite known security and privacy vulnerabilities, a
Treasury watchdog said in a report coming out Thursday [10/16/2008]. The office of the Treasury Inspector General
for Tax Administration said Internal Revenue Service officials failed to ensure that identified weaknesses
had been addressed before putting the new systems into use.
Investigate Employer Who
Filed 37,375 Bad W-2s in One Year. Investigate the employer who — according to the Office of the Inspector General
of the Social Security Administration (SSA) — filed 37,375 inaccurate W-2s in tax year 2005. In fact, investigate all
employers who have similarly filed massive numbers of bad W-2s. Forget the employers who filed 100, 200 or even 500 bad W-2s per
year. Give them a pass — for now. Focus only on those that filed thousands.
The IRS is reading your email, and doesn't care a court said they can't.
For those of you who are old enough to remember Freedom, prior to 1913 the government managed quite nicely without an income tax. They built
roads, conducted diplomacy, fought wars, delivered the mail, and balanced their budget. What they did not do was transfer wealth from the
productive to the unproductive. The IRS changed all that. They've got what it takes to take what you've got.
The IRS is reading your email, and doesn't care a court said they can't.
If you aren't encrypting your email, the IRS is probably reading it right now.
IRS to taxpayers: We don't need a
warrant for email snooping, GPS tracking. IRS attorneys have asserted in internal documents that the Fourth Amendment does not
protect email and that a warrant is not needed to plant a GPS location tracker on a car in its owner's driveway. In documents obtained
from the IRS by the ACLU under the federal Freedom of Information Act and posted on the website Wednesday, the agency's attorneys adopt an
extremely aggressive posture toward the requirements the Fourth Amendment might place on its criminal investigators who want to read email or
text messages, or use GPS location tracking.
IRS Sits By As Inmates
Collect Fraudulent Tax Refunds. Nearly a year after Congress passed a law to stop incarcerated criminals from fraudulently
receiving millions of dollars in tax returns, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) hasn't bothered creating a system to catch the offenders.
Understanding the Progressive Mind.
[Scroll down] Libertarians loathe no federal agency as much as they do the Internal Revenue Service. They view it as an
unwarranted expansion of the State into their lives, and they see an agency full of people who have way too much power
over the daily lives of others. Progressives, on the other hand, believe that the IRS has too little power. The
mission of the IRS — to seize tax revenue — is utterly important for it is the IRS that ultimately allows us
to pay for the "Social Contract" that Progressives believe is central to life itself.
An Embarrassing Metric
Disappears. As the din of America's falling headfirst over the fiscal cliff reverberates across the nation, the Obama
administration is quietly killing a key economic metric that tells how, and how many, people are voting with their feet. Since
1991 the Internal Revenue Service has been compiling statistics on filers' addresses, which the agency's Statistics of Income division
uses to show who is moving into and out of every county and state in the nation. As you'd expect, the IRS also knows the aggregate
income levels of those who move.
The Illegal Eagle and a Baldly Grasping IRS.
[Scroll down] The presence of the stuffed eagle meant it couldn't be sold without violating the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and
the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Since the artwork couldn't be sold, logic dictated that it be listed as having zero value, which is what the
Sonnabend family's three appraisers, one of them Christie's auction house, did. But don't look for "logic" in any government dictionary.
In the summer of 2011, the IRS sent the family an unsigned report appraising "Canyon" at $15 million. When they rejected the valuation,
the government upped the ante: The appraisal was increased to $65 million, which yielded a $29.2 million tax bill.
The IRS Has Gone Rogue. A
president who says "I haven't raised taxes" has authorized his Internal Revenue Service issue a "final rule" that will illegally tax
some 12 million individuals, plus large employers, in as many as 40 states beginning in 2014. Oklahoma's attorney
general has asked a federal court to block this rule. Members of Congress have introduced legislation in both the House and
the Senate to quash it.
The IRS: The Power to Ruin Lives.
[Most people] don't like the IRS, in part because it has so much arbitrary power to ruin lives. But it's not just that is has the power to
ruin lives. That can be said about the FBI, the DEA, the BATF, and all sorts of other enforcement agencies. What irks people about the IRS is
that it has so much power combined with the fact that the internal revenue code is a nightmare of complexity that can overwhelm even the most
well-intentioned taxpayer.
IRS discourages employees from detecting fraud.
Child tax credit payments to illegal immigrants have quadrupled in the past five years as a result of President Obama's stimulus package
and the Internal Revenue Service's refusal to pursue instances of fraud, a new study shows. The IRS is also failing to inform
citizens that illegal immigrants have stolen their Social Security Numbers. The IRS paid out $7.4 billion in tax refunds to
illegal immigrants in 2012, quadruple the $1.7 billion paid out in 2007, according to a new report by Senate Republicans.
IRS told employees to
ignore potential fraud in program used by immigrants. IRS supervisors ignored employees who tried to warn agency higher-ups
of fraud in a program designed to collect taxes from immigrants, resulting in the agency paying out potentially bogus refunds.
The Treasury inspector general for tax administration said the IRS even eliminated some methods employees had used to figure out
questionable refund requests, and that the agency doesn't have the ability to verify applicants' identity or foreign status.
Investigators "found an environment which discourages employees from detecting fraudulent applications," said J. Russell George,
the inspector general.
President Obama, the Strong
Favorite of IRS Employees. According to a search of FEC contributor data, employees of the Internal Revenue Service have a
strong preference in this year's election. Donors who list their employer as "Internal Revenue Service" or "IRS" have donated
$26,538 to President Obama's campaign, and just $2,340 to Mitt Romney's campaign.
IRS Employee Arrested for Identity Theft Scam.
Domeen Flowers, a former IRS employee, was arrested last week for stealing from taxpayers.
IRS hit with audit for mismanagement
and fraud. The large, unmarked building in south Austin is where the IRS decides whether to issue an Individual Taxpayer
Identification Number to the millions of illegal immigrants who apply for them. An ITIN allows undocumented workers to file tax
returns and pay taxes, a legal requirement for those who earn income in the United States — even those who come to the country
illegally. But [WTHR-TV] discovered the ITIN system is plagued by abuse and fraud.
IRS
may be given the authority to restrict travel. Imagine someday in the not too distant future having to apply
for a government permit to sell your home and move somewhere else. Imagine that you apply for and are denied a permit
to visit your grandchildren in another state. ... Americans best sit up and take note of this new encroachment on our rights.
Like the former Soviet Union, U.S. is setting up internal passport system. In
fact, the IRS routinely leans on the little guy and small business owners. For instance, in 2010 the owner of a car wash in
Sacramento, California, was harassed by the IRS after the government said he owed four cents in back taxes (which became $200 after
three years of penalties and fees). The IRS is also used by the establishment as a political weapon, as various Tea Party
organizations around the country recently learned.
5 New Ways the IRS
Is [Harshly and Unfairly Treating] America. [#2] The United States Senate on March 14th passed a
transportation funding bill that contained a slipped-in section authorizing the "denial, revocation, or limitation of a
passport" for anyone with "a seriously delinquent tax debt in an amount in excess of $50,000." The "revocation" bit is
especially heinous: Even the outrageous and barely-known State Department provision denying passports to those who owe
$2,500 in back child support only deals with issuances and renewals. Now the feds are apparently willing to actively
hunt you down and take away your getaway card.
Among the Tax-takers.
I worked for the IRS and survived. I learned about taxpayers, but the really interesting part of
it was learning about tax-takers. We all have this vague notion of people who don't pay taxes but
receive money from Uncle Sam in what euphemistically is called a tax refund. That's what I had, a
vague notion, until I was forced to close my business in 2010. I took a seasonal job with the
Internal Revenue Service to get some household cash flow going. We "Timmy Geithner warriors" were
appalled by what we learned.
The Soft Dictatorship.
The IRS has the power to force citizens to incriminate themselves, violating the Fifth Amendment, and prosecutes
trials under the premise that taxpayers are guilty until proven innocent, violating the Sixth Amendment.
Finally the IRS can seize property and businesses and sell the property and business without a court order,
again violating the Fifth Amendment. In fact, the most terrifying organization in America is the IRS.
They are universally feared, and for good reason. However, the IRS is arbitrary in their enforcement;
several people in the Obama administration have committed outright tax evasion with no consequences.
What would you call an agency with that kind of power and completely arbitrary enforcement?
Identity Theft
Involving IRS Mushrooms. Since 2008, the IRS has identified about 470,000 incidents of identity
theft affecting more than 390,000 taxpayers, Sen. Bill Nelson (D., Fla.) said at a Senate Finance Committee
hearing on Wednesday [5/25/2011]. The problem appears to be expanding rapidly. In 2008, there were
about 52,000 incidents involving the IRS, according to the Government Accountability Office. In 2010,
there were 245,000.
IRS staff
committed tax credit fraud. More than 100 employees of the Internal Revenue Service
cheated the government by fraudulently claiming a first-time homebuyer tax credit included in the 2008
and 2009 economic stimulus packages, according to federal investigators.
About Obama's rich
people... The tax system doesn't just take our money — it subjects us to endless
torment. According to a 2010 report by the National Taxpayer Advocate, an IRS ombudsman, taxpayers
and businesses spend about 6.1 million hours a year on their taxes at a cost of $163 billion.
That doesn't include the economic cost of tax-avoidance behavior, in which taxpayers shift assets into less
productive endeavors or take into account the dread, frustration and anger of the beleaguered citizen.
IRS pays $513 Million
In Bogus Credits Under Stimulus. Weeks after a government audit revealed that the Internal
Revenue Service doled out $33 million in fraudulent electric-car tax credits, a separate probe says
the agency paid out over half a billion dollars to "homebuyers" who didn't qualify. It's simply the
latest of many blunders for the perpetually troubled government agency that's awarded prison inmates tens
of millions of dollars in bogus tax refunds in the past decade. Last year alone, more than a quarter
of a million prisoners filed tax returns with the IRS and nearly 50,000 claimed more than $130 million
in refunds without bothering to report wage information, according to the Treasury Inspector General.
It's time to
shut down the IRS. The FairTax Act seeks to reform the tax structure of the United States
by replacing the inefficient income tax with a pro-growth consumption tax and would eliminate the need
for the IRS because the FairTax would be administered in much the same manner as states administer state
sales taxes. Americans would no longer have to file a return because taxes would be collected at
the point of sale for a good or service. This turns the idea of taxation in the United States on
its head.
Tax compliance employs more workers than Wal-Mart,
UPS, McDonald's, IBM and Citigroup combined.
The 30-Cent Tax Premium.
There is a lot more to taxes than simply paying the bill. Taxpayers must spend significantly more than
$1 in order to provide $1 of income-tax revenue to the federal government.
Top 10 Spending Cuts Thwarted by
Democrats: [#2] Internal Revenue Service: Republicans want to cut
nearly $600 million from Obama's budget for the IRS in order to prevent it from hiring the
new agents needed to enforce ObamaCare rules. Obama wants a 9% budget hike for the tax
collecting agency and 1,269 new positions to implement ObamaCare, with their likely focus being
monitoring compliance with the individual mandate and collecting taxes from people who don't
have health insurance.
The IRS Thinks
I'm a Bar Code. For two years the IRS has owed me more than $1,200, which it improperly
assessed me for tax year 2008. It fessed up to the error in May 2009 and assured me that I would get
paid in a reasonable time. From there on my life has been launched into a myriad maze of phone calls,
chats with IRS people all over the country, and receipt of two checks from the United States Treasury —
both of which cannot be cashed.
5,100 More IRS
Agents. President Obama's fiscal 2012 budget doesn't cut much of anything, and certainly not
the Internal Revenue Service. The White House is requesting that the most beloved of all government
agencies get an additional 5,100 agents next year, no doubt to wring further tax revenue from Americans.
IRS Guilty of Fraud. If you
ever had any doubts concerning the morally depraved and illegal activities of some IRS employees, the U.S.
Court of Appeals case Dixon v. U.S. [91 AFTR 2d 2003-569 (9th Cir. 2003)] filed January 17, 2003,
should strike fear in your heart. ... The Dixon case offers important insight into the day-to-day
operations at the IRS. Every office has a secret cadre of employees and managers that know "what
is best for the IRS" and they develop their own vigilante style of enforcement. That is, they
have no qualms about bending, breaking or distorting the law — to accomplish in their view "the real
mission of the IRS."
Grain of salt: Please note that
the IRS did not exist 140 years ago.
IRS Rewarding
Those Who Snitch On Tax Cheats. If you want to blow the whistle on a small-time crook then
you would be participating in the original IRS informant program that has been around for more than
140 years. If you report someone to this program, you could receive up to 15 percent
of the amount that has been underpaid up to a maximum award of $10 million.
IRS Informant Reward Program.
In the former Soviet Union, people had to be very careful about discussing their business and personal
affairs because almost everyone was a spy for the secret police agency known as the KGB. It appears
that the Internal Revenue Service has studied the "Soviet Model" and has set up a new division known as
The Informant Reward Program.
IRS
audits jump by 11 percent; wealthiest targeted. The tax agency increased the number of returns
it audited by nearly 11 percent this year, statistics released Wednesday [12/15/2010] show.
Debate brews over expansion of Internal Revenue
Service's work force. Health reform may have finally become law, but the partisan wars over the
bill continue to rage — and the latest flash point is a debate about whether the $940 billion
overhaul means thousands of new government workers are about to bloat the federal payroll. Republicans
lawmakers are warning the law would put as many as 16,000 new Internal Revenue Service agents and workers on
the streets.
Do as
the IRS says, not as it does. Important government documents are often shielded from Freedom of
Information Act requests because of an exemption in the law that allows federal departments and agencies to
withhold materials created before the issuance of an official policy. It's known as the "internal
deliberative process" exemption and it enables officials to withhold virtually all memoranda, e-mails, studies,
or other documents created by agency employees or contractors as part of the policymaking process. ... But
don't expect the government to extend the same privilege it demands for itself to private companies.
Obamacare's Hit Man.
Last week the Congressional Budget Office reported that it expects that the Internal Revenue Service and the
Department of Health and Human Services will spend up to an additional $200 billion over the next decade
on administering Obamacare. That's in addition to the estimated $1 trillion that will be spent in
2014-2019 under the new healthcare law. Much of the money will go to hiring hundreds of thousands
of bureaucrats to administer Obamacare over the next decade.
16,500 More Reasons to
Vote Republican in November. Thanks to the Democrats, the most hated agency in America, the IRS,
just got 16,500 agents bigger. By sprinkling in an additional 16,500 IRS agents into their health care
mix, the Democrats may have just placed upon their own backs a backbreaking straw.
IRS
Agent Didn't Report $41,842 in EBay Sales. An Internal Revenue Service officer was found liable
for back taxes and penalties for not reporting income on nearly 2,000 transactions on EBay Inc., the online
auction site, according to the U.S. Tax Court. Andrea Fabiana Orellana failed to report $41,842 in
income in 2004 and 2005 from sales of designer clothing, shoes and other items, according to a Tax Court
summary opinion.
IRS fraudulent refunds total an
estimated $318M. Internal Revenue Service gave away $318 million in improper refunds this
year because a computer program that screens tax returns for fraud wasn't working, according to a report
released Friday [9/1/2006].
David vs. Goliath of Governmental
Agencies. One of the most hideous ways the Internal Revenue Service usurps power and control
over Americans is through its oppression over nonprofits, especially religious groups. Threatening to
withdraw tax-exempt status and to levy penalties are just a couple of ways it exercises its tyranny. For
example, April 3, Catholic Answers, one of the nation's largest lay-run apologetic (or defense) ministries
for the Catholic movement, filed suit in federal court against the IRS for violating its right to free speech.
Welcome
To The Ministry of Propaganda. Photo ops and access to the inner halls of government have become
more and more a matter of providing favorable publicity to that government. Asking hard questions and
informing the public, is now in the back seat. The press has found itself vulnerable to government
coercion. They can be excluded, their credentials revoked. Then the IRS attacked World Net
Daily some years ago, at the apparent instigation of the Clinton White House. So much for honesty,
transparency, and good government.
Lawyer gets 5-cent IRS bill, 4-cent refund. James Howarth
is a little confused by two letters he has received from the Internal Revenue Service. The Detroit defense lawyer
received one letter in November that said he owed the IRS money — five cents. He was warned that he should pay "to
avoid additional penalty and/or interest," the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday. Howarth said he then received a
second letter telling him the government owes him money — four cents.
The Editor asks...
Is there no "sanity check" in the IRS software?
IRS Workers Stealing Your Cash! Think
your income tax check is safe when you send it off to the IRS? Think again. An ABC News investigation has
uncovered case after case of checks being stolen, manipulated and cashed by contract employees responsible for
processing them, resulting in delayed payments and heavily disrupted lives.
IRS, Justice
Target Undisclosed Assets In Swiss Accounts. A lawyer who specializes in tax cases, [Edward M.]
Robbins thinks the government is gearing up to prosecute large numbers of Americans for failing to disclose foreign
accounts on their tax returns and evading taxes on income generated by the accounts. "If I were one of these
guys with 10 to 50 million in my account, I'd be having an aneurysm," Robbins said. "It's an extremely
dangerous situation for these guys.
Scrap the
tax code. The tax code now exceeds a staggering 60,000 pages, prompting Americans
to waste 6.2 billion hours just completing their returns every year. Deciphering it
costs the country $203.4 billion a year, according to the Tax Foundation. Its
complexities generate additional job-killing distortions throughout our economy. Indeed,
the tax code is so complicated and expansive that it now touches nearly every aspect
of our lives.
I.R.S.
Enlists Help in Collecting Delinquent Taxes. If you owe back taxes to the federal government,
the next call asking you to pay may come not from an Internal Revenue Service officer, but from a private
debt collector. Within two weeks, the I.R.S. will turn over data on 12,500 taxpayers — each of
whom owes $25,000 or less in back taxes — to three collection agencies. Larger debtors will
continue to be pursued by I.R.S. officers.
Sick-Leave
Abuse Prompts Calls to Compensate for Unused Time. At the Internal Revenue Service, one employee
over a two-year period took sick leave on 13 of the 14 Tuesdays after a Monday holiday. That's an
extreme case of sick-leave abuse, but the IRS employee had plenty of co-workers who also liked to take
Tuesdays off, a report by the Inspector General for Tax Administration found.
The Editor says...
Most private companies would fire an employee like that, but when you work for Uncle Sam, your job is
safe no matter what kind of goldbrick you are.
1040 Checkmate? On
May 12, 2006 in Peoria, Illinois, the attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) begged the court
to dismiss all charges against IRS victim Robert Lawrence in federal District Court. The motion for
dismissal came on the heels of a surprise tactic by Lawrence's defense attorney Oscar Stilley. The
tactic threatened exposure of IRS's on-going efforts to defraud the public. The move put DOJ attorneys
in a state of panic that left them with only one alternative: beg for dismissal, with prejudice.
This was written in 1995:
Why You Can't Trust the
IRS:
• The IRS telephone taxpayer assistance program provides about 8.5 million Americans
the wrong answers to even the most basic inquiries about the tax laws.
• This year roughly 10 million Americans will receive correction notices from the IRS
assessing about $4 billion. About half of those notices will be erroneous.
• About 40 percent of the revenues the IRS collects through penalty assessments are
abated when citizens challenge the penalties. In 1993 taxpayers were over-charged $5 billion.
• A General Accounting Office audit of the IRS in 1993 found widespread evidence of financial
malfeasance and gross negligence. The IRS could not account for 64 percent of its congressional appropriation.
Taming the IRS Pit Bulls: As IRS agents scan the country
looking for the truck driver or restaurant worker who might have cheated the government out of a few bucks, a loophole in the tax code allows major corporations
to hide millions of dollars from their tax liability by opening sham offices in Bermuda.
IRS Policies Result in Unnecessary Taxpayer Harassment. The National Taxpayer
Advocate's report confirms that being honest is simply not good enough when it comes to dealing with the IRS. The reason is that in all but a few instances, the
burden is on taxpayers to prove they do not owe taxes. The IRS rarely has to prove a person does owe taxes. The question, moreover, seldom has
anything to do with whether the person is a cheater or not.
Top Half of U.S. Income Earners See Tax Burdens Grow. As the annual tax filing
deadline approaches, many public officials traditionally use the occasion to launch into a debate about the fairness of the nation tax laws. … IRS figures
released late last year for Tax Year 2003 (for which returns were filed in 2004) show the richest Americans shoulder a disproportionate burden of the federal
income tax, and the burden is getting heavier.
AMT Sending Tens of Thousands to Financial Ruin. Tens of thousands of Americans face
financial ruin because they voluntarily reported incentive stock options to the Internal Revenue Service.
When they audited the IRS. A funny thing
happened when the Treasury Department audited the Internal Revenue Service. It discovered that the IRS was not treating all employers equally.
IRS Laptop Lost With Data on 291 People. An Internal Revenue Service employee lost an
agency laptop early last month that contained sensitive personal information on 291 workers and job applicants, a spokesman said yesterday [6/10/2006]. The
IRS's Terry L. Lemons said the employee checked the laptop as luggage aboard a commercial flight while traveling to a job fair and never saw it
again. The computer contained unencrypted names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and fingerprints of the employees and applicants, Lemons said.
You might be surprised to
learn how often Uncle Sam loses stuff.
Are your tax records safe? The Treasury Department last month admitted
investigating thousands of cases of IRS employees improperly snooping through taxpayer records. And although this led to 1,600 "adverse personnel actions"
and 126 criminal prosecutions, Treasury officials concede "there has not been a noticeable decrease" over the last eight years in the number of IRS bureaucrats
who gain unauthorized access to confidential data.
IRS workers' online time not all work-related. A sampling of Internal Revenue
Service employees found that they used about half their online time at work to visit sex sites, gamble, trade stocks, participate in chat rooms and do other
non-work-related activity, the Treasury Department's inspector general said.
Privacy in a Free Country: In Search of Reasonable Principles. When more than 500 Internal
Revenue Service agents were caught illegally snooping through tax records of thousands of Americans in 1995, only five were fired. After the IRS developed
new privacy protection measures, hundreds more agents were caught doing the same thing again in 1997.
IRS Error Rate Still High. The January 2004 report of the Treasury Inspector General for
Tax Administration confirms the IRS's error rate for advice it gives at its hundreds of walk-in Taxpayer Assistance Centers remains unacceptably high. The report
reveals the IRS provided "flatly incorrect answers 20 percent of the time." In another 15 percent of the cases, the IRS provided a "correct" answer
without first obtaining the background information necessary to provide a correct answer — a serious oversight when providing tax advice.
The Press And Scientology: For years,
Scientology fought a battle with the IRS because the government would not recognize its claim to be a religion. The IRS finally granted Scientology its desired
status under President Bill Clinton, the recipient of massive donations from the Hollywood glitterati.
IRS Gives Tax Deduction For Sex Change Operations. The Massachusetts-based Gay & Lesbian
Advocates & Defenders has recently won a complaint against the IRS over tax deductions for so-called "sex change" operations. The IRS apparently bought GLAD's bogus
argument that sex changes are medically necessary for individuals suffering from Gender Dysphoria.
The Rainforest Action Network: Major corporations are in the crosshairs of the
Rainforest Action Network. This radical environmentalist group regularly resorts to illegal "direct action" tactics and even exploits school kids in order
to intimidate and shake down its business adversaries. So why does the IRS still grant RAN tax-exempt status?
Corruption at the IRS: IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti sued over criminal conflict
of interest and cover-up. "As IRS Commissioner, Rossotti has made decisions concerning a company he founded (and which he still owned stock) that is a major
contractor with the IRS."
The Structure of the IRS: Collection Division. The IRS will not leave you alone until you
pay up. They know where you live. They will bother, harass, nag and pester you until you pay. They will write, call and visit you until they
get their money. They may even pursue your family after you die!
What to Do When the IRS Comes Knocking.
Reference material: Internal Revenue Manual.
Protect Your Church From The IRS. Proposed legislation reverses a 1954 amendment
by then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson that permanently extended the reach of the IRS into our nation's churches. This bill says that the message a church
preaches is answerable only to God and not to Caesar — the IRS.
Congress Will Hold Hearing: Is Income Tax Legitimate?: In less
than two months, Washington may officially acknowledge that you could have been paying your income taxes all these years under a measure that is not valid.
Note: These hearings were about to take place in the middle of September, 2001, but then the 9/11 attacks occurred, and the whole question
of the 16th Amendment's legitimacy was swept under the rug. That was just a coincidence, of course, but somehow the Congress has
never been interested in examining this question since then.
"Walkaround" protest planned for IRS. A group that says
the 16th Amendment — which ushered in the federal income tax — was never properly ratified is planning a "walkaround" protest at the Internal Revenue
Service building. The tax-reform group says action aimed at educating Americans.
Stealth IRS changes mean
millions of new tax forms. The massive expansion of requirements for businesses to file 1099
tax forms that was hidden in the 2,409-page health reform bill took many by surprise when it came to light
last month. But it's just one piece of a years-long legislative stealth campaign to create ways for
the federal government to track down unreported income.
The Barrett Report
As I recall, the most vocal advocate for the publication of the Barrett Report was the late Tony Snow. Apparently the report proved that the IRS
was just as mean and evil as everyone presumed. So, naturally, it went down the memory hole. Why would Washington politicians want to suppress
a report like that? Because the IRS is useful to high-level people with their own enemies, and the IRS is essential to the big-spending overgrown government.
The Barrett Report. The long-awaited final report by Independent Counsel
David Barrett, to be released today [1/19/2006], was severely censored by court order but not enough to sufficiently obscure its importance. As long forecast, it
alleges serious corruption in the Clinton administration's Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The question is what was contained in
120 pages removed by the judges.
Inquiry on Clinton Official Ends With Accusations of Cover-Up. [Scroll
down] After being indicted on 18 felony counts, [Housing Secretary Henry] Cisneros pleaded guilty in 1999 to a misdemeanor charge of lying to
investigators. He was later pardoned by President Bill Clinton. Mr. Barrett kept his office open more than six years after the law that created the
independent counsel system was allowed to die. Lawmakers in both parties had wearied of the many inquiries that had failed to achieve the goal of removing
political influence from criminal investigations of administration officials.
Free the Barrett Report. The misuse of the IRS and Justice Department
has a long record going back to Richard Nixon and Watergate and before that to Franklin Roosevelt and his harassment of former Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon
and publisher Moses Annenberg. Wealthy individuals such as Mellon and Annenberg can protect themselves — though Annenberg was cruelly sent to jail.
Ordinary citizens cannot, and the way the IRS is set up today not much provocation is necessary to instigate a costly investigation... costly to ordinary taxpayers.
What's In the Barrett Report? Why Should You
Care? You are not likely to be allowed to read something, at least in its entirety, called the Barrett Report. You may have read people
insisting that you should be able to read it — most notably columnists and commentators Tony Snow and Robert Novak — but far more
powerful people are intent on suppressing it. They would be the Clintons, former President Bill and current U.S. Senator Hillary, and their minions.
David Barrett is the Independent Counsel, the last of his kind, engaged to investigate the shenanigans of Clinton administration HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.
The Barrett Report. We just paid $21 million dollars for an
investigation, the most damaging revelations of which are blocked from public view upon the motions of those named as obstructing that very prosecution.
Commentary on the Barrett Report. [Scroll down] When the Barrett Report was
complete in 2004, Clinton lawyers set out to suppress the radioactive document in its entirety or to excise those parts dealing with criminal activity on the part of
the White House. Team Clinton filed some 140 motions designed to delay the Barrett Report or kill it outright. For over a year, Clinton's legal team stalled
its publication.
The public needs to see the Barrett
report. [Sen. Byron Dorgan], along with several crafty Democrats, has been attempting to deny the public the contents of an Independent
Counsel's report that is believed to contain evidence of serious corruption and misuse of the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department back in
the Clinton Administration. In this cover-up the Democrats have had assistance from a few dubious Republicans. It is time to let the public
see this report.
Publish the Barrett report now. At issue
was the publication of a report by David Barrett, an independent counsel who has spent the better part of a decade looking into some of the most hair-raising
allegations of presidential malfeasance in American history.
Protecting the IRS: The political significance is
that the Barrett report's shocking allegations of high-level corruption in the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department are likely to be concealed from
the public and from Congress. A recently passed appropriations bill, intended to permit release of this report, was altered behind closed doors to ensure
that its politically combustible elements never saw the light of day.
The IRS is used as a weapon against small businesses
Why is the government so tough on businesses? It doesn't help that Barack Obama hates capitalism and he
is paying back the labor unions for their support. And it doesn't help that Mr. Obama has never
run a business in his life and has never tried to make a profit. Perhaps that's because he was
literally raised by communists. But the IRS was the enemy of small businesses
long before President Obama had any power.
Breitbart
News says IRS targeted company for audit. The company that runs the conservative Breitbart.com news site says
the IRS has selected the network for an audit, in a move company executives suggest is politically motivated. Breitbart
News Network, a California-based company which runs several conservative websites, says the IRS recently audited its 2012 financial
information. "The Obama administration's timing on this is exquisite, but try as they might through various methods to silence us,
we will only get more emboldened," Stephen K. Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart News Network, said in a written statement.
Critics question IRS
initiative targeting small businesses. Small business owners across the country are receiving letters from the IRS questioning
if they are reporting all of their cash income, in a new push by the agency some are saying could unnecessarily create fear in the small business
community. [...] The agency says the letters are not the same as an audit, and it is simply seeking more tax information from the businesses.
However, some lawmakers and business owners who received the letters say the initiative is alarming.
Federal agents raid
Colorado drilling office with wells in Oklahoma and Texas. Federal agents with the FBI, IRS and Bureau of Land Management have served
a search warrant at the offices of Crystal River Oil and Gas in Basalt [Colorado].
War on Small Business? [Scroll
down] In 2006, the IRS announced it would shift its focus to audit more small businesses. IRS data on tax audits seems to bear this out. Between
the first and second half of the last decade, the audit coverage rate on businesses with assets between $10 and $50 million increased by 42 percent.
Rumsfeld: IRS also retaliates against
outspoken business leaders. Tea Party and conservative constitutional groups may be the new targets of the Internal Revenue Service, but former Defense
Secretary Don Rumsfeld reveals in his new book out this week that outspoken businesses critical of the federal government are also singled out by the IRS and
Securities and Exchange Commission.
IRS rule
threatens to shut down the small businesses that prepare tax returns. Small business owners who prepare tax returns for a living every year must
either seek additional training or close their doors due to a new Internal Revenue Service regulation set to take effect at the end of this year.
Obama
Enlists IRS for New Union Shakedown of US Business. The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC)
has submitted Freedom of Information requests to the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service
following an announcement that the administration is investigating homebuilders in an attempt to bolster
union membership at the expense of housing sector jobs.
Small-Business Owners Fret Over Large IRS
Fines. Five years ago, car-wash owner Orman Wilson set up a pension plan for himself and six
employees. ... Mr. Wilson, the owner of 19 coin-operated car washes in Houston, says he relied on four advisers,
including a certified public accountant, to set up a plan that received approval from the Internal Revenue
Service. Then, in late 2007, the IRS found fault with the plan and assessed it $250,000 — plus
special penalties of $1.2 million.
SBSC Outraged by Calls to Increase Audits of Small Businesses: The Small Business
Survival Committee (SBSC) declared its outrage today [2/14/2003] at the suggestion made by the Sierra Club earlier this week that the IRS should "aggressively
audit" businesses that purchase sport utility vehicles, or SUVs.
IRS Wages War on Small Businesses. It's always scary hearing about the IRS on the warpath (or
even politely knocking at your door).
IRS: The Small Business Bully.
Under the Obama Administration, the Internal Revenue Service has placed small and medium-size businesses — the engines of job creation — in
its auditing crosshairs. According to IRS statistics, from 2009 to 2011, the coverage rate (number of audits as a percentage of total returns filed) for
corporations with assets between $10 million and $50 million has increased 32 percent.
IRS expected to target small businesses this year. Americans who get paid in cash and
own a small business are at high risk of being audited — especially if they live in wealthy suburbs: the IRS is going after those from which the agency
thinks they can get more taxes.
The IRS is Obamacare's enforcer
The
House is about to back repealing Obamacare's unpopular 'Cadillac tax' in rare bipartisan vote. The House voted
Wednesday night [7/17/2019] to pass a bill that would scrap Obamacare's so-called Cadillac tax, an inactive provision of the
health law meant to help control health-care spending. The tax, set to go into effect in 2022, is unpopular with both
Republicans and Democrats, who say it punishes the middle class.
IRS
unable to recoup nearly $1 billion in Obamacare subsidies. The IRS overpaid nearly $4 billion to Obamacare
customers through tax credits last year, and because of the way the law is written it can't even try to collect on a quarter
of that, the Treasury Department's inspector general reported this week. All told, the Treasury Department paid out
roughly $27 billion in Obamacare subsidies in the 2018 tax-filing season, with overages accounting for $3.7 billion
of that. Only $2.7 billion was recaptured.
IRS
to Start Enforcing ObamaCare's Individual Mandate. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced recently that
it would start enforcing ObamaCare's individual mandate with the 2018 tax filing season, the first time the agency has done
so since the mandate took effect — and a marked contrast to its policy for 2017. "For the upcoming 2018 filing
season, the IRS will not accept electronically filed tax returns where the taxpayer does not address the health coverage
requirements of the Affordable Care Act [ACA]," the agency stated in a notice to tax professionals. Paper returns that
fail to address those requirements "may be suspended pending the receipt of additional information and any refunds may be
delayed," it added.
Legislation Introduced
to Save Americans With No Insurers on Exchanges From Tax Penalties. Senators Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) and
Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) have introduced the Health Care Options Act of 2017, which would save Americans from penalties for not
having health insurance when no insurers operating on the exchanges in their areas. Currently, the Affordable Care
Act's individual mandate requires that individuals purchase health insurance or they will be forced to pay a penalty of $695
to the Internal Revenue Service for not having it. This mandate was designed so that younger, healthier enrollees would
sign up for coverage, balancing the risk pool and compensating for sicker enrollees that signed up.
Refusing
to Enforce the Law Is the Wrong Way to Defeat Obamacare. At Reason, Peter Suderman confirms that the IRS
will continue its Obama-era policy of accepting tax returns that lack vital information about their filers' compliance with
Obamacare. As a result, Suderman concludes, it will remain easy for "individuals to go without coverage while avoiding
the penalty." Thus will the baton be passed sideways, from one haughty emperor to another.
BUMMER:
Did President Trump Just Nuke Obamacare with a Single Executive Order? Earlier this month, the IRS made a
seemingly insignificant change to its policy, undermining the Obamacare mandate in a very significant way. For the last
several years, individual filers were required by law to fill out line 61 of form 1040, which indicates whether you have
maintained coverage or paid the penalty. This is otherwise known as a "shared responsibility statement." Taxpayers
could also claim exemption by filing a 8965 form. Tax returns that don't indicate coverage status (silent returns) were
to be automatically rejected. However, due to an executive order issued by President Trump, that line is now optional,
making it incredibly difficult to enforce the Obamacare mandate.
Major Blow
to Obamacare Mandate: IRS Won't Reject Tax Returns That Don't Answer Health Insurance Question. How much
difference does a single line on a tax form make? For Obamacare's individual mandate, the answer might be quite a
lot. Following President Donald Trump's executive order instructing agencies to provide relief from the health law, the
Internal Revenue Service appears to be taking a more lax approach to the coverage requirement. The health law's
individual mandate requires everyone to either maintain qualifying health coverage or pay a tax penalty, known as a "shared
responsibility payment."
Americans
Paid $1.7 Billion in ObamaCare Penalties in 2014. Remember when ObamaCare passed without a single Republican
voting for it and then House Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) famously said: We have to pass the bill so that you can
find out what is in it? Well, it's been six long years since the bill was signed into law and once again, we are
finding more and more surprises contained within the law's more than 20,000 pages. For instance, it turns out nearly
8.1 million Americans paid $1.7 billion in penalties in 2014, or an average of $210 per tax return in 2014 for not
having health insurance and $200 million more than the IRS initially predicted.
ObamaCare
Individual Mandate Fine Hit 8 Million People This Year. Roughly 8 million people faced ObamaCare individual
mandate penalties this year totaling more than $3 billion, an analysis of the latest IRS data reveals. Despite the
controversy and high-stakes legal battle that has surrounded the individual mandate, the scope of the penalties paid this
year has gone unreported by major news outlets as attention has focused on ObamaCare's latest and most glaring problems:
weak enrollment, surging premiums, and insurer losses that have provoked the exit of UnitedHealth, Aetna and Humana from most
state exchanges.
IRS
To Target Citizens Who Aren't Buying ObamaCare Insurance. As many as 20 million Americans soon will be getting
a letter from the Internal Revenue Service "suggesting" they sign up for ObamaCare insurance. Getting a letter from the
IRS can be a threatening and nerve-racking experience; it seldom is seen as a suggestion and more of a threat. But at
President Obama's direction, the IRS is "reaching out" to people who paid the tax penalty for not buying mandatory health
insurance or who claimed an exemption in hopes of "attracting" more people to sign up for ObamaCare insurance.
The government is particularly interested in compliance from healthy young people.
Team
Obama to use IRS data to pressure some Americans into Obamacare. The Obama administration said Tuesday [6/21/2016] it will
herd uninsured Americans into Obamacare plans this fall by targeting young adults and working with the IRS to root out people who paid
a penalty for lacking coverage last year. Officials said people who were fined under the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate
can expect to receive a paper notice that explains their coverage options on the law's web-based exchanges. The state of
Massachusetts is already working with its revenue agency to locate the uninsured, and the Obama administration said those efforts
appeared to be working.
ObamaCare Has Made The IRS A
Shambles. The IRS admitted to Congress what many suspect: That its abysmal customer service and failure to protect taxpayer data
are because it's diverted its resources to ObamaCare. Now it wants another billion. House Republicans were flabbergasted when Internal
Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen asked the House Appropriations Committee for another $1 billion for the IRS budget for fiscal 2017,
following the $290 million increase he got in fiscal 2016. An extra billion is a 12% beef-up for the agency's budget. Seems the
customer service is a shambles, with 8 million, or half, of calls from taxpayers seeking to comply with the law going unanswered. And
for those who do get through, it takes an average of 23 minutes on hold.
Government
Sends Obamacare Payments Without Verification. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) does not
have adequate procedures in place to ensure tax credit payments were properly sent to enrollees as required by federal law,
according to a new report by the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG). The report marks the
eighth time in less than a year that a government watchdog has raised concerns over the federal government's ability to
properly administer and monitor Obamacare. As HHS OIG noted, CMS has "sole responsibility" for ensuring that tax credits
were properly distributed to paying enrollees. Following this confirmation, the IRS is then responsible for reconciling
tax credits with an enrollees' tax returns.
The
ObamaCare Mandate Nightmare Comes To Small Businesses. The headline in the AP story says it all: "Crunch time
at small businesses as health care demands loom." "Loom" is the right word. As the story explains, starting next year,
the dreaded ObamaCare employer mandate kicks in for businesses with between 50 and 99 employees. That means they
will all have to offer their full-time workers — which means anyone clocking in more than 30 hours a week —
government-approved health benefits, or face a steep fine. President Obama delayed this mandate twice, citing the cost and
disruptions it would cause. The delays have come to an end, and as of Jan. 1, these companies will not only have to
provide "affordable" insurance for these workers, they must also file complex new tax forms with the IRS detailing the cost of the
insurance, the names and Social Security numbers of employees and their dependents, and how long they were covered by insurance.
If
You Opted NOT To Get Insurance Under ACA, Fines Are Coming Now. This is the letter you'll get from the IRS.
IRS drops an Obamacare bomb on small employers. Yet
another Obamacare bomb. The way this is going the only employer that will be left is the government. If you assist an employee with their
health care cost you're subject to a $100 per day excise tax. $36,500 per year possible total.
Taxpayer
service hits new low at IRS as 'Obamacare' kicks in. Customer service at the IRS hit new lows this year, just as
taxpayers were grappling with a wave of identity theft and new requirements under President Barack Obama's health law.
Senate
panel probes ObamaCare aid confusion, as customers learn they owe IRS. The Senate's
top investigative committee has launched an inquiry into the system that's supposed to ensure
ObamaCare tax credits go to the right customers for the right amounts — amid concerns
that many Americans are getting inflated or improper subsidies. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who is
leading the investigation, says because of the confusion with the system, millions of Americans are
learning after the fact they inadvertently got too much money and now owe the IRS hundreds.
IRS
unable to make sure people comply with Obamacare penalty: Treasury IG. The IRS cannot
be sure that Americans who lacked health insurance last year have complied with Obamacare's
"individual mandate" penalty this tax season, according to an inspector general report Friday
[5/8/2015] that pointed to a decision to delay proof-of-coverage forms from insurers and employers
until 2016. Agency managers told the Treasury's Inspector General for Tax Administration that a
"business decision was made to not develop processes and procedures" to ensure compliance after it
decided in 2013 to delay the pair of forms. The documents are sent to both filers and the IRS,
allowing the federal government to cross-check what filers say on their returns.
The
IRS's Growing Role as A "Rules Interpreter". A recent article by the National Review
brought to light how the IRS has taken on the role of "rules interpretation" in recent years, which
is beyond its scope as the nation's tax collecting agency. The most notorious example of this new
role is highlighted in the King vs Burwell case before the Supreme Court — where
the IRS interpreted the language of Obamacare other than what was expressly written down as law.
However, as the National Review discusses, the IRS has grown accustomed to interpreting law as it
sees fit, without the oversight of Congress. Therein lies the problem.
How
the IRS repeatedly rewrites Obamacare tax credit provisions. The plaintiffs in King
v. Burwell argue that an IRS regulation unlawfully extends tax credit eligibility beyond what is
expressly authorized under Section 1401 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
It appears that this sort of administrative rewrite of the PPACA may be more the rule than the exception,
as there are at least two other instances of the IRS rewriting the PPACA's tax credit eligibility requirements.
Obamacare
will make Tax Day more stressful. Obamacare is making the least popular day —
April 15 — even worse. For about one in four tax filers, it's turning out to be a
nightmare, with extra paperwork and penalties. And for high earners or anyone selling a piece of
property or business, Obamacare means higher taxes. If you enrolled in Obamacare in 2014 and got
a subsidy to pay for it, you're at risk of losing your refund. Surprise: You may even owe
Uncle Sam money. Only 4 percent of people who signed up for Obamacare got the correct
subsidy, so a whopping 96 percent will see their tax bill adjusted, some up and others down.
Who would design a system that's right only 4 percent of the time?
Obamacare's Tax Nightmare.
Obamacare is making the least popular day — April 15 — even worse. For about
one in four tax filers, it's turning out to be a nightmare, with extra paperwork and penalties. And
for high earners or anyone selling a piece of property or business, Obamacare means higher taxes.
Filing
deadline extended for ObamaCare customers given wrong tax forms. The Treasury Department said
Friday [4/3/2015] that hundreds of thousands of ObamaCare customers who received incorrect tax forms earlier
this year will not face penalties for filing after April 15. A statement from the department said
that anyone who was not sent the correct replacement tax forms and was "unable to file an accurate tax return"
would now have until Oct. 15 to file their taxes, as long as they request an extension by the traditional
filing deadline.
IRS
blames Obamacare for shoddy customer service. The IRS is unable to answer most
taxpayers' calls this year because it's had to put money into getting up and running for Obamacare,
agency Commissioner John Koskinen told Congress on Wednesday [3/18/2015]. Mr. Koskinen said his
agency has had to shift tens of millions of dollars from customer service over to build the computer
systems and get ready to handle questions this year about Obamacare and the law's tax penalty, which
kicks in for the first time this year.
Obamacare's
1095-A Nightmare. Tax season is stressful enough. But if you are like countless
miserable Americans trapped in the Obamacare 1095-A abyss, it's hell on stilts on a Segway teetering
over the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The screw-ups, incompetence and bureaucratic blame
avoidance over the health insurance exchange tax forms make the healthcare.gov website fiasco look
like a flawless product launch. How do I know? My family inexplicably got ensnared in
the 1095-A paperwork pit. It's a government roach motel: Taxpayers check in, but they
can never check out.
Taxpayers
duck Obamacare tax, snubbing IRS. Taxpayers are already telling their accountants they
plan to stiff the IRS on the Obamacare tax, saying they figure the chances the agency comes after
them for a few hundred bucks are pretty slim, and it makes sense to take the risk. Still other
taxpayers are recoiling when they find out they owe far more than the $95 minimum penalty for not
having insurance in 2014, said Christopher Wittich, an accountant in Minnesota. "And that's
a big problem for them," he said. "They don't have 200 bucks."
Will
Only Suckers Pay The ObamaCare Tax Penalty? This year, as many as 6 million taxpayers
will learn that they now owe a "Shared Responsibility Payment" because they didn't have health insurance
last year. The SRP is a clumsy euphemism for the ObamaCare individual mandate tax penalty, which is
$95 or 1% of household income, whichever is greater, for those who didn't have insurance in 2014. That
increases to the greater of $325 or 2% of income for those who don't have insurance this year, and then
to $695 or 2.5% of income the year after that.
King v. Burwell
Is Much Bigger Than Obamacare. [Scroll down] Specifically, it is about the separation
of powers doctrine. The Constitution grants the power to tax and spend to Congress alone.
Yet the executive branch, under the Obama administration, has brazenly arrogated the power to spend with
its IRS rule authorizing the distribution of subsidies through federal exchanges. The original cert
petition filed with the Court on behalf of the plaintiffs phrases it as follows: "If the ACA means
what it says... the IRS is illegally spending billions of taxpayer dollars every month without
congressional authority."
Surprise:
Poorest Obamacare Enrollees Face $530 IRS Tax Bill. The majority (52 percent) of
Obamacare enrollees receiving an advance premium tax credit to purchase Obamacare insurance is facing
the prospect of paying back $530 of that tax credit to the IRS, according to a new study from H&R Block.
This clawback is reducing the refunds for these taxpayers by 17 percent this filing season.
Under Obamacare, taxpayers earning between 133 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level
are eligible to receive a tax credit to help purchase insurance on Obamacare exchanges. This
tax credit is calculated using old tax data of the recipients. The credit is advanced ahead of
time to the taxpayer's insurance company. The taxpayer must reconcile at tax time the advance credit
received with the actual credit [he or] she is eligible for.
ObamaCare's
Frankenstein Tax Monster Awakens. Health and Human Services admits it sent nearly a
million incorrect tax forms to ObamaCare enrollees. A government that can't even get something
simple like this right has no business running health care. The form in question is a new
one — Form 1095-A — that goes to anyone who signed up for ObamaCare
insurance through an exchange.
Democrats
are bracing for another Obamacare backlash. The Obamacare window technically just closed this weekend,
but a new round of political headaches could just be beginning for the administration. That's because it's tax
season, and many Americans could soon be getting an unwelcome surprise that they owe the government a penalty for
skipping health insurance coverage. Up to 6 million Americans are expected to pay a penalty for not
having coverage in 2014, according to recent Obama administration projections.
More Obamacare victims noticing
that they're on the hook to the IRS. [W]hen these people realize that they have to
give back money (around 53%, according to the above link and the Jackson Hewitt company), they are
not going to react positively to the Democratic message of You should have known better.
Yes, perhaps they should have known better than to vote for Democratic politicians that pushed the policies
that are now forcing taxpayers to pay out to the IRS... what, that's not what the Democrats meant?
White House Unaware
of Obamacare. Obamacare is a tax. This really isn't something that should be in
dispute. When the Supreme Court ruled on the Affordable Care Act and called it a tax, President
Obama and his followers triumphantly said, "It's the law." When you Google "Obamacare is a... " the
first response isn't "success," but rather "tax." Now, with tax filing season upon us and a
projected 4-6 million households set to be hit with the Obamacare penalty tax, the White House is
completely unaware of this tax and the millions affected by it.
Obama
rewrites Obamacare law again. What do you do when you realize that millions of low-information
voters are going to get hosed by your signature piece of legislation? Well, if you're Barack Obama, you
unilaterally decide not to enforce the inconvenient provisions of that law. So it should come as no surprise
that the IRS has "clarified" how they'll recapture excess Obamacare subsidies come April 15th. They won't.
With
taxes looming, time to repeal ObamaCare's individual mandate. The individual mandate
in ObamaCare has been able to lay low as the actual financial impact of this draconian, socialistic
aspect of President Obama's signature policy, forced on the nation with the support of only
Democrats, comes to fruition. For the uninsured and underinsured, the new tax penalty
will come as a surprise, or even a shock.
Will
Obamacare ruin your tax refund? This tax filing season will be the first year that
taxpayers deal with the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The controversial law strives
to make health care more affordable to lower-income households, but it may also unexpectedly lower tax
refunds. Most people must carry health insurance or pay a fine. Americans making less than
four times the Federal Poverty Guideline based on household size may receive subsidies that reduce their
monthly insurance premiums. Non-exempt Americans not covered by an insurance plan face a penalty
from $95 per person to 1% of household income, whichever is greater. Whether receiving a subsidy
or paying a fine, both aspects will be addressed on tax forms and have the potential to surprise filers.
H&R
Block: 'No One Can Understand' New Obamacare Tax Code. H&R Block, the nation's largest
retail tax preparation company warns that the newly released Obamacare tax code, officially called
the Affordable Care Act, is likely to confuse millions of taxpayers who try to tackle their tax
returns for 2014. "Now that the Affordable Care Act has made health care a tax issue, no one
can understand it," H&R Block flatly tells taxpayers in a video that resides on its dedicated Obamacare web
site. A former IRS Commissioner agrees, and cautions that the new tax requirements will be a "shock
to the system," especially afflicting low-income earners who have never itemized on their tax return.
Obamacare
penalty may come as shock at tax time. Those Americans who didn't get health insurance
last year could be in for a rude awakening when the IRS asks them to fork over their Obamacare
penalty — and it could be a lot more than the $95 many of them may be expecting. The
Affordable Care Act requires those who didn't have insurance last year and didn't qualify for one of
the exemptions to pay a tax penalty, which was widely cited as $95 the first year. But the $95 is
actually a minimum, and middle- and upper-income families will actually end up paying 1 percent of
their household income as their penalty.
The Editor says...
Your liberal friends (if any) may say, See? It's only one percent! How could anyone object to that?
And the easy answer is this: When has there ever been a tax rate that did not gradually increase?
IRS
to Obamacare Victims: You're On Your Own, Chumps. The Obama administration's
relentless efforts to punish the American people for defying its wishes continue, as the Internal
Revenue Service throws a massive temper tantrum about "budget cuts" and tells terrified Obamacare
victims they're on their own this tax season.
Tax
Returns Complicated by Health Care Law and I.R.S. Staff Cuts. On the plus side, unlike
last year when filing season was delayed by a government shutdown, the Internal Revenue Service says
it is on track this year, and will begin accepting electronic tax returns and processing paper forms
on Jan. 20. But a combination of reduced help from the I.R.S., and potential confusion from new
tax requirements under the Affordable Care Act, the federal health care law, may mean it could take longer
to get your questions answered and file your return.
Wondering
how Obamacare affects your tax return? Most Americans' 2014 tax returns are due in 14 weeks,
and the Internal Revenue Service is trying to cope with reams of new Obamacare regulations with a lengthy
instruction manual that's likely to send countless taxpayers sprinting toward accountants and other tax
preparers. The manual, called 'Publication 5187 — Health Care Law: What's New for
Individuals & Families,' is 21 pages long and written with all the compassion of a mediaeval
dentist. Its central instruction, though, is simple: Either prove you have medical
insurance that satisfies the Affordable Care Act, or prove you have an exemption. Otherwise,
calculate how much extra you owe in taxes.
21
pages of Obamacare tax instructions, IRS demands 'shared responsibility payment'. The
complicated process of signing up for Obamacare is now being matched by IRS instructions to help
Americans figure out how much in healthcare taxes they owe Uncle Sam. The agency has issued 21 pages
of instructions, complete with links to at least three long forms and nine tip sheets. It is geared to
those who have Obamacare or who owe a fine, dubbed "shared responsibility payment," for refusing to get health
insurance. The IRS warned that everybody must have health insurance or pay the tax.
Obamacare
is beyond repair. [T]he law's effects go far beyond the doctor's office, weighing down
our economy and discouraging hiring. The law requires employers with more than 50 full-time
employees to give them health insurance. But because the law defines "full time" as 30 hours or
more, employers are keeping employees below that threshold to avoid the mandate entirely. The
worst of the law is yet to come. This year, the individual mandate kicks in for real.
Anyone who doesn't have health insurance in 2015 will have to pay a tax of $325 or 2% of taxable
income. And this year's tax season will be even more stressful than usual: H&R Block
estimates that up to half of the 6.8 million people who got subsidies last year might have to
pay some of those subsidies back.
An
ObamaCare Tax Monster Speeds Toward Millions of Filers. ObamaCare was supposed to keep
the nation healthier by expanding access to insurance. Instead, it will keep the professional tax
preparation industry healthy by making the tax code even more hopelessly complex. As health care
analyst Bob Laszewski points out on his widely read blog, the IRS came out with a 21-page booklet
explaining what ObamaCare will mean to tax filers this year. In addition, there's a 12-page
publication with instructions on how to claim an exemption from the individual mandate (there are 19 options
listed), along with instructions on how to calculate the "shared responsibility payment" for those
irresponsible people who didn't buy government-approved insurance and aren't eligible for an exemption.
Millions of Obamacare
subsidy recipients may need to pay back-taxes. [Scroll down] No, the problem for Democrats here
is that this is going to happen every year. The system is more or less designed to assume that people
would twiddle with their coverage on a regular basis: as plans changed, improved, or degraded the consumer would
be obligated to follow suit, in order to keep the subsidy. This sounds perfectly reasonable... if you're
not the one doing it. But out in the real world? [...]
Think
Filing Taxes Was Tough Before Obamacare? Just Wait. The Affordable Care Act, aka
Obamacare, is part health law, part tax law. Some feel benefited by the law, some burdened by it.
And one's perceptions about that can change over time. Either way, you may be annoyed by the extra
forms and extra tax compliance, even if your tax bill doesn't go up. The IRS has a far more
important role in the law than you might think.
Obamacare tax
surprise looming. Obamacare enrollees who received subsidies to help pay for coverage
will soon have to reconcile how much they actually earned in 2014 with how much they estimated when
they applied many, many months ago. This will likely lead to some very unhappy Americans.
Those who underestimated their income either will receive smaller tax refunds or will owe the IRS money.
ObamaCare
fines rising in 2015, IRS prepares to collect. The ObamaCare-mandated fines for not
having insurance are rising in 2015 — and for the first time, will be collected by the
Internal Revenue Service. The individual requirement to buy health insurance went into effect
earlier this year. But this coming tax season is the first time all taxpayers will have to report to
the IRS whether they had health insurance for the prior year. The fines for the 2014 year were
relatively modest — $95 per person or 1 percent of household income (above the threshold
for filing taxes), whichever is more.
H&R
Block, Your Taxes, and ObamaCare. Inasmuch as [H&R] Block bases "customer bills on the
complexity of their returns, such as how many and which tax forms are involved," does this mean that
ObamaCare is going to make federal income taxes even more of a headache? For some taxpayers, the
answer is yes[.]
7th Circuit dumps doctors' challenge to IRS enforcement of
Obamacare. A conservative physicians group and a Wisconsin member that had challenged an IRS plan to collect the
penalty from individuals who don't get health insurance under the Affordable Care Act lost again Friday in a federal court.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago affirmed a Wisconsin federal judge's decision to dismiss a lawsuit filed last
October by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc., and Robert T. McQueeney, who treat patients on a cash
basis, and want to prevent everyone from being covered by health insurance.
Inside the IRS, part 6. It is interesting
to note that [Fred] Schindler was heavily involved in the implementation of Obamacare, and in fact was director of implementation for the IRS.
That would include coordinating with the office of chief counsel on a basic issue such as researching statutory language. Based on the
stories that appeared last summer, he was suspended for taking improper gifts and was slated for termination. Maybe that was all smoke
and mirrors, maybe he was later exonerated, maybe a lot of things, but the bottom line is they took care of him.
IRS Has No Strategy for Fraudulent Obamacare Tax
Credits. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has no system in place to prevent fraud when individuals apply for tax credits under
Obamacare, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). The IG said in an audit released Tuesday that the
IRS has no plan to manage, monitor, or mitigate fraud risk when processing premium tax credits available under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
New
Obamacare marketing — 'Sign up and shut up or the IRS will be calling'. As the truth about Obamacare reveals itself,
President Obama has admitted that he will have to "remarket and rebrand" his plan. How does the White House think they will "remarket"
Obamacare to voters? Telling the truth could not possibly achieve good results. The truth reveals that under Obamacare, you can't
keep your current insurance plan unless Obama's Washington likes it, you can't keep your doctor or local hospital unless you are lucky, and
that you will pay higher premiums and higher deductibles to get fewer choices. Of course, there will be no chance for appeal.
Judge Refuses to
Dismiss Case Challenging Obamacare Subsidies. The judge will not issue an injunction to stop the IRS from issuing subsidies, meaning Obamacare can move forward
as planned. However, the lawsuit will also move forward and depending on the outcome, could limit IRS power to issue Obamacare subsidies.
How You and Your Family Can Escape Obamacare. The
Affordable Care Act runs more than 2,600 pages and now hundreds of thousands of regulations. No one knows every single provision that is in the law, which
Congress did not even bother to read before passing it. Among its most controversial provisions is the mandate forcing Americans to purchase health insurance or
face fines from the IRS. Those fines can even take the form of wage garnishment. Americans who fail to comply and pay the fine can end up in jail.
There is, though, a provision buried in Obamacare that provides a way out of having to comply with the individual mandate.
Don't Sign, Don't Pay the Fine. [Scroll down] Now I know what some of you are thinking.
If I don't sign and I don't pay the fine, the IRS could come after me. Maybe, but by the time that happens, ObamaCare will be a corpse. Moreover, I'm betting a
ton of Americans would be willing to pay that fine, plus interest if necessary, to guarantee ObamaCare's demise. And that's assuming the IRS can come after you.
In order for that to happen, they'd have to prove you refused to sign up for the program.
ObamaCare Enforcer Likely Shared
Tax Data With White House. The IRS official in charge of tax-exempt organizations when the unit targeted Tea Party groups now runs the IRS
office responsible for enforcing ObamaCare and may have illegally shared confidential tax data.
Republicans say Obamacare official
leaked IRS data. House Republican investigators Wednesday [10/9/2013] accused the woman in charge of the IRS' Obamacare compliance office of having
leaked private taxpayer information to the White House, saying that calls into question the agency's trustworthiness in administering the new health
care reform law.
House votes 232-185 to block the IRS from
enforcing ObamaCare. The House voted Friday to prevent the IRS from enforcing any aspect of ObamaCare, a bill meant to exact revenge against an
agency that Republicans say is incapable of neutral enforcement of the law. Members approved the Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act in
a 232-185 vote. Four Democrats supported the bill along with every Republican. The vote capped off several days of work in the House on bills
aimed at reining in government regulation and government overreach.
Businesses must FAX their Obamacare exchange applications in.
Yes, faxes are still a thing, apparently. You can even do them from your computer. And if you're a small business owner wanting to get
Obamacare coverage, you're going to have to!
Affordable Care Act To Have [its] Own
Police. It was bad enough to know that an Internal Revenue Service that targets the political opponents of the Obama administration between
partying on the taxpayer dime would be in charge of monitoring compliance with ObamaCare's individual mandate via our tax returns. Now, the
Daily Mail, which lodged a Freedom of Information Act [request] with Health and Human Services, reports that the agency has hired a bevy of criminal
investigators as we continue to learn what is in the Orwellian-named Affordable Care Act.
IRS Chief: I Want
to Keep My Health Care Plan, Not Switch to Obamacare. IRS chief Daniel Werfel says he wants to keep his health care plan, not switch
to Obamacare: "Mr. Werfel, last week your employees who are a member of the National Treasury Employee's Union sent a form letter for union
members to send in to ask they be exempt from the exchanges," a congressman asked. "Why are your employees trying to exempt themselves from
the very law that you're tasked to enforce?"
Agency
responsible for enforcing Obamacare doesn't want it to apply to them. Millions of Americans are going to "go through a change" in
their insurance policies and premiums. Why should [IRS chief Daniel] Werfel and his employees be any different?
IRS chief says he'd rather
not switch to ObamaCare plan. The head of the agency tasked with enforcing ObamaCare said Thursday that he'd rather not get his
own health insurance from the system created by the health care overhaul. "I would prefer to stay with the current policy that I'm pleased
with rather than go through a change if I don't need to go through that change," said acting IRS chief Danny Werfel, during a House Ways and Means
Committee hearing.
Cantor
on ObamaCare: The IRS in doctors' offices threatens everyone's privacy. A few weeks ago, the White House announced it would delay the
employer mandate under ObamaCare. The evidence is clear, this law is threatening job growth and turning full-time jobs into part-time jobs.
On top of the negative economic and health consequences of ObamaCare, the law requires an unholy union between the IRS and your protected health
information.
Treasury Employees Union launches a campaign to help IRS goons elude PPACA exchanges.
IRS: Obamacare for Thee but Not For Me. Among the
most offensive features of the ironically titled "Affordable Care Act" is its designation of the Internal Revenue Service as the main enforcer of the
law's many mandates, taxes, penalties, and reporting requirements. It exponentially increases the power of a group of bureaucrats notorious for
repeatedly abusing their authority. Now, highlighting the growing gulf between the government and the governed that has become the hallmark of
the Obama era, these IRS enforcers are asking their congressional representatives to spare them the indignity of enrolling in Obamacare's insurance
exchanges.
IRS
employees refuse to get shoved into Barack Obama's [...] health care system. ObamaCare is all about expanding the power of
the Internal Revenue Service — that's the only promise it has actually kept, the only part of the 11,000-page program that's
actually working the way it was supposed to. The IRS became as important to health care as any doctor or hospital when ObamaCare was
passed, because they are its enforcement arm, and like all central planning schemes, there's a huge amount of enforcing to be done.
Obamacare's Branch of the NSA.
President Obama has had a poor record of job creation, but at least one small economic sector is doing well: community organizing.
The Department of Health and Human Services is about to hire an army of "patient navigators" to inform Americans about the subsidized
insurance promised by Obamacare and assist them in enrolling. These organizers will be guided by the new Federal Data Hub, which
will give them access to reams of personal information compiled by federal agencies ranging from the IRS to the Department of Defense and
the Veterans Administration.
ObamaCare Unraveling. Having fewer companies
offering affordable coverage January 1 could mean more individuals would have to pay the mandate tax, or pay for more costly coverage.
You guessed it, the governmrent defines what's affordable coverage — the IRS is the lead agency asking you, your household and your
employer about coverage versus your wages here, to determine if you owe the mandate tax.
IRS Scandal Brings Calls
for Heads to Roll, Obamacare to be Delayed. With allegations swirling that the IRS was used as a political weapon against groups that are
conservative, libertarian, or constitutionalist in nature came news it was also used as a shield for progressive, "green," and other groups. At
about the same time, news also broke of a lawsuit alleging the IRS had improperly obtained millions of personal health records. This raises more
concerns about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, because the IRS has a big role to play in its implementation
and enforcement.
House to Vote on Bill Prohibiting
IRS Enforcement of Obamacare. The House of Representatives will take up a bill that would stop the Department of the Treasury, including
the Internal Revenue Services, from implementing and enforcing the provisions of Obamacare. The bill, authored by Georgia Republican Tom Price and
co-sponsored by 114 other House members, is just two pages long and claims its purpose is to "prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury from enforcing
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010."
IRS dumps up to 100,000 Social
Security numbers on the Internet. We're in the very best of hands, aren't we? Just wait until the people who slipped up and
posted up to 100,000 Social Security numbers onto a website are in charge of your health care information.
Is America in a Pre-Revolutionary State
this July 4th? We are two-thirds of the way into the most incompetent presidency in our history. People everywhere are
fed up. [...] And now looming is the monster of monsters, ObamaCare, the healthcare reform almost no one wanted and fewer
understood. It will be administered by the Internal Revenue Service, an organization that has been revealed to be a kind of
post-modern American Gestapo, asking not just to examine our accounting books but the books we read. What could be more totalitarian
than that?
Government gone wild. With each passing week comes more proof
that President Obama's government is out of control. The past couple of months alone have produced a long list of scandals: The Internal Revenue Service
spent taxpayer dollars to target groups Mr. Obama considered his opponents. [...] In the coming months, when the full implementation of Obamacare draws near, the
Internal Revenue Service will be in charge of enforcing the law's various mandates and rules. It has played politics with our taxes. Soon, it will have
the power to play politics with our health care. If the events of the past few weeks have proven anything, it's that there will be no one to stop them.
Confused IRS Tax Rules Threaten Obamacare
Rollout. Last month, Gallup conducted a survey to determine small business attitudes toward the Affordable Health Care Act, better known as
Obamacare. The results were not encouraging for backers of the law. The polling firm determined that as many as a quarter of small business
employers were restricting job openings to part-time workers. Nearly half said Obamacare would be bad for their business, compared to only 9 percent
who said it would be a good thing. More than half believed they would be forced to reduce the quality of the health care they provide.
Think the IRS Is Bad Now? Just Wait.
The Internal Revenue Service has never been an agency much loved by the American people. With the IRS's targeting of conservative
groups, its already bad reputation has now sunk to a new low. But the scandal raises a critical question: If the IRS can't
manage an increase of 1,700 applications for tax-exempt status that the agency said spurred its targeting of conservative groups, how
will the IRS handle its massive new role in implementing ObamaCare?
Republicans Focus Fire on IRS Involvement
in Obamacare. After the Supreme Court's decision labeling Obamacare's mandate a tax, the IRS has become the crucial centerpiece
of President Obama's health care rollout. But with the IRS' targeting of conservative non-profits, Republicans are calling into question
the agency's involvement in the application of Obamacare.
Getting The IRS Out of
Obamacare. As the IRS scandal continues to take shape and the massive overreach of one of the most powerful
agencies in Big Government becomes even more apparent, it becomes frightening to think this same agency will soon be heavily
involved in your personal healthcare situation. Remember folks, as the United States Supreme Court said nearly a year
ago, Obamacare is a tax and thus falls under the jurisdiction of the IRS.
This Won't Turn Out Well. On August 1, the
one-year "safe harbor" for religious charities objecting to provisions of Obamacare will end. Starting then, these nonprofit employers will
be forced to violate their religious beliefs or pay large fines. In charge of collecting the fines will be our recently newsworthy friends
at the Internal Revenue Service.
Obamacare's
Big Brother Database. In spite of the blatant, political corruption at the IRS, the Obama administration is moving full
steam ahead with Obamacare, a law that gives unprecedented new access and powers to bureaucrats at the IRS and at least four other federal
government agencies. Is that really going to undo the cynicism we have about government and protect Americans from further targeting?
Obamacare puts the IRS on steroids.
If ever there were an argument as to why Obamacare should be repealed and defunded, these numbers — coupled with the IRS
revelations of recent weeks — tell the tale.
Top IRS Official
For Obamacare Implementation Placed On Administrative Leave. Sources say a key official in charge of overseeing
health reform implementation, as well as another staffer, have been put on leave for accepting more than $1,000 in free meals
and other items at a 2010 conference.
Defund
ObamaCare's 16,500 New IRS Agents. Unable to police the supposedly "rogue" agents it has now, the IRS wants
thousands more to police your body under ObamaCare. Lawmakers should impose a hiring freeze instead.
The IRS attempts to save Obamacare by unilaterally declaring that it will disregard the law.
An IRS Scandal Inseparable from Obamacare.
Thanks to ubiquitous if imperfectly honest press coverage, most Americans know about the IRS scandal involving tax-exempt applications from
various Tea Party groups. The public is still, however, getting the mushroom treatment on two other outrages by that rogue agency.
The media have devoted scant coverage to its theft of 60 million medical records, now the subject of a class action lawsuit, and they have
been all but silent regarding the illegal IRS scheme to fund Obamacare's federal insurance exchanges.
Giant octopus: IRS has
8 offices to enforce Obamacare. The Internal Revenue Service, charged with implementing the biggest change in tax laws in
20 years due to Obamacare, has created eight offices and special "teams" to handle the chore, way more than initially revealed.
Besides the top office headed by the woman in the middle of the IRS-Tea Party scandal, there are seven others and a special enforcement
team that make up an organization chart that mirrors the organization of the IRS itself, according to a Treasury Inspector General's
report.
The
unwelcome role of the IRS in Obamacare. Let us stipulate that now might not be the best time — with
IRS officials exposed for abusing power, caught in self-serving deceptions, invoking their constitutional right against
self-incrimination — to dramatically expand the authority and size of their agency. But this is what
Obamacare requires. Thousands of new IRS agents will implement 40-odd provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act — the exact number is a matter of dispute since the law itself is so confusing.
Exclusive:
IRS Org Chart Puts Ingram, Lerner at Center of Power. An official Internal Revenue Service (IRS) organizational chart of the Tax
Exempt & Government Entities division from February 2011 offers a more complete picture of the authority Lois Lerner — the now-removed
IRS director of the tax-exempt unit — and Sarah Hall Ingram — presently tasked with overseeing the implementation of
Obamacare — held as the IRS scheme to politically target conservative groups was hatched.
Big Government's
Abuses of Power. We have just learned that the Internal Revenue Service before the 2012 election predicated its
tax-exemption policies on politics. It inordinately denied tax exemption to groups considered conservative or otherwise
antagonistic to the president's agenda. If the supposedly nonpartisan IRS is perceived as skewing our taxes on the basis
of our politics, then the entire system of trust in self-reporting is rendered null and void. Worse still, the bureaucratic
overseer at the center of the controversy, Sarah Hall Ingram, now runs the IRS division charged with enforcing compliance with
the new Obamacare requirements.
Propaganda:
NPR Incorrectly Claims IRS Has Nothing to do With Obamacare. During the May 22 broadcast of National Public Radio's
"Talk of the Nation," host Neil Conan repeatedly contradicted a guest by claiming that the IRS has nothing at all to do with Obamacare.
NPR's Conan is, of course, completely incorrect. The IRS is up to its Tea Party harassing neck in Obamacare. The guest Conan
contradicted was Kellyanne Conway, a Republican strategist and pollster. Conway was on to discuss the various scandals in which
Obama is mired and close to the end of her segment she questioned how the American people can trust the IRS to implement Obamacare.
Conan initially pressed her on the claim saying that she must have "misspoken."
Time to Go for the Kill. The IRS scandal
provides Republicans and conservatives with the opportunity to repeal and replace Obamacare now. The House Republican majority
should refuse to fund the expansion of the IRS necessary to manage Obamacare. Without that funding, and hiring thousands of
additional agents, the IRS cannot even begin to manage Obamacare. [...] Nobody wants the IRS playing political games with their health
care and health records, like it did with the constitutional rights to freedom of speech and Equal Protection of Tea Party and
conservative organizations.
ObamaCare,
Tea Party Targeter Run By Same IRS Exec. The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of tax-exempt organizations
when the unit targeted Tea Party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for enforcing ObamaCare.
Obama's Defenders: He's
Not Corrupt, Just Dishonest and Incompetent. [T]he IRS's reach and power is expanded as part of ObamaCare — itself an expansion
of government along demonstrably failed strategic lines. So it's no surprise that after the IRS systematically targeted conservative and pro-Israel
groups in order to eviscerate the First Amendment rights of those who disagreed with President Obama (and at the direction of high-ranking elected
Democrats), the IRS official responsible for overseeing tax-exempt groups has since been moved over to run the IRS office responsible for ObamaCare.
This Is What Tyranny Looks Like.
Here is a woman we will need to learn much more about in the coming weeks. Sarah Hall Ingram is a highly valued employee at the IRS.
In the last three years she has received $103,390 in bonuses for her excellent work. She was the Commissioner of the Tax-Exempt and
Government Entitles Division. Under her leadership, groups that expressed a fear of large, out-of-control government were systematically
crushed by her branch of our large, out-of-control government. They were specifically singled out for harassment for political reasons.
Secret information about the conservative applicants was leaked to leftist opposition groups to facilitate further harassment.
IRS official
in charge during Tea Party targeting now runs agency's Obamacare office. Sarah Hall Ingram is a career IRS employee, having graduated from
Georgetown Law in 1982 to start her career in IRS Tax Litigation. She became Commissioner of the Tax-Exempt and Government Entitles Division of the
IRS in 2009. [...] Surely, the anti-Bush fervor and politics of an off-year election would have created a disproportionate number of liberal groups
applying for status even pre-Citizens United — a situation similar to the one that allegedly justified the IRS' improper scrutiny of
conservatives in 2010 — yet we haven't heard about Ingram coming down systematically on them.
IRS
Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office. The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the
tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.
Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since
left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS' Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today [5/16/2013].
IRS official who oversaw unit targeting
Tea Party now heads ObamaCare office. The IRS official who led the tax-exempt organizations unit when Tea Party groups were targeted is
now in charge of the IRS office responsible for ObamaCare, two Capitol Hill sources told Fox News. The acknowledgement comes after the
administration announced that the official's successor Joseph Grant — who had only been on the job a few days — would
be retiring.
Official
in charge of corrupt IRS department promoted — to top ObamaCare enforcer. I see media headlines all over the
place describing [Joseph] Grant as the second person to "lose his job" or "resign" over the IRS scandal. That is not true.
No one has lost his job over this scandal yet. The Acting Commissioner was due to leave anyway, unless President
Obama actively re-appointed him for another term. The commissioner of the tax-exempt organizations department is retiring
gracefully. Furthermore, Grant only became the commissioner of his department last week. He was the Deputy
Commissioner before that, so he has strong links to the scandal, but he wasn't the top executive when the outrage occurred.
That would be one Sara Hall Ingram. And she didn't get fired or disciplined. She got promoted. She is now the
director of the IRS' Affordable Care Office. In other words, the person in charge during the worst abuse-of-power scandal in modern
history is now the chief enforcer for ObamaCare.
[Emphasis in original.]
Biggest Question About IRS Scandal: Why
The Apology? The Internal Revenue has always been perceived as the bane of law-abiding and long-suffering taxpayers.
It can also unfortunately be a punishing henchman of a corrupt administration. In the past it has allowed itself to be used to
punish critics and enemies of a despotic government more totalitarian than democratic. News that the Obama administration had
requested the hiring of thousands of new IRS to enforce Obamacare only confirmed fears that the IRS was being used once again to do an
administration's dirty work.
Outgoing Head Of IRS Gets
Grilled By Republican Lawmakers Who Call Him 'Uncooperative' And 'Drunk On Power'. Members of Congress grilled former IRS
Acting Commissioner Steven Miller on Capitol Hill Friday morning [5/17/2013], in an attempt to get answers on the IRS' inappropriate
targeting of conservative-sounding groups that were applying for tax-exempt status.
'Is
this still America?' Congressional hearing turns into IRS smackdown. The IRS under the Obama administration painted targets
on the backs of conservatives beginning in 2010, and ousted acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller apologized to the House Ways and Means
Committee on Friday [5/17/2013]. But members on both sides of the aisle were furious, and castigated him for the mismanagement and
political gamesmanship the IRS engaged in on his watch.
Oops, Maybe Government is Tyrannical.
Less than two weeks ago President Obama stood in front of graduates from The Ohio State University and told them to reject those who
warn of government tyranny. [...] Practically overnight people labeled conspiracy theorists by the elite were proven prescient
interpreters of how big government operates when news broke last Friday that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups
for special scrutiny in their tax-exempt applications. The media pile-on against the administration is so ferocious Fox News could
run live feeds from its competitors without losing a beat. It should be so because the partisan treatment of hundreds of groups
is stunning.
IRS head on targeting
tea party: 'It is absolutely not illegal'. The outgoing leader of the Internal Revenue Service drew audible "wows" from
Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday [5/17/2013] for saying he doesn't think what the agency did to tea party groups was
illegal. "It is absolutely not illegal," Steve Miller, the acting commissioner of the IRS who resigned this week because of the
scandal, said while being questioned by Georgia Rep. Tom Price.
Obamacare isn't about
health care, it's about power. Obamacare's heavy reliance on the IRS seems somehow fitting, as the entire law relies on
a scheme of government controls and regulations to work its will on the health care system. The law imposes price controls on
insurance companies and extends a system of price controls for pharmaceutical companies. Obamacare also places a board of unelected,
unaccountable bureaucrats at the center of its plans to control health care costs.
IRS sued for
stealing the medical records of 10 million Americans. The last scandal dampening rods just failed, and the reactor core
at the Internal Revenue service may be about to blow.
How the IRS Scandal Threatens Obamacare.
Obamacare is not merely a massive overhaul of the health care system. It is also a substantial expansion of the Internal Revenue
Service. That's because the law relies on the tax collection agency to both enforce its individual mandate and administer the tax
credits the law offers to subsidize the purchase of health insurance. Following recent revelations that agents in multiple IRS
offices, including tax officials in Washington, targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny, a number of former and current Republican
legislators are already counseling caution about the agency's role in administering the law.
Will The IRS
Abuse Its ObamaCare Enforcement Powers Too? As nonconservative groups complain of politically motivated targeting by
the IRS, we're reminded it's the IRS that's going to be enforcing one of the greatest expansions of government power in our history.
IRS Admission Fans Flames
of Anti-'Obamacare' Push. The admission by the Internal Revenue Service that it singled out conservative advocacy groups
for intense scrutiny provides conservatives with what one Hill aide described as "fresh ammunition" to attack the 2010 health care
law — especially given the critical role the IRS is expected to play in implementing and regulating the law. The timing of the
IRS admission, coming just days before the House will vote on the full repeal of a polarizing law the IRS will have a major role in
enforcing, has conservative lawmakers and outside groups eager to talk.
Coming Next January: New Tax Form to Comply With
Obamacare Mandate . I've been wondering how the IRS was going to determine whether taxpayers were complying with the individual mandate contained in
Obamacare. I needn't have wondered. The IRS is a bureaucracy and what do bureaucracies adore almost as much as taxpayer-financed trips to Vegas for
conferences? Forms, of course.
New Obamacare
Challenge: Lawsuit Says IRS Is Flouting the Law As Written by Congress. Here comes another legal challenge to Obamacare:
On Thursday [5/2/2013], a group of small business owners and individuals in six states sued the federal government over an IRS regulation
that they say goes beyond the "plain language" of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In a nutshell, the plaintiffs argue that federal
subsidies intended to help lower-income people afford insurance are going to states that should not get them. The way the Affordable
Care Act is written, states that refuse to set up their own health care exchanges are not eligible for the federal premium subsidies.
IRS
moves to collect billions in fees from healthcare law. The Internal Revenue Service on Friday unveiled its proposal
to raise tens of billions of dollars through annual fees on health insurers, prompting fierce criticism from industry groups who
warn the costs will be passed along to consumers. The proposed rule from President Obama's healthcare law will be published
for public consideration in Monday's Federal Register. The rule would assess annual fees on most insurers that would
total $8 billion next year and rise thereafter, eclipsing $14 billion in 2018, according to the IRS.
You must not stand on your own two feet — even for one day.
IRS: Parents Must Pay Federal Fine for
Uninsured Kids. In new, final regulations issued Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said that parents must pay a
federal fine under Obamacare if their children or dependent spouses are uninsured for any part of the year.
House committees investigate whether the IRS illegally expanded
tax subsides to strengthen Obamacare.
Exceeding its Mandate. Two House committees are investigating
whether the IRS illegally implemented an important provision of Obamacare. House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp
(R., Mich.) and Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) sent a letter on Tuesday [1/29/2013] to the acting secretary
of the Treasury Department and the acting commissioner of the IRS requesting documents and interviews with specific officials.
IRS Warns Employers: Do Not Try to
Avoid ObamaCare Insurance Mandate. The Internal Revenue Service warned employers in a new regulatory proposal not to come up with
clever schemes to avoid Obamacare's employer health insurance mandate. The IRS said it would soon issue "anti-abuse rules" to discourage
employers from taking advantage of any regulatory loopholes.
The New Face of Health Care — the IRS. When
President Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, aka "Obamacare") goes fully into effect in 2014, the American people will only then begin to
see the implications of its thorough government takeover of health care, in all its glory. But what they are not expecting is the massively expanded role of
the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") in our lives, as the IRS is the chief agency responsible for enforcing the Act.
Illegal
IRS Rule to Increase Taxes & Spending under Obamacare. Contrary to the clear language of the statute and congressional
intent, this [IRS] rule issues tax credits in health insurance "exchanges" established by the federal government. It thus
triggers a $2,000-per-employee tax on employers and appropriates billions of dollars to private health insurance companies in
states with a federal Exchange, also contrary to the clear language of the statute and congressional intent. Since those
illegal expenditures will exceed the revenues raised by the illegal tax on employers, this rule also increases the federal
deficit by potentially hundreds of billions of dollars, again contrary to the clear language of the statute and congressional
intent. The rule is therefore illegal. It lacks any statutory authority. It is contrary to both the clear
language of the PPACA and congressional intent. It cannot be justified on other legal grounds.
Obamacare's Empty Mandates.
Turns out, the government has no way to enforce the individual mandate — the tax that scofflaws have to pay for failing to get health insurance
coverage. That's right. There is no penalty in the law for refusing to pay the tax. So that unlike paying income taxes, if you don't get
coverage, the IRS cannot seize your bank accounts or dock your wages. They can't even charge you interest on unpaid penalties! So how
is the IRS going to enforce it?
LePage says IRS is the 'new Gestapo' in
radio address. Gov. Paul LePage used his weekly radio address to blast President Obama's health care law and described the
Internal Revenue Service as the "new Gestapo." The IRS description was a reference to a provision in the Affordable Care Act that
requires most Americans to buy health insurance or pay an annual penalty when filing their tax returns. The provision, known more
broadly as the individual mandate, was the subject of a multi-state lawsuit, but was recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The IRS is the Iron Fist to Enforce
Obamacare. One of the arguments raised against the health care reform law is that few people want their
health care run by the same people who run the IRS. But the IRS will enforce the law. According to Newsmax,
the Obama administration is transferring $500 million to the IRS to allow the tax agency to begin enforcing tax
provisions of Obamacare outside the normal appropriations process and before the Supreme Court rules on the
constitutionality of the law.
Army Of IRS Enforcers Can't Make ObamaCare
Legitimate. After foisting its 2,700-page health law on the public, the White House now plans to enforce its detested mandate by siccing the
IRS on unwilling citizens. All that stands in the way is "the consent of the governed."
White
House has diverted $500M to IRS to implement healthcare law. The Obama administration is quietly diverting roughly
$500 million to the IRS to help implement the president's healthcare law. The money is only part of the IRS's total
implementation spending, and it is being provided outside the normal appropriations process. The tax agency is responsible
for several key provisions of the new law, including the unpopular individual mandate.
IRS Commissioner Can't Say How Many New Agents IRS Will
Need to Enforce Obamacare. Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman said at the National
Press Club on Monday [4/5/2010] that the IRS cannot say how many new agents it will need to enforce the new
health care law signed by President Barack Obama last month.
16,500 More Reasons to
Vote Republican in November. Thanks to the Democrats, the most hated agency in America, the IRS,
just got 16,500 agents bigger. By sprinkling in an additional 16,500 IRS agents into their health care
mix, the Democrats may have just placed upon their own backs a backbreaking straw.
IRS
chief: Buy health insurance or lose your tax refund. Individuals who don't purchase health
insurance may lose their tax refunds according to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. After acknowledging
the recently passed health-care bill limits the agency's options for enforcing the individual mandate,
Shulman told reporters that the most likely way to penalize individuals that don't comply is by reducing
or confiscating their tax refunds.
Obamacare expands IRS authority, may cause greater tax
non-compliance. Not only does the Democratic health care bill include tax hikes, as reported by
Americans for Tax Reform, it also would expand the role of the Internal Revenue Service.
IRSteroids. As if
the Internal Revenue Service doesn't have enough power, the agency says it will regulate tax preparers. And
ObamaCare gives it even more clout.
GOP
lawmakers believe over $1 billion spent to promote Obamacare. Republicans are demanding greater
transparency on how much the administration spent to promote and implement Obamacare — and hitting
back at President Obama's claim that he "didn't make a hard sell." The new effort comes after Obama's
claim that the administration met its goal of enrolling more than 7 million people without spending billions.
"We didn't make a hard sell," Obama said. "We didn't have billions of dollars to spend on commercials like
our critics did." But both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill estimate the administration has spent
roughly $4 to 5 billion to get the Affordable Care Act running, including hundreds of millions to
build and repair healthcare.gov.
Gov't Spent $700
Million Promoting Obamacare. President Barack Obama contended that the government did not
"make a hard sell" for Obamacare, despite his administration spending nearly $700 million to promote
the law. "We didn't make a hard sell," Obama said in the Rose Garden on Tuesday, praising the
7.1 million sign ups for the Affordable Care Act. "We didn't have billions of dollars
of commercials like some critics did." However, last July the Associated Press reported that
Obamacare's marketing campaign would cost at least $684 million. [Updated later
to $684 million.]
The Editor says...
You must purchase insurance from us by March 31 or you will be fined, and the IRS will come after you.
Is that not a hard sell?
Watchdog
requests IRS review of group that is promoting ObamaCare. A watchdog group is asking the IRS to review the tax-exempt status of a
organization crucial in helping to promote ObamaCare. Cause of Action has asked the IRS to investigate Enroll America, a nonprofit that is
encouraging people to enroll in new coverage options under the healthcare law.
Even IRS Head Would Keep His Health Plan
Over ObamaCare. The American people don't want it, even Democrats think it's a train wreck, and now members of the agency charged with enforcing it
have said it's hazardous to our health, financial and otherwise. While testifying Thursday [8/1/2013] on Capitol Hill, Daniel Werfel, acting chief of the
Internal Revenue Service, the agency charged with enforcing ObamaCare's mandates, told a House committee he would rather keep his current health insurance plan
than make the switch to one offered by the Affordable Care Act.
House votes 232-185 to block the IRS from
enforcing ObamaCare. The House voted Friday to prevent the IRS from enforcing any aspect of ObamaCare, a bill meant to exact revenge against an
agency that Republicans say is incapable of neutral enforcement of the law. Members approved the Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act in
a 232-185 vote. Four Democrats supported the bill along with every Republican. The vote capped off several days of work in the House on bills
aimed at reining in government regulation and government overreach.
The New Face of Health Care — the IRS. When
President Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, aka "Obamacare") goes fully into effect in 2014, the American people will only then begin to
see the implications of its thorough government takeover of health care, in all its glory. But what they are not expecting is the massively expanded role of
the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") in our lives, as the IRS is the chief agency responsible for enforcing the Act.
House committees investigate whether the IRS illegally expanded
tax subsides to strengthen Obamacare.
Exceeding its Mandate. Two House committees are investigating
whether the IRS illegally implemented an important provision of Obamacare. House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp
(R., Mich.) and Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) sent a letter on Tuesday [1/29/2013] to the acting secretary
of the Treasury Department and the acting commissioner of the IRS requesting documents and interviews with specific officials.
Four Tactical Steps That Will Defeat Obamacare.
[#1.] Denounce this bill for the lying fraud scheme it is: Just as an example: The Congressional Budget
Office (CBO) "scored" the Pelosi bill to cost $1.055 trillion — far above Barack Obama's $900 billion
ceiling. Pelosi immediately held a press conference and announced her bill would cost $894 billion —
a figure that did not appear in the CBO report and which could be reached only by subtracting projected IRS-administered
penalties from the actual cost.
IRS Issues 159 Pages of Obamacare Rules.
It took the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 159 pages to explain one new Obamacare tax on investments that will be used to pay for Obamacare.
Only individuals and families making more than $200,000 and $250,000, respectively, will be impacted by the tax, which "applies to a broad range of
investment securities ranging from stocks and bonds to commodity securities and specialized derivatives."
Anyone For More Obamacare Tax Rules?
This stack explains the tax on people making more than $200,000 (individuals) and $250,000 (families), and suggests that Obama's plan to lower
unemployment is to expand the ranks of the IRS until it employs as many people as the military.
My Doctor Is Now the IRS. The Congressional Research Service
Report for Congress, "A Brief Overview of the Law, Implementation, and Legal Challenges," gives a new definition to Nancy Pelosi's statement that
we had "to pass Obamacare to find out what's in it." Not only did Congressmen not read the 2,700-page law before they voted and passed it by
twisting arms and briberies, but they now have to be informed of the disaster they have created.
IRS:
Employers Face $36,500 Per Worker Tax for 'Obamacare Dumping'. The Internal Revenue
Service ruled it will impose a tax penalty on employers of up to $36,500 per worker for dumping
employees into the Obamacare exchanges. [...] The IRS ruling is an effort by the Obama
administration to stop employers with 50 or more workers from doing what critics of the health law
said they would do: pay a penalty for not providing insurance and dump workers into the unpopular
Obamacare program.
What the IRS
Obamacare ruling means. The headline at the New York times suggests that the Obama
administration has cut the escape for business' trying to avoid the costs of Obamacare: [...] But
while some might crow over this change here is what it's going to mean: [#1] Pink slips.
You don't have to provide health insurance to people who do not work for you. If the government won't
allow companies to make a cost-effective decision they will cut those costs a different way and the
cheapest and fastest is to cut people. [#2] Part Timers: If you can't afford to
lose people the next choice will be to reduce hours or create new part-time positions to replace the
full-time ones that required insurance coverage. [#3] Hiring Freezes: If you work
for a company on the edge of the Healthcare requirements and in an industry where part-time workers
simply won't do be prepared to do a lot more work with a lot less help.
IRS Warns Employers: Do Not Try to
Avoid ObamaCare Insurance Mandate. The Internal Revenue Service warned employers in a new regulatory proposal not to come up with
clever schemes to avoid Obamacare's employer health insurance mandate. The IRS said it would soon issue "anti-abuse rules" to discourage
employers from taking advantage of any regulatory loopholes.
16,500
more IRS agents needed to enforce Obamacare. New tax mandates and penalties included in
Obamacare will cause the greatest expansion of the Internal Revenue Service since World War II, according
to a release from Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas.
Obamacare's Hit Man.
Last week the Congressional Budget Office reported that it expects that the Internal Revenue Service and the
Department of Health and Human Services will spend up to an additional $200 billion over the next decade
on administering Obamacare. That's in addition to the estimated $1 trillion that will be spent in
2014-2019 under the new healthcare law. Much of the money will go to hiring
hundreds of thousands
of bureaucrats to administer Obamacare over the next decade.
A Bigger,
Badder IRS: Brought to You by Obamacare. [Scroll down] And why is this tax
reporting stuff even
in a health-care bill? To help fund it, that's why. To help Pelosi and
Reid and Obama get the
faux deficit score they needed, the measure is expected to raise $13.7 billion
over ten years — though that's before administrative and discretionary costs, which will add
another $115 billion or so to the bill's official price tag. Pass the bill to find out what's
in it.
Why
Obamacare Might Force Doctors to Perform Sex-Reassignment Surgeries. You've heard about the Obamacare Individual Mandate.
That's the one that requires every person in America to get government-approved health insurance or face significant IRS penalties.
The IRS operates in cahoots with other federal agencies
The DEA:
Exclusive: IRS manual detailed DEA's use of hidden intel
evidence. Criminal defense lawyers are challenging a U.S. government practice of hiding the tips that led to some drug investigations,
information that the lawyers say is essential to fair trials in U.S. courts.
Creepy: IRS In On DEA's
'Special Operations' Trickery. It's amusing when lefties get upset at stuff like this. They're too thick to understand that
mammoth growth of the federal government will always lead to widespread abuse. Better to err on the side of sanity and assume the
worst from the federal level at all times.
The FEC:
The Other Targeting Scandal.
The IRS targeting scandal is best understood as part of a larger effort to limit the political speech of conservatives and business groups.
That became clearer last week regarding the Federal Election Commission, and now evidence is spreading to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Senior Republicans on the House Oversight Committee recently wrote to new SEC Chairman Mary Jo White to report on disturbing events that occurred
under her predecessor, and to request agency documents. As at the IRS, there's an emerging pattern at the SEC of senior officials rolling
over career staff to politicize the work of a powerful federal agency.
When Scandals Reach Into the Oval Office.
Evidence is not the same as proof. Proof comes as evidence accumulates. But the fact that Barack Obama is the only common supervisor of all
the corrupt activity in various departments of the federal government is certainly compelling evidence. [Jay] Carney's insistence that there is no
evidence whatever that this scandal goes as high as the oval office is simply wrong.
IRS Union Tied to FEC. The National Treasury
Employees Union (NTEU) represents the bureaucracy that staffs the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS. The NTEU also
represents the bureaucracy that staffs the Federal Elections Commission. The FEC. The NTEU has a political action
committee — the Treasury Employees Political Action Committee. TEPAC. TEPAC routinely gives over 90% of its
contributions to Democrats.
Republican says e-mails could mean FEC-IRS collusion. The
vice chairman of the Federal Election Commission told CNN on Monday [8/5/2013] he has seen numerous undisclosed e-mails between FEC staffers and the
Internal Revenue Service that raise new questions about potential collusion between the two federal agencies in the alleged targeting of conservative
political groups.
Another Agency Goes IRS.
One big question raised by IRS political targeting is whether Obama officials or their bureaucratic allies unleashed the power of the
administrative state for partisan ends. Now evidence is emerging that officials at another agency, the Federal Election Commission,
used their enforcement power as an anti-conservative sword. The House Ways and Means Committee this week released emails showing
that, in 2008 and 2009, the FEC's general counsel staff sought tax information about conservative political groups from Lois Lerner of
the IRS. Ms. Lerner [...] had previously worked at ... the FEC's general counsel office.
New Links Emerge in the IRS Scandal.
Congressional investigators this week released emails suggesting that staff at the Federal Election Commission have been engaged in their own conservative
targeting, with help from the IRS's infamous Lois Lerner. This means more than just an expansion of the probe to the FEC. It's a new link to
the Obama team.
Did IRS Help Other Agencies Target
Conservatives? We now know that IRS honchos shared information about conservative groups with other agencies, using the vast data
in the IRS databanks to help other federal officials make cases against conservatives. Now we need to know how much, how often and what
kind. Email exchanges between Lois Lerner, the Democrat at the center of the probe into abuses at the IRS, and a lawyer at the Federal
Elections Commission show Lerner and the lawyer teaming up to try to block a conservative group from winning a case before the commission.
E-mails
Suggest Collusion Between FEC, IRS to Target Conservative Groups. The correspondence suggests the discrimination of conservative
groups extended beyond the IRS and into the FEC, where an attorney from the agency's enforcement division in at least one case sought and received
tax information about the status of a conservative group, the American Future Fund, before recommending that the commission prosecute it for
violations of campaign-finance law. [Lois] Lerner, the former head of the IRS's exempt-organizations division, worked at the FEC from
1986 to 1995, and was known for aggressive investigation of conservative groups during her tenure there, too.
If you criticize Obamacare, you will be audited
Related topic: Obamacare and the suppression of dissent.
Obama
and Me: How I Knew Obama Was a Bad Guy Before Anyone Else. [Scroll down] I was Obama's classmate at
Columbia University, class of 1983. We were both pre-law and political science majors. I was also on the
Libertarian presidential ticket in 2008 — the first time in U.S. history that college classmates ran on opposing
presidential tickets. What are the odds? During the campaign, I was asked in hundreds of media interviews:
"Were you two friends at Columbia University? What was Obama like?" I always answered honestly: "I never met him,
never saw him, never heard of him. And I don't know a single classmate who ever met him either." I repeated this story
hundreds of times. At the time, I was also a regular guest on Fox News, where I branded Obama a radical socialist whose
policies would ruin the U.S. economy, retard economic growth and kill millions of jobs. I was proved right. That
must have made Obama even angrier. I had clearly gotten under Obama's skin. Soon the IRS came knocking. I
was targeted for destruction. It was a witch hunt, persecution and intimidation all in one.
Obama Makes the IRS Free Speech Cop
Too. As if the Internal Revenue Service did not have enough to do with administering Obamacare, President Obama wants to give it another job:
regulating the free speech of his political opponents, while leaving the political activities of the president's friends untouched. The new proposed IRS
regulations were placed in the Federal Register the day after the Thanksgiving holiday, and comments on them are due by the end of February.
Obamacare Whistleblower: I was Told IRS
Retaliation 'Came from the Top'. [Bill] Elliott appeared on [Sara Marie] Brenner's show last week to discuss the audit and the help he
received from South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a South Carolina Congressman and a Democratic Senator from North Carolina, Senator Kay Hagan.
In the segment, he discussed how the IRS audit was ultimately squashed thanks to intervention by lawmakers; however, he noted that he was told that
the IRS investigation "came from the top."
IRS
intimidating health insurance broker helping people who lose policies. C. Steven Tucker,the man who helped cancer patient
Bill Elliott regain his health insurance policy, now believes that he is purposefully being intimidated by the IRS. The Washington Times
reported on Thursday that Tucker and Elliott received notices from the IRS on the same day, but for different matters. Since receiving his
first notice, Tucker has experienced a series of events that have left him feeling targeted, but very determined.
IRS Goes
After Obamacare Whistleblowers. By now, the news has spread online of the IRS audit notices sent to two Obamacare whistleblowers.
On November 25th, cancer victim Bill Elliott and C. Steven Tucker were informed of the ordeal each was to face. Elliott has been
waging a pitched battle with cancer. Tucker is the insurance agent and healthcare freedom activist who informed him that the canceling of
his insurance, wrought by the Obama administration for the sake pushing citizens into Obamacare, was illegal. [...] What subsequently transpired
for Tucker has deepened his impression that the twin IRS notices were no coincidence, but an attack by our federal government, an orchestrated
effort at intimidation of them both.
Cancer Patient and
ObamaCare Critic Says He's Being Audited by IRS. A cancer patient, who publicly discussed the cancellation of his insurance under
ObamaCare, now says he has been informed by the Internal Revenue Service that he is going to be audited. Bill Elliot appeared on Fox News
on November 7th to discuss the cancellation of his insurance. He claims he was told that his cancer was considered "beyond the catastrophic
previous condition" and his plan was being canceled because of ObamaCare regulations.
Lose Insurance Under
Obamacare, Speak Up, IRS Audits You. Yep, suddenly — and not coincidentally — [Bill] Elliot and [C. Stephen]
Tucker are being audited by the IRS, joining a list of other organizations and individuals who are also suddenly enduring an IRS audit or other
problems after disagreeing with Obama such as several Tea Party and conservative groups, prominent black physician Dr. Ben Carson who has
publicly criticized Obamacare, Catholic professor Ann Hendershott who also had the audacity to publicly disagree with Obama and even the
billionaire owners of the Chicago Cubs.
Cancer
Patient Who Spoke Out Against ObamaCare Now Being Audited. Bill Elliot was a cancer patient who lost his insurance due to
ObamaCare and couldn't pay the expensive new premiums. He was talking about paying the ObamaCare fine, going without health
insurance and "letting nature take its course." [...] Now suddenly Bill Elliot is being audited for 2009 with an interview only
scheduled in April 2014. Assuming he lives that long. That might be a coincidence, but Tucker is being audited back to
2003. That's a rather strange coincidence.
Lois Lerner allegedly loses her most important emails at the most convenient moment
It's a scandal within a scandal. This story is simply not believable because one government employee can't lose a
selective part of an organization's email due to the crash of her personal computer — even if that actually happened,
which it probably didn't. This is most likely just an evasive delay tactic to slow down the investigation of the IRS,
probably because the investigation is about to point directly at the White House.
First of all, Ms. Lerner's email messages don't reside on her computer. Her email resides on a server somewhere,
and the servers, if they are managed properly, have backup files stored at yet another location. (Ask
Oliver North how that works.
1 E-mail
messages that North believed to be deleted were found and used against him in
litigation.
2 A
total of 758 e-mail messages were sent, involving him in the Iran-Contra affair, and every one of them was
recovered.
3) But
even if this latest foot-dragging excuse is valid, the whole thing is surprisingly convenient, isn't it?
Overviews:
Not
Just The FBI: Institutions Across The Board Have Forfeited America's Trust. In 2013,
the IRS admitted to targeting conservative groups. Lois Lerner deemed that these conservative
and Tea Party groups were guilty of having the wrong political opinion. For her actions, Lois
Lerner refused to answer questions, pleading the fifth, and was found in contempt of Congress by
the House of Representatives, but the Justice Department declined to prosecute her on contempt
charges. Instead, she was allowed to retire, collect her pension, and never be held accountable.
Ten
Reasons a Post-Presidency Impeachment of Barack Obama Should Happen. Amazingly, liberals still pretend the IRS
improperly targeting conservative and Tea Party groups wasn't a scandal. Lest they forget that Lois Lerner, the former
director of the IRS Exempt Organizations division at the time, admitted it happened! Not only were tea party groups
improperly targeted, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch, but the whole scheme was also orchestrated out of
Washington, D.C. There was also evidence of White House involvement. Then-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman was at the
White House at least 157 times while the IRS was targeting tea party groups. Obama's cabinet members didn't even visit
the White House that often. Some IRS employees even claimed that Obama himself requested the crackdown of tea party
groups. There was certainly ample reason to suspect coordination with the White House. The IRS was also
exchanging confidential taxpayer information with the White House the year Obama and Biden were reelected, and according to a
scholarly study conducted in 2013 by the American Enterprise Institute, the suppression of the tea party movement by Obama's
IRS helped him get reelected.
Six
Times the Obama Administration Should Have Appointed Special Counsel. [#4] The IRS scandal: Using the IRS
to target Obama's political enemies during an election year? Obama did try to distance himself from the scandal but
according to a report, IRS employees were "acutely" aware that Obama wanted a crackdown on conservative and Tea Party groups,
and Douglas Shulman, the IRS commissioner, visited the White House a whopping 157 times (more than anyone in Obama's cabinet)
while the IRS abuses occurred. Gee, do you think there's a potential conflict of interest here? Unlike other
scandals where investigations were left to Republicans in Congress, the Obama administration did investigate the IRS
scandal... did you know about this? Yep, Attorney General Eric Holder appointed a DOJ lawyer to run the investigation.
Her main qualification was that she was an Obama donor, and within a few short days of her appointment, it was announced the FBI
was not planning to file any criminal charges connected to the scandal. Of course not.
The
Democrats' Long History of Making Incriminating Documents Disappear. Remember Lois Lerner, who ran the IRS
effort to stop the Tea Party movement? Her laptop crashed. With perhaps 24,000 emails gone, the IRS didn't look
at the two sources of backup tapes, or the server hard drives, or the loaner laptops from which some emails were eventually
recovered. The IRS "Media Management Midnight Unit" magnetically "degaussed" 422 backup tapes, despite an agency-wide
preservation order and congressional subpoena.
These
5 Horrible Bureaucrats Beat the Clock and Kept Their Pensions. [#2] Lois Lerner: Lerner became infamous when
she used her position as director of the exempt organization unit at the IRS to bully conservative tea party groups applying for
tax-exempt status. In 2010, at the peak of tea party activism and just ahead of the midterm elections, she instructed her
team to flag applications with the words "tea party" and "patriot" in their names. [...] Once Lerner's partisan bias was publicly
revealed and Congress began to investigate, Lerner pled the fifth and then retired. Her full benefit package remains intact.
Republicans Go to Jail,
Democrats Run Free. This appears to be the first time that a president's minions have used the IRS to suppress
the free speech of an entire political movement in order to win an election. Numerous IRS officials lied to
congressional investigators about this autocratic campaign. Lois Lerner, the chief IRS official behind this illegal
harassment, never paid the price for these misdeeds. After she came under scrutiny and invoked the Fifth Amendment
while testifying on Capitol Hill, she was placed on paid leave (i.e. paid vacation) and then allowed to retire with full
pension, benefits, and $129,000 she had received in bonuses. Never mind that computer hard drives detailing this
scandal were thrown into shredders designed to pulverize metal. Again, not even the GOP's control of Congress could
make Lerner or any other IRS official pay any price for the biggest abuse of IRS power in modern American history.
No
Wonder the IRS Is 'Losing' E-mails: It Was Trying to Throw Innocent Conservatives in Jail.
Even a small child can connect these dots. The IRS is announcing the "loss" of mass numbers of e-mails
(do they have any computers that don't crash?) even as the e-mails that do exist are beginning to show the
extent of IRS corruption. [...] And in the last few days we learn the IRS has "lost" e-mails
from — among others — Lois Lerner and Nikole Flax. What a remarkable
coincidence. The scale of the wrongdoing is staggering. Targeting Americans for criminal
investigation without evidence, attempting to enlist multiple federal agencies in the effort, selective
audits, selective disclosures of confidential documents, selective questioning and delays of nonprofit
applicants — all in the service of suppressing dissent.
Overview / recap:
More
Lerner Emails Destroyed — Just An Accident, Right? In May 2013, Lois Lerner, then
director of the IRS' Exempt Organizations Division, acknowledged that the agency had given especially hard
looks at applications for tax-exempt status from groups that had the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their
title. Lerner blamed the practice on "front-line people" in the Cincinnati office who weren't thinking
about politics, just doing their jobs. She wouldn't admit it, but the IRS was passively harassing groups
it felt were President Obama's political opponents and a threat to his 2012 re-election. The inspector
general's report said applications filed by several hundred groups were delayed for a year or more.
Seven
Giant Scandals That Barack Obama Just Couldn't Keep Undercover! [#5] IRS Scandal: Remember that time
when the Internal Revenue Service was caught red-handed, targeting conservative and tea party groups to omit their tax-exempt
status, just as Obama's second-term presidential campaign was gearing up? Not only that but two years worth of Louis
Lerner's emails just, poof! DISAPPEARED! It's magic!
13
Incompetent Failures in the Obama Administration. [#9] When allegations surfaced that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had
purposefully stalled the tax exemptions for conservative non-profit groups, director of the Exempt Organizations Unit Lois Lerner became a
central focus in the investigation. But the IRS repeatedly refused to turn over Lerner's emails to the public. At first they
claimed the server had been wiped, and the emails lost. Then they acknowledged there was a backup, but still refused to provide
them. Lerner even had a second email account she used to conduct IRS business under the name "Toby Miles." Nevertheless, the
Department of Justice announced last October that they would not be filing any criminal charges.
Another overview:
A Government
Feared and Distrusted. Recently, it was discovered that information gathered not so secretly
by the IRS has been used to target certain groups who dare to criticize our government. Non-profit
groups with names including words like "Tea Party," "patriot," and "conservative," were deliberately singled out
for endless bureaucratic foot dragging while more liberal organizations passed inspection with ease. The IRS
scandal is possibly an even worse case of this administration's abuse of its own citizens than the NSA scandal.
Joe Average citizen, you not only have reason to fear and distrust the NSA's invasion of your personal life for who
knows what obscure reasons. You also have cause to fear and distrust the IRS because you now know you may be
targeted for your political and/or religious beliefs.
And another:
IRS:
abuse and cover. First the agency lost whole troves of emails from disgraced former apparatchik Lois Lerner — emails
that would have shed light on her role in the ongoing scandal over the targeting of conservative groups by the agency. Then, on a
recent Friday afternoon (of course), the agency admitted it also could not find emails from several others connected to the scandal.
The disappearances are extremely convenient — especially because the IRS is being treated under a different standard than the
one it uses to treats taxpayers. Lerner and others will face no serious legal consequences without hard evidence of guilt —
evidence that has now vanished into the ether. But taxpayers who find themselves in a dispute with the IRS are presumed to be in the
wrong until they can produce hard evidence to prove otherwise.
Maybe just one or two more...
How
Civilizations Collapse — Is U.S. Next? Who will police the tax police?
Former IRS official Lois Lerner and her subordinates were found to have targeted conservative
nonprofit groups for excessive federal scrutiny. While testifying before Congress, Lerner invoked
her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and investigators later found that two years
of her emails had gone missing in a mysterious computer crash. Lerner has not been charged.
The Poisonous
Obama Years. Artful" Nixonian abuses of the IRS in order to intimidate and tarnish the reputations of political
opponents were once a Republican phenomenon. Today, yet another simmering scandal involving the misuse of the IRS has
ensnared Democrats. As such, it is dismissed as a non-issue by the left and partisans in the press. Americans recently
learned that, like Clinton, Lerner conducted official business via a private email account where she went by the name "Toby Miles."
The emails sent via that account are among the hundreds that have been shielded from congressional investigators, but those that have
been recovered reflect a searing disdain for conservatives against whom Lerner has been accused of conspiring to limit their ability
to participate in civic affairs. "Citizens United is by far the worst thing that has ever happened to this country," Lerner,
who has been accused of targeting conservative political action committees with undue scrutiny, wrote. "We are witnessing the
end of 'America.'" Motive and opportunity having been established, we are told that there is nothing to see here. You're
just being paranoid.
Lois
Lerner claimed ignorance of tea party in secret deposition. Lois Lerner claimed to
have little knowledge of the tea party movement and what it stood for, even as she oversaw the
IRS's intrusive scrutiny of tea party groups' applications for nonprofit status, according to newly
released transcripts of a long-secret deposition she gave. In her 2017 testimony, given in a
class-action lawsuit brought by tea party groups that the IRS admitted were wrongly treated,
Ms. Lerner portrayed herself as a cog in the machine, trying to figure out how to process
cases efficiently, rather than the anti-conservative crusader her private comments suggested.
She brushed aside her email to colleagues about joining a pro-Obama group ahead of the 2012
election as "a joke" and defended venomous remarks about the Republican Party. She said she
made the remarks in her personal capacity and didn't infect her official work. "Mistakes being
made in cases do not translate into IRS is politically motivated," she said in the
deposition. Ms. Lerner told Edward Greim, the lawyer who deposed her, that she "knew
there was a tea party movement" and had a vague sense that it was conservative, but didn't know
anything else.
Liberals
Still Think Obama Was the 'Best President Ever,' Here Are 14 Reasons Why That's Ridiculous. [#1] Unprecedented
abuse of power. Amazingly, liberals still pretend the IRS didn't improperly target conservative and tea party groups,
even though Lois Lerner, the former director of the IRS Exempt Organizations division at the time, admitted it
happened! Not only were tea party groups improperly targeted, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch, but
the whole scheme was orchestrated out of Washington, D.C. There was also evidence of White House involvement. IRS
Commissioner Douglas Shulman was at the White House at least 157 times while the IRS was targeting tea party groups.
Even Obama's cabinet members didn't visit the White House that often. Some IRS employees even claimed that Obama himself
requested the crackdown on tea party groups. There was certainly ample reason to suspect coordination with the White
House. The IRS was also exchanging confidential taxpayer information with the White House the year Obama and Biden were
reelected. According to a scholarly study conducted by the American Enterprise Institute, suppression of the Tea Party
movement by Obama's IRS helped him get reelected.
Obama
administration was corrupt, more and more evidence reveals daily. The abuse of power started to become clear
when it was revealed the Internal Revenue Service was biased against conservatives. I still don't understand why that
woman is not in jail. She sat there and lied to the American people and to Congress with no accountability.
Mr. Obama used the agencies, and the awesome power of the federal government, against his political enemies. He
used the power of the state against those he didn't like. This was full-on banana republic dictator kind of stuff.
Obama Stole
an Election, Not Trump. [Scroll down] It's long been noted that anytime Democrats accuse Trump or
Republicans of something, it's the Democrats who are actually guilty of it. A scholarly study conducted by the American
Enterprise Institute concluded that suppression of the Tea Party movement by Obama's IRS helped him get reelected. [...] The
effectiveness of the Tea Party, combined with Obama's relatively small margin of victory in key swing states, suggests that
the IRS's suppression of the Tea Party movement likely tipped the scales in favor of Obama. "Had the Tea Party repeated
and built on their activism of 2009 and 2010 in 2011 and 2012, Obama would have lost the election. What happened to the
Tea Party boost? It didn't grow from 2010. It appeared to weaken," Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform wrote
in his book, End The IRS Before It Ends Us. "The Tea Party didn't fall down the stairs. It was pushed."
Lyin'
Biden: Not a 'hint of a scandal' during Obama administration? Please! In 2013, the Internal Revenue
Service targeted conservative political groups, many connected to the tea party movement, applying for tax-exempt
status. Judicial Watch, a watchdog group, secured documents showing that the handling of tea party applications was
directed out of the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C. "The documents also show extensive pressure on the IRS by
Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) to shut down conservative-leaning tax-exempt organizations. The IRS' emails by [Director]
Lois Lerner detail her misleading explanations to investigators about the targeting of Tea Party organizations," the group
wrote. Those documents also showed IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman visited the White House nearly 160 times
while the IRS was actively targeting tea party groups.
Fitton:
John McCain staffer Henry Kerner nows runs anti-Trump Office of Special Counsel. Judicial Watch today
[6/14/2019] released newly obtained internal IRS documents, including material revealing that Sen. John McCain's former
staff director and chief counsel on the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee, Henry Kerner, urged top IRS
officials, including then-director of exempt organizations Lois Lerner, to "audit so many that it becomes financially
ruinous." Kerner was appointed by President Trump as Special Counsel for the United States Office of Special Counsel.
The explosive exchange was contained in notes taken by IRS employees at an April 30, 2013, meeting between Kerner, Lerner,
and other high-ranking IRS officials. Just ten days following the meeting, former IRS director of exempt organizations
Lois Lerner admitted that the IRS had a policy of improperly and deliberately delaying applications for tax-exempt status
from conservative non-profit groups.
Conservative
Groups Targeted in Lois Lerner's IRS Scandal Receive Settlement Checks. Dozens of conservative organizations
are receiving late Christmas presents years after the IRS handed them a lump of coal. The federal government in recent
days has been issuing settlement checks to 100 right-of-center groups wrongfully targeted for their political beliefs under
the Obama administration's Internal Revenue Service, according to an attorney for the firm that represented plaintiffs in
NorCal v. United States. Three of the claimants in the $3.5 million national class-action suit are based in
the Badger State.
America
in Throes of a Bloodless Revolution. I'm firmly convinced in my heart that America has been, and still is, in
the throes of a bloodless revolution, an attempt by some to subvert government agencies and resources to take away individual
privacy; to create an unbeatable voting base; to regulate medical care, education, media coverage, and gun control; and to
take authority over every aspect of life in America. When it was brought to light a couple of years ago that the
Internal Revenue Service had been subverted and used against right-wing political activist groups, Congress was all a
titter. Lois Lerner plead the Fifth, and for all intents and purposes, that was the end of it. Although the
Republicans control both houses of Congress, neither body has undertaken the task of digging out the rot amongst the rank
and file and identifying the upper echelon who ordered it.
Tea
party groups get revenge against IRS as judge approves $3.5 million payout. A judge late Wednesday [8/8/2018]
signed off on the settlement between the IRS and hundreds of tea party groups, closing out the last major legal battle over
what all sides now agree was unwarranted and illegal targeting for political purposes. The IRS agreed to pay
$3.5 million to groups that were wronged by the intrusive inspections, and insists it's made changes so that political
targeting can't occur in the future.
Six
Reasons Why Barack Obama Is the Worst President in History. [#6] Weaponizing the government against his
enemies: Perhaps the most well-known example of the Obama administration abusing its power to target Obama's political
enemies is the infamous IRS scandal. Over a two-year period leading up to the 2012 election, tea party groups and other
conservatives were improperly scrutinized by the IRS. Twelve different IRS offices across the country were involved and the
entire operation was orchestrated out of Washington, D.C., and there was also evidence of White House involvement. The
IRS also targeted private individuals critical of Obama, GOP candidates, and Romney donors. There are also examples of
conservative individuals being targeted as the result of gross abuse of power by the Obama administration. Conservative
author Dinesh D'Souza was indicted for campaign finance violations for a crime typically not prosecuted at all.
James O'Keefe of Project Veritas was put on a terrorism watchlist after a video was released of him dressed as a terrorist
crossing back and forth over the U.S./Mexico border to demonstrate the lack of border security.
Judge
Awards $3.5 Million Settlement to Tea Party Groups for Obama IRS Targeting Scandal. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen
testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform on March 26, 2014. Koskinen told Rep. Jason Chaffetz
(R-UT) during the hearing that Lois Lerner's emails were archived and it would take a long time to retrieve them. In
June 2014 the IRS told Congress Lois Lerner's emails were lost in a computer crash. But thousands of emails were later
recovered by an Inspector General that were not previously produced for Congress. The IRS leadership was targeting
conservatives and lying about it to Congress. The emails confirmed Lerner funneled information on conservative groups
to at least one Democratic lawmaker. The Obama DOJ later dropped charges against Lois Lerner. She retired with
full benefits.
Here are 1,366 well
sourced examples of Barack Obama's lies, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, hypocrisy, waste, etc.. [#170]
In May 2013, the Washington Post reported that the IRS had illegally targeted conservative groups for additional reviews.
Organizations with the words "tea party" or "patriot" were singled out for harassment, such as requiring them to provide a list
of donors, details about their internet postings on social networking websites, and information about their family members.
When this was first reported by the media in May 2013, Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that had conducted these illegal
activities, claimed that only low level employees had known about it, and that no high level IRS officials had known about it.
However, soon afterward, NPR reported that an Inspector General report showed that Lerner had been lying, and that she herself had
actually been aware of it since June 29, 2011.
Mueller
Worked with Lerner to Target Tea Party. Just when you thought the Deep State swamp couldn't get any murkier and the stench
any more repugnant, we are reminded by Judicial Watch's Tom Fitton in a Feb. 13 tweet of how Robert Mueller's FBI worked with Lois
Lerner's IRS to target Tea Party and other groups in the run-up to the Obama re-election campaign: [...] The treasure trove of documents
detailing the weaponizing of powerful government agencies, including Mueller's FBI, by the Obama administration to target the Tea Party
was obtained by Judicial Watch as a result of court orders stemming from Freedom of Information Act lawsuits after the political targeting
of the Tea Party.
An
emerging police state that spies on Americans? The left yawns. Ever since the McCarthy era, hasn't it
been a cultural norm from the left to holler about the U.S. becoming a police state? A police state that spies on
innocent Americans? [... But then] We had the Internal Revenue Service spying on and repressing internal dissidents, which
were not people who sought to harm us, as the left's heroes did, but who called themselves the 'Tea Party' and campaigned for
lower government spending. The IRS and its minions such as the notorious Lois Lerner, who looks every bit like the
warden she was, spied away, admitted their political motivation, and got off scot-free, retiring to their multi-million-dollar
beltway manions as their reward. And from the principled left? Silence.
Holder:
DoJ wrong to apologize to tea party groups for IRS targeting. [Eric] Holder said yesterday [2/7/2018] that
apologizing to tea party groups for being targeted by the IRS for their political beliefs was "unnecessary, unfounded and
inconsistent" with the responsibilities of someone who wants to lead the Justice Department. [...] Two federal judges
specifically accused the IRS of targeting conservative groups based on their ideology. If that doesn't warrant an
apology from government, what does?
Heads Must Roll Or The Deep State Wins Again.
In the IRS targeting case, there was a well-planned politically motivated government conspiracy to deprive the targets of
their rights and constitutional protections. When the plan was uncovered there were denials, destruction of evidence,
stonewalling and orchestrated media attacks against the victims. Finally, when the evidence of government wrongdoing
became incontrovertible the perpetrators, such as IRS official Lois Lerner, were allowed to retire with full benefits or
moved on to lucrative careers in the private sector. None of the miscreants faced justice or even acknowledged their
wrongdoing. We now see the same scenario playing out again in the treatment of those who signed the spurious FISA
warrant applications.
Pro-Israel
Group Sues IRS, Exposes Obama Admin's Anti-Israel Stance. The reality is that under Obama's IRS, Islamic groups
with ties to terrorists had no trouble getting a tax-exempt status, groups such as Gaza's Hope, Friends of Al-Rowwad USA Inc,
American Charities for Palestine, and Institute for Palestine Studies USA Inc. But Z Street, founded in 2009, to
"educate Americans about the Middle East and Israel's defense against terror," did not receive the tax-exempt status.
Why? Because the IRS determined that Israel was "a country with terrorists" and they needed to investigate if Z Street
was "funding terrorism." When Z Street mounted a lawsuit, IRS froze their application. Finally, Z Street
has now won their lawsuit, and Obama's anti-Zionism has been revealed.
The wrong
side of Z Street. If there was a federal agency that Barack Obama did not corrupt, it must be because it was
corrupt when he took over in 2009. The corruption of the IRS is a case in point. Its criminal misconduct perfectly
represents what Obama wrought in the agencies that he charged with dictating the way we live. Consider the case of Lori
Lowenthal Marcus and Z Street. Z Street is Lori's pro-Israel group. It had its application for tax-exempt
status held up at the IRS for seven years. When Lori asked why, she was told that IRS auditors had been
instructed to give pro-Israel groups special attention and that Z Street's application had been forwarded to a special IRS
unit for additional review. Not to put too fine a point on the legal issues, this wasn't kosher. It's illegal.
IRS
finally admits it targeted Israel-related groups, apologizes. Readers are familiar with the IRS targeting of
Tea Party and conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. But there has been another targeting story percolating
through the court system that has received little attention, until now. The IRS also targeted groups related to
Israel. The facts came to light in a litigation brought by Z Street, which waited 6 years for approval.
Lois
Lerner: 'Exceedingly low' public interest in her IRS testimony. Former IRS senior executive Lois G. Lerner told
a federal court last week that there's "no legitimate" reason why the public should see her testimony about her role in tea
party targeting, pleading with a judge to keep her deposition permanently sealed. Ms. Lerner and her former chief
lieutenant, Holly Paz, have said they faced death threats in the past, and say they fear any more attention to their behavior
would spur a new round of harassment. They said there's "exceedingly low" public interest in having their depositions
released, and they said tea party groups are pushing for disclosure out of "spite."
Former
IRS Head Lois Lerner Wants Testimony Sealed Permanently. While she was director of the Internal Revenue
Service, Lois Lerner targeted conservative Tea Party groups by denying or delaying tax-exempt status due to their political
leanings in opposition to the Obama administration. That is fact. The IRS admitted wrong-doing in this stunning
"apology": "The IRS 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. For such treatment, the IRS expresses its sincere apology."
The Tea Party
settlement. Finally, after four and a half years, harassment of conservative groups by the Obama IRS is put to
rest, with the media downplaying the story. A William McGurn column in the Wall Street Journal, November 21, stated
that IRS-Tea Party litigation had been settled. A New York Times story on October 27, 2017 reported that the government,
in one lawsuit involving 428 groups, "agreed to a multimillion-dollar settlement," and that, in a second lawsuit comprising
41 groups, damages will not be paid, "but the I.R.S. acknowledged its conduct was wrong." It is not clear why the matter
dragged on four and a half years.
The Editor says...
On the contrary, of course it's "clear why the matter dragged on" so long. It's because Barack H. Obama was
in the White House until almost a year ago and he had the whole issue stonewalled.
Lock Up Lois
Lerner. Only the lawless Lois Lerner would feel threatened by legal proceedings initiated by her abuse of
government power. Calling her and her IRS co-conspirators "criminal thugs" is not a threat but an understatement.
What she fears is not violence but that the truth about her crimes, what she did and what she got away with, will be finally
and fully known and that she would no longer be able to hide behind a bogus and fraudulent Fifth Amendment pleading before
Congress. Critics were given reason to doubt the seriousness of President Trump's promise to "drain the swamp" after
his Department of Justice's decision to give one of D.C.'s swamp things a get out of jail free and not charge former IRS
official Lois Lerner in the Tea Party targeting scandal. Based on the available evidence, Lois Lerner should have been
measured for an orange jump suit a long time ago.
Lois
Lerner: Poster Child for Public Corruption. Well, isn't that rich? Lois Lerner, who almost
single-handedly weaponized the IRS, turning it into a bludgeon to be used against Tea Party and other groups in the 2012
reelection campaign of Barack Obama, now wants to be protected against threats and intimidation from the groups and people
she helped threaten and intimidate: Former IRS official Lois Lerner and her deputy are asking a federal court to keep
their testimonies in the Tea Party targeting case private forever, over fear of death threats and potential harm to their
families if the documents go public. Lerner and her deputy Holly Paz filed a motion last Thursday to keep the
materials — including tapes and transcripts of their depositions — sealed due to threats they have
received in the past.
Lois
Lerner trying to get IRS testimony sealed permanently because it would ENRAGE the public. The American public
has a right to know exactly what happened and if it's so bad that she feels it would put her family at risk, then she needs
to pay for personal protection to keep that from happening. She shouldn't be allowed to hide behind this notion that
she would be in harm's way if the testimony is revealed. While there might be some truth to her fears, she isn't the
first to be threatened because of something other people don't like.
Lerner,
Paz say they fear physical harm from enraged public, want IRS testimony sealed permanently. Former IRS
executive Lois G. Lerner told a federal court last week that members of her family, including "young children," face death
threats and a real risk of physical harm if her explanation of the tea party targeting scandal becomes public.
Ms. Lerner and Holly Paz, her deputy at the IRS, filed documents in court Thursday saying tapes and transcripts of
depositions they gave in a court case this year must remain sealed in perpetuity, or else they could spur an enraged public
to retaliate. "Whenever Mss. Lerner and Paz have been in the media spotlight, they have faced death threats and
harassment," attorneys for the two women argued.
Feds
to pay 'generous' settlement to tea party groups for targeting. The government apologized Thursday [10/26/2017]
for illegally targeting tea party groups for intrusive scrutiny and agreed to settlements with hundreds of organizations
snared in the targeting, bringing to a close one of the more embarrassing episodes of the Obama administration.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the IRS owed the groups an apology after years of poor treatment and even longer refusal
to concede bad behavior. He placed blame on "the last administration," saying the targeting that went on under
President Obama "was wrong and should never have occurred."
IRS
agent's email says groups were targeted 'primarily because of their political party affiliation'. Lawyers think
they have finally found the smoking gun in the IRS's tea party targeting scandal: an email from an IRS agent to her
supervisors alerting them that the agency was, in fact, singling out some groups' applications for extreme scrutiny
"primarily because of their political party affiliation." The email was released last month as part of a massive
document dump in a class-action lawsuit filed in Ohio by hundreds of conservative groups who were targeted for extra review
and intrusive questioning. It contradicts the IRS's official stance over the years contending that conservative groups
were wrongly scrutinized, but it was a result of their behavior, not their politics.
The
left's crowing that Lois Lerner's IRS targeted evenhandedly all along rings hollow. Collective guilt assuaged,
the left is now crowing that the IRS was even-handed all along in its targeting of tax-exempt groups for political harassment
under the Obama administration. It wasn't just the Tea Party; it was plenty of leftist groups, too — so the
claim goes, and it was made a few years ago without much merit. Now, with a new Treasury Department report out, I still
don't buy it. One good example of this thinking is from the Washington Post's Paul Farhi, who would have you
think, hyuk hyuk, in his vaguely patronizing accusation, that the mea culpas now belong on the side of the people
who didn't like what the IRS really had been caught doing.
Lois
Lerner and Non-Conspiracy Conspiracy. On Friday, September 8, 2017 — just before the weekend —
the DOJ announced that it would not prosecute Lois Lerner for her part in the IRS-Tea Party scandal. Evidence of Lerner's guilt
is overwhelming. [...] Yet the DOJ letter, signed by a Stephen E. Boyd, claims that after having reviewed the matter, that
"reopening the investigation would not be appropriate based on the available evidence," specifically focusing on the lack of
evidence of intent to discriminate.
The Unaccountable
IRS. To understand the pragmatic realities of federal governance in the 21st century, one must recognize the
existence of a fourth branch of government: the administrative state. We have some two million federal bureaucrats
with extraconstitutional legislative powers. Not only do they write the reams of regulations that order our lives, they have
the authority to enforce them capriciously. And thanks to absurd civil service protections, it is exceedingly difficult to
hold them accountable for abuses of power, even when Congress demands it. Of course, you can't censure federal bureaucrats
for their crimes if you don't even try. On September 8, Donald Trump's Justice Department announced it would not be
reopening an investigation into the conduct of Lois Lerner, the IRS official responsible for targeting and harassing conservative
groups in the 2010 and 2012 elections.
Before
Lois Lerner Targeted The Tea Party, She Helped The Clinton Foundation. Six years before she became the central
figure in the IRS's illegal targeting of Tea Party tax-exemption applicants, Lois Lerner cleared the way for the Clinton
Foundation's transformation from building a presidential library to being a $2 billion global political influence peddling
machine, according to documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation's Investigative Group. She helped
accomplish this feat through a 2007 letter on two legal issues of such magnitude that it's unlikely the Clinton nonprofit
could have become what it is in 2017, 20 years after its creation. The first issue concerned an otherwise innocuous
sounding merger of two nonprofits, while the second issue centered around an unprecedented expansion of the foundation's
activities far beyond its tax-exempt mission.
Tax
Day Justice: DOJ Investigation of Lois Lerner Called for by Ways and Means Chairman. The chairman of the
powerful House Ways and Means Committee called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to review evidence that Lois Lerner "broke
the law to target Americans for their political beliefs." The request comes after the DOJ refused, under the Obama
Administration's leadership, to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by the former IRS Exempt Organizations Division
director. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX), joined by Tax Police Subcommittee Chairman Peter Roskam
(R-IL), sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions requesting an investigation into allegations that Lerner used
her division's power to target American citizens' applications for non-profit status, or political action committees, based
upon the citizen's political beliefs.
Lois
Lerner demands secrecy in tea party targeting lawsuit testimony. The IRS manager most directly responsible for
the targeting of tea party groups has demanded that her deposition for an upcoiming class action lawsuit related to the
scandal be kept secret. Lois Lerner, former head of the tax exempt department at the IRS, claims that she has received
death threats in the past and fears that publicity surrounding her deposition will lead to similar threats.
Lois
Lerner demands secrecy, blames death threats over IRS tea party targeting. Former IRS senior executive Lois G.
Lerner told a federal court this week that she faces the possibility of death threats if her role in the tax agency's tea
party-targeting becomes public, and asked a judge to forever seal her upcoming deposition in a class-action lawsuit brought
by hundreds of groups that were targeted. Mr. Lerner and Holly Paz, another figure from the IRS tea party
targeting, told the judge they've already faced "harassment and death threats" before, and said they fear another media
firestorm if their version of events from the tea party targeting were to become public. The two women said they are
willing to testify, but said they could be putting "their lives in serious jeopardy."
IRS
chief: Officials who deleted Lois Lerner emails were not fired. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said
Wednesday the two unnamed employees who destroyed thousands of emails belonging to Lois Lerner, former head of the tax-exempt
unit, kept their jobs at the agency. During his impeachment hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, Koskinen said
the two officials had committed an "honest mistake" by wiping 422 back-up tapes believed to contain Lerner's emails in 2014.
The emails had been requested under a congressional subpoena during the investigation into the Internal Revenue Service's targeting
of conservative groups. "The IG's investigation found that they were not aware" of the subpoena, Koskinen said of the
employees who scrubbed Lerner's records.
IRS
Employees Erased 422 Backup Tapes Containing 24,000 of Lois Lerner's Emails. Investigators at the Internal
Revenue Service are looking to agency employees as the reason thousands of emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner were
lost, and the agency's watchdog said today their actions were a mistake. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Administration (TIGTA) J. Russell George testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and told
lawmakers IRS employees erased 422 backup tapes that housed 24,000 emails sent to and from Lerner. Employees erased the
contents of the tapes just a month after IRS officials were told that thousands of Lerner's emails were missing because of a
hard drive crash.
The IRS Deleted
422 Backup Tapes With Lerner Emails. The IRS "accidentally" erased 422 backup tapes that investigators believe
contained emails to and from IRS official Lois Lerner, according to the Associated Press. The tapes contained as many
as 24,000 Lois Lerner emails. The tapes were erased eight months after Congressional investigators requested all emails
to and from Lois Lerner and a month after the IRS informed Congress they were missing some of Lois Lerner's emails.
We
Are a Fish, Rotting From the Head. The IRS scandal would have sunk a Republican administration, perhaps leading
to impeachment. But the Democratic press is in on the joke, and the Obama administration is set to run out the clock in
its usual fashion.
IRS
Employee Admits He Would Go After, Target, and Try to End Conservative Groups. A self-identified IRS employee admitted
he would go after, target and try to end conservative groups who wanted to abolish the IRS, to Cleta Mitchell, an attorney representing
those groups, on a Washington Journal segment on C-SPAN. Mitchell, a political law attorney who has represented conservative groups
during the IRS targeting scandal since 2010, was a guest on C-SPAN to discuss the possible impeachment of the IRS commissioner John
Koskinen. The first caller was a self-identified IRS employee who said he would go after the groups Mitchell represents if their
goal was to abolish the IRS.
House
investigator calls for IRS chief to be censured over Lois Lerner emails. The House's chief investigator introduced a
resolution Wednesday [5/18/2016] censuring IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and calling for him to resign or be fired, saying he misled
Congress and even tried to thwart a subpoena seeking former agency employee Lois G. Lerner's emails. Rep. Jason Chaffetz,
chairman of the House Oversight Committee, announced the resolution ahead of a hearing next week in the Judiciary Committee, which is
exploring what steps Congress should take toward Mr. Koskinen. Mr. Chaffetz said censure was the first step on the path
toward impeachment, serving as an official condemnation. Impeachment is still very unlikely, particularly given the short amount
of work days left in this Congress and in the Obama administration's tenure overall.
Appeals
Court issues nightmare decision for Lois Lerner and the IRS. The wheels of justice slowly have been turning,
and those of us who feared that Lois Lerner and the IRS would get off scot-free despite their lawless targeting of Tea Party
groups have something to celebrate. And Lois Lerner may have had a troubled sleep last night if she was paying attention
instead of enjoying her six-figure pension with leisure activities. An appeals court judge in the Sixth Circuit has
delivered a blistering rebuke to both the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department attorneys that have defended it
in behalf of a unanimous three-judge panel. As a result, officials current and former will be forced to testify
under oath for their misdeeds in a civil action with big bucks at stake.
It's
Been 513 Days Since Any Big 3 Network Has Touched the IRS Scandal. The latest stunning development in the IRS
targeting scandal, that a federal appeals court on Tuesday scolded the IRS for failing to turn over its full list of groups
it targeted, has yet to be reported on any of the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) network evening or morning shows. However,
as NewsBusters' Scott Whitlock reported, all three networks on Thursday found time to gush over Barack Obama's "fancy footwork"
and "dancing diplomacy" in Argentina. In fact, it's been 513 days since any network has touched the IRS scandal.
Washington's
culture of corruption rots on. Last week saw the passage of a grim milestone in government corruption: Pepperdine University
Law Professor Paul Caron's TaxProf blog marked the 1000th day of the scandal involving the IRS's deliberate political targeting of conservative
"Tea Party" groups. There are some lessons in this, and they're mostly bad news. The first sad lesson is that the notion of an impartial,
professional civil service is a fiction. The big government designs of Democrats and the federal bureaucracy are aligned, and the bureaucracy
often deploys its powers in ways calculated to frustrate Republican presidents and to protect Democratic ones.
A Pattern Of Executive
Overreach. Recently, the Justice Department announced it would not be indicting anyone for their role in the most
serious domestic political scandal since the Nixon years. Starting in 2010, the IRS, under pressure from congressional
Democrats and the White House, engaged in blatant ideologically motivated discrimination against conservative organizations
applying for non-profit status. That the most feared bureaucracy in Washington was making decisions based on illegal
political criteria should send a chill down the spine of any American who cares about the First Amendment and the rule of law.
Cruz
to DOJ: Preserve Every Record Related to the IRS Scandal, Eh, For the Next Administration. Or Else. Yesterday,
Cruz sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch suggesting that it would be in the administration's best interests to preserve
all IRS records for the next administration. The request came after the DOJ covered up
closed its investigation into political targeting of conservative and pro-Israel groups by the IRS.
Cruz
asks feds to save documents in IRS probe. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wants the Justice Department to save
documents related to its two-year investigation of allegations that the IRS targeted conservative groups. "This
Administration's recent announcement ... has finally made it abundantly clear that the responsibility of ensuring a thorough,
fair, and impartial investigation of IRS employees and their potential criminal conduct will fall to the next presidential
administration, and relevant materials must be protected accordingly," Cruz, who is running for president, wrote in a letter
to Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Imprisonment,
Not Impeachment: What Rogue IRS Commissioner John Koskinen Really Deserves. The introduction of a resolution to
impeach IRS commissioner John Koskinen should come as no surprise considering the lawlessness of the Obama administration and
its use of the IRS to bludgeon its political opponents and the refusal by the DOJ to prosecute Lois Lerner for her political
targeting of the Tea Party and other conservative political groups, as well as her destruction of evidence. The resolution,
introduced by House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Rep. James Jordan (R-OH) and 18 other committee members,
accuses Koskinen of making false statements under oath, failing to comply with a subpoena, and failing to notify Congress
that key evidence was missing or destroyed.
A Good Start. On October 27, the House of Representatives
moved to impeach the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, John Koskinen. It may seem odd that Koskinen is being punished since he wasn't
commissioner when the IRS scandal broke two years ago. But make no mistake, Koskinen is a worthy candidate for impeachment.
Judicial
Watch Statement on Obama Justice Department Decision to Close Obama IRS Investigation. Judicial Watch's
independent litigation proved the Obama IRS obstructed justice and destroyed evidence. And we uncovered that the IRS and
Lois Lerner conspired with the Justice Department and FBI on a plan to jail the very Americans the IRS was illegally suppressing.
In fact, Justice Department lawyers recently admitted in federal court that the IRS watchdog is still digging through IRS backup tapes
and has no idea when the search will be complete. This same Justice Department decides it can shut down an investigation before
it has all the evidence?
DOJ Lets Lois Lerner, IRS Off the
Hook. It was a foregone conclusion, but the Obama Administration's right hand just couldn't find anything wrong with what the left
hand did, even if it was designed to help the president win a second term by targeting his political opponents. The Department of so-called
Justice announced Friday that Lois Lerner and other IRS managers will not face any charges after singling out for harassment conservative groups
that applied for nonprofit status leading up to the 2012 election.
The
House Mobilizes Against A Rogue Agency — The IRS. After nearly a decade of unaccountable government,
including the unprecedented emergence of banana-republic state impunity in targeting dissidents, it seems a train brake has
finally been pulled. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has voted to impeach John Koskinen, the IRS
commissioner whose abuses of power have been arguably the worst in the entire Obama era. The IRS not only targeted tea
party and other conservative groups on political grounds with a whole array of harassment, it also thumbed its nose at lawful
orders to cooperate in an inquiry from its own overseers.
Kostiken
should be Imprisoned, not Just Impeached. The introduction of a resolution to impeach IRS commissioner John
Koskinen should comes as no surprise considering the lawlessness of the Obama administration and its use of the IRS to
bludgeon its political opponents and the refusal by the DOJ to prosecute Lois Lerner for her political targeting of the Tea
Party and other conservative political groups, as well as her destruction of evidence. The resolution, introduced by
House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Rep. James Jordan (R-OH) and 18 other committee members, accuses Koskinen
of making false statements under oath, failing to comply with a subpoena, and failing to notify Congress that key evidence was
missing or destroyed.
Yes, the IRS chief has earned
impeachment. If you responded to an IRS audit the way [John] Koskinen's IRS has behaved, you'd be looking at huge penalties
and maybe prison time. He waited months to tell the IRS that an "accident" had destroyed the e-mail records of Lois Lerner, the
woman at the scandal's heart. Indeed, he made no real effort to secure those e-mails, despite a subpoena — allowing key
backups to be destroyed. Then he nonchalantly testified that Lerner's e-mails were all gone forever — and then showed
not a hint of shame after an inspector general came up with thousands of them.
GOP Moves to Impeach IRS Chief. Federal
investigators are done with former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner, but House Republicans are not finished with the
IRS. House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and 18 other committee members introduced a resolution on
Tuesday [10/27/2015] to begin impeachment proceedings against IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.
Impeachment drags IRS scandal into the spotlight. Just
days after former IRS official Lois Lerner escaped criminal charges from the Department of Justice, Republicans in Congress moved to
impeach the head of the tax agency for his role in trying to cover up the misconduct that landed Lerner under investigation.
The impeachment resolution, brought Tuesday [10/27/2015] by members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, capped off
a week that saw the embattled tax agency back under fire for a scandal that surfaced more than two years ago.
IRS
chief faces Senate grilling over Tea Party targeting. Members of the Senate Finance Committee blasted the head
of the Internal Revenue Service Tuesday [10/27/2015] for problems still lingering within the agency more than two years after
the targeting controversy came to light. Commissioner John Koskinen denied suggestions that the IRS had ever scrutinized
conservative groups for political reasons, citing the Justice Department's decision last week to close its investigation without
pressing criminal charges.
House
Republicans introduce measure to impeach IRS Commissioner Koskinen. House Republicans on Tuesday [10/27/2015] introduced a
resolution to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, accusing him of making "false statements" under oath and failing to comply with a
subpoena for evidence. House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and 18 other committee members introduced
the resolution to begin impeachment proceedings. In doing so, they followed through on a threat first made over the summer, when
Republicans accused the IRS leader of making inaccurate statements to Congress regarding the Tea Party targeting scandal and its aftermath.
Lois Lerner and the Rule of Lawlessness.
In a Friday news dump, Obama's Justice Department announced that following its "investigation," Lois Lerner will not be charged for any wrongdoing in the
case of the IRS' targeting of conservative organizations. The law, apparently, is only meant for little people. [...] Tellingly, the Committee
concluded that: "The IRS's treatment of these organizations was almost universally consistent with Lerner's personal political views —
this is, supporting Democratic candidates and opposing conservative tax-exempt organizations that engaged in political speech. Conservative
organizations that sought to participate in the nation's political discourse, such as the Tea Party, drew the strongest ire from Lerner."
Tea party targeting
accusations, legal issues persist for IRS after Justice ends probe. The IRS is still holding up the nonprofit applications
of tea party groups, including one that has been waiting nearly six years for approval, as conservatives panned the Justice Department's
announcement last week that it had cleared the tax agency, and former senior executive Lois G. Lerner, of any wrongdoing. The
Obama administration's decision, outlined in a Friday afternoon [10/23/2015] letter to Congress, said the IRS did mishandle nonprofit status
applications from conservative groups but said the bad behavior wasn't criminal.
The FBI & Hillary's e-mails: A Lois Lerner precedent?
The fix was in: Lois Lerner will walk away scot-free. On Friday, the Justice Department closed its two-year investigation into the Internal Revenue Service
targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status and decided to charge ... no one. This, when Lerner admitted the IRS had singled out righty
groups, but blamed the "absolutely inappropriate" actions on "front-line people" — that is, lower-level folks. And then refused to answer more questions
by pleading the Fifth. Questions about, say, her orders to hold up applications from any outfit with "Tea Party" or "patriot" in its name.
Rep.
Jim Jordan: 'Flat Out Wrong' Not to Bring Criminal Charges Against Lois Lerner. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), head of the
conservative Freedom Caucus and a member of the House Oversight committee, says he strongly disagrees with the Justice Department's
decision not to bring criminal charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner for impeding conservative groups seeking tax-exempt
status. "That is just flat out wrong, in my judgment," Jordan told "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace. "Here's a lady
who systematically and for a sustained period of time targeted people for exercising their most fundamental rights, their First
Amendment free speech rights.
Citizens
are no longer equal under Obama. Disgraced former IRS chief Lois Lerner is enjoying her "Get Out of Jail Free" card care of the
Obama administration. Who's surprised she won't face charges given the fact that most Americans believe the White House was in on
allegations the IRS targeted Tea Party and conservative groups applying for nonprofit status? It gets worse. During the
"investigation," IRS head John Koskinen stonewalled big time, refusing to provide Congress with information including Lerner's "missing"
emails. Sound familiar?
Justice Department Lets
Lois Lerner Off The Hook. The Justice Department will not seek criminal charges against former IRS official
Lois Lerner for her role in targeting conservative non-profits groups, CNN is reporting. The investigation into Lerner's
and the IRS' handling of conservative groups' tax-exempt applications uncovered substantial mismanagement and poor judgment,
but none of it rose to the criminal level, according to the letter, which Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik sent to
members of Congress on Friday [10/23/2015].
Justice
Department: No criminal charges for Lerner, others in IRS scandal. The Justice Department announced Friday afternoon
[10/23/2015] that it will not bring criminal charges against Lois Lerner or any other IRS official involved in the targeting of
Tea Party groups, in a decision Republicans ripped as a "free pass." In a letter to leaders of the House Judiciary Committee,
the department said the investigation into the controversy will be closed — and while they found "mismanagement, poor
judgment and institutional inertia," they found "no evidence that would support a criminal prosecution."
Networks
Censor Justice Department Ending Probe Into IRS Scandal. ABC, CBS, and NBC's evening newscasts on Friday [10/23/2015] all
failed to cover the Justice Department announcing that it would be ending its investigation into the IRS's targeting of conservative
groups. The Big Three networks' news program did find time to air reporting on the top Google searches for Halloween costumes,
the fewer number of turkeys available for upcoming Thanksgiving dinners, and the controversy over the first bear hunt in Florida in
20 years.
GOP outraged as Lois Lerner
escapes. Republicans on Friday [10/23/2015] were outraged by the announcement that former IRS official Lois Lerner will not
face any charges for her role in the scandal involving her agency's decision to slow-walk decisions about the tax-exempt status of conservative
groups. [...] The federal government is thus closing its nearly two-year inquiry into the matter without charging anyone.
IRS'
Lois Lerner Skates; An Ugly Precedent Is Set. Is there anyone out there subject to an Internal Revenue Service audit
or a multiyear delay in approval for tax-exempt status who won't be concerned that the process is politically rigged against them?
That's the message the Justice Department sent when, in a classic Friday night news dump, it decided to not file charges against IRS
tax-exempt groups chief Lois Lerner. In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, Justice said that while it found "mismanagement,
poor judgment and inertia," there was no case for a criminal prosecution.
Government Investigation Tricks or
Treats. As reported at National Review, "Before Lois Lerner was embroiled in the IRS scandal, she was involved in a questionable
pattern of law enforcement at the Federal Election Commission," where she was Associate General Counsel for Enforcement. The FEC obviously
liked Lerner's style to raise her to such a position. Judicial Watch uncovered that when Lerner moved over to the IRS, she disclosed
confidential tax information of conservative organizations to the FEC. She also obviously still had adherents to her style there.
IRS
Commissioner John Koskinen Facing Impeachment. During a discussion with the Young America's Foundation
Saturday, Rep. Jim Jordan, a member of the House Oversight Committee, said Congress will impeach IRS Commissioner John
Koskinen. [...] The House is going to pursue impeachment because there needs to be consequences for the egregious behavior of
the IRS and "we think it's critical to preserving fundamental freedom, fundamental rights," said Jordan. Partisan hack,
longtime Democratic donor and IRS Commissioner, John Koskinen, has unreasonably delayed every FOIA request and ignored every
court order to turn over documents on the IRS scandal and the infamous Lois Lerner. After promising at his nomination
hearing that he would be honest and open, he's done exactly the opposite and he's smug about it.
Impeach
the IRS director. The Constitution's framers, knowing that executive officers might not monitor themselves,
provided the impeachment recourse to bolster the separation of powers. Federal officials can be impeached for dereliction of
duty (as in Koskinen's failure to disclose the disappearance of e-mails germane to a congressional investigation); for failure to
comply (as in Koskinen's noncompliance with a preservation order pertaining to an investigation); and for breach of trust (as in
Koskinen's refusal to testify accurately and keep promises made to Congress). Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the
Oversight and Government Reform Committee, says the IRS has "lied to Congress " and "destroyed documents under subpoena." He
accuses Koskinen of "lies, obfuscation and deceit": "He assured us he would comply with a congressional subpoena seeking Lois
Lerner's emails. Not only did he fail to keep that promise, we later learned he did not look in earnest for the information."
Jordan: Congress will
impeach IRS' Koskinen. This Congress will impeach Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen, Rep. Jim Jordan,
a member of the House Oversight Committee, told a group of students from the Young America's Foundation Saturday [10/3/2015].
"It is something that has to be done," said the Ohio Republican. "If we don't hold some people accountable in the executive
branch for the executive overreach we've seen in [the Obama] administration, then they'll never get the message."
Lois Lerner's
'Partners'. Unless you are a lawyer representing nonprofit organizations, it's unlikely you've ever heard of
NASCO, which is the National Association of State Charity Officials. [...] To know NASCO is to understand why Mr. Jones' 2007
letter to Lois Lerner, in which he discusses a "sentiment" for charities to become more transparent, is so typical of NASCO's
hypocrisy about transparency, honesty and ethics. Their annual conference was once completely closed off from representatives
of nonprofit organizations because NASCO did not like being criticized for their questionable and overbearing tactics.
Indeed, in his 2007 letter to Ms. Lerner, Jones criticizes "'push back' from the nonprofit sector." These bureaucrats
do not like criticism from those they regulate, and they are effective at chastening their critics.
The Poisonous
Obama Years. [Scroll down] "Artful" Nixonian abuses of the IRS in order to intimidate and tarnish the
reputations of political opponents were once a Republican phenomenon. Today, yet another simmering scandal involving the
misuse of the IRS has ensnared Democrats. As such, it is dismissed as a non-issue by the left and partisans in the press.
Americans recently learned that, like Clinton, Lerner conducted official business via a private email account where she went by the
name "Toby Miles." The emails sent via that account are among the hundreds that have been shielded from congressional
investigators, but those that have been recovered reflect a searing disdain for conservatives against whom Lerner has been
accused of conspiring to limit their ability to participate in civic affairs. "Citizens United is by far the worst thing
that has ever happened to this country," Lerner, who has been accused of targeting conservative political action committees with
undue scrutiny, wrote. "We are witnessing the end of 'America.'" Motive and opportunity having been established,
we are told that there is nothing to see here. You're just being paranoid.
America's descent into lawlessness. IRS
bureaucrat Lois Lerner was exposed as a rank partisan whose office gave particular scrutiny to would-be tax-exempt groups deemed opponents
of Obama's re-election efforts. She invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify before a congressional committee about her
actions at the IRS. Lerner has never been indicted. Almost everything former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has stated
about her improper use of a private email account and server has been proven false. A State Department staffer who worked on Clinton's
private server plans to invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying before a congressional committee about his role in privatizing Clinton's
email. But like Lerner, Clinton has escaped an indictment or jailing.
America's
descent into lawlessness. Internal Revenue Service bureaucrat Lois Lerner was exposed as a rank partisan whose
office gave particular scrutiny to would-be tax-exempt groups deemed opponents of Mr. Obama's re-election efforts. She
invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify before a congressional committee about her actions at the IRS. Ms.
Lerner has never been indicted.
IRS scandal: Time to fish or cut bait. If
we didn't know better, we'd suspect that senior Justice officials are intentionally stalling, delaying a decision on prosecuting Ms. Lerner
and others complicit in the IRS scandal until President Obama is safely out of office. [...] Indeed, we think there is ample evidence to
indict Ms. Lerner, who has acknowledged "absolutely inappropriate" actions by her division, while casting blame upon low-level "front-line
people" who worked for her. But it seems Ms. Lerner was at the center of the scandal. Just this past week, in fact, we learned
that she had a secret email account at IRS — named after her dog, "Toby Miles" — which she used to conduct official
government business.
Judge
to IRS: turn over the White House email information. One aspect of the Lois Lerner fiasco which has gotten
slightly less attention than Lerner herself and her mysteriously disappearing and reappearing emails is the allegation that
the White House had been requesting the tax information of certain conservative groups as well. Up until now any and all FOIA
requests for such correspondence with the White House has been refused, citing the privacy of taxpayers under federal statute.
But now a judge has handed down a ruling saying that this excuse isn't going to fly.
Lois
Lerner May Have Committed a Crime With Use of Private Email at IRS. In case you missed it yesterday [8/25/2015]
the Washington Times reported former IRS official Lois Lerner, the woman at the center of the IRS targeting
controversy, used a private email account under her dog's name to conduct official government business. The report came as a
result of a Judicial Watch lawsuit against the IRS for information about the scandal. The discovery of this private account
comes in addition to Lerner's use of another personal account on top of her government email system. In total, we know she
used at least three different email accounts during her time at the agency. Now, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton is
responding to the new revelation and notes Lerner may have broken the law if she shared confidential tax information on her
private account.
IRS
tea-party villain Lois Lerner had another secret email address. Embattled former Internal Revenue Service
official Lois Lerner used at least two separate private email accounts to conduct government business, it has emerged, after
the agency told a federal court that investigators discovered a second address as they sifted through her communications.
Lerner, considered a Washington Cruella de Vil by conservative groups who say she orchestrated a campaign to discriminate
against them, retired in September 2013 amid a scandal launched by her Exempt Organizations office's slow walk of tax-exempt
applications from right-wing organizations.
"Toby
Miles": IRS finds yet another Lois Lerner email account. Lois Lerner had yet another personal email account
used to conduct some IRS business, the tax agency confirmed in a new court filing late Monday that further complicates the
administration's efforts to be transparent about Ms. Lerner's actions during the tea party targeting scandal. The
admission came in an open-records lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest law firm that has sued
to get a look at emails Ms. Lerner sent during the targeting.
Response
to Obama IRS Disclosure of New Lois Lerner Email Account. It is remarkable that the Obama IRS and Justice
Department waited two years to tell a federal court that Lois Lerner had a separate email account that contains documents at
issue in the IRS scandal. Especially since both agencies knew about this account since April of last year. It could be a
crime if Lois Lerner kept confidential taxpayer data on her non-governmental email account. This new disclosure follows
the Obama administration's Nixonian practice of "modified limited hangouts" of information about its IRS scandal and Lois Lerner "lost
and found" emails. Every step of the way, the Obama IRS has obstructed this court's orders to get Lois Lerner's emails recovered
and searched. The Court has already threatened contempt against both IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and Justice Department
attorneys over the Lerner email issue. And I suspect that Judge Sullivan won't be pleased by this latest revelation.
IRS
scandal: Lois Lerner's secret, personal email account was perfect cover. Former top IRS official Lois
Lerner — at the center of a well-orchestrated scheme targeting conservative organizations — used an
alias while at the IRS. In new documents just released, an IRS attorney has confirmed that Lois Lerner used another email
to conduct IRS business — under the name of "Toby Miles." That revelation prompts this question: why would the
director of the Exempt Organizations Unit use an alias — a secret, personal email account while at the IRS?
You don't have to think very long to come up with the answer.
Lerner,
in newly released emails, calls GOP critics 'evil and dishonest'. Newly released emails from Lois Lerner show
the former IRS official at the heart of the Tea Party targeting scandal calling Republican critics "evil and dishonest," and
even "hateful." The emails — part of a report released Aug. 6 by the Senate Finance Committee —
offer a revealing look at Lerner, who used to head the division that processes applications for tax-exempt status and was at
the center of the scandal over the alleged targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
Federal
Judge: I Will Haul IRS Chief Here and Personally Hold Him in Contempt. IRS
Commissioner John Koskinen has been stonewalling Congress and the courts for more than a year over
Lois Lerner's "missing" emails. He's also ignored court orders to produce documentation and now,
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan has had enough. During a hearing yesterday surrounding
a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, Sullivan said he "will haul into court
the IRS Commissioner to hold him personally into contempt" after the IRS failed to turn over ordered
documentation to the Court. The information ordered included status reports and recovered emails
belonging to former IRS official Lois Lerner. Sullivan also noted Department of Justice of attorneys
are in the same position for failing to turn over ordered documentation.
The Curious
Case of Lois Lerner's Physically Damaged Hard Drive. New documentation released by the
House Oversight Committee this week again raises questions on how Lois Lerner's hard drive was
physically damaged and whether there was some kind of deliberate act to destroy data on it.
The House Oversight Committee report cites an officially transcribed interview with John Minsek, senior
investigative analyst with the IRS Criminal Investigations (CI) unit. Minsek examined the Lerner
hard drive in 2011. In the transcribed interview, he notes Lerner's hard drive contained "well-defined
scoring creating a concentric circle in the proximity of the center of the disk." [...] So how did the
scoring get there?
IRS "Midnight
Unit" Destroyed Backup Tapes With Lois Lerner Emails. Backup tapes containing as many as 24,000
Lois Lerner emails were destroyed by an IRS entity officially known as the "Media Management Midnight Unit"
located in Martinsburg, West Virginia, according to documentation released this week by the House Oversight
Committee. In all, 422 backup tapes holding the emails were magnetically "degaussed" despite an
agency-wide preservation order and congressional subpoena.
IRS
Used Instant Messaging System to Hide Internal Communications. The IRS used a "wholly
separate" instant messaging system that automatically deleted office communications, according to
documentation released by the House Oversight Committee on Monday [7/27/2015]. The system appears
to have been purposefully used by agency officials responsible for the targeting of conservative
non-profits, in order to evade public scrutiny. The system, known as "Office Communication
Server" or OCS was used by IRS officials, including many in the Exempt Organizations (EO) Unit,
which was headed by Lois Lerner. As the Oversight Committee report states, the instant messaging
system did not archive any communications, so it is not possible to know what employees of the EO
unit discussed on it.
Top
5 Reasons IRS Commissioner John Koskinen Must be Impeached. In the wake of the Obama
administration scandal that saw the IRS illegally targeting conservatives and pro-Israel groups for
daring to oppose Democrat policies, little has been done. The administration appears to be in full
cover-up mode, with "crashed" hard-drives, missing emails, and lost backup tapes. Hoping to
jumpstart scrutiny of the IRS's plainly illegal activities, House representatives Jim Jordan and Ron
Desantis offer a powerful argument that IRS chief John Koskinen should be immediately terminated by
the President. And, if Mr. Obama refuses, that Congress should impeach the head of the troubled agency.
The Editor says...
If the administration is "in full cover-up mode," it is Barack H. Obama who should
be impeached.
IRS Failed
to Search Five of Six Locations for Lois Lerner Emails. The IRS failed to search five
of six possible sources of electronic media for Lois Lerner's emails, according to documentation
released by the House Oversight Committee on Monday [7/27/2015]. Over the course of investigations
into the Lois Lerner targeting scandal, Commissioner John Koskinen repeatedly assured Congress that
he would provide all of Lois Lerner's emails. But based on testimony from the Treasury Inspector
General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), this did not occur. The agency's ineptness — or
corruption — resulted in 24,000 Lerner emails being lost when they were "accidently" destroyed.
IRS
Produces Recovered Lerner Emails. The new documents show that Lois Lerner and other top officials
in the Exempt Organizations Unit of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), including soon-to-be Acting IRS Commissioner
Steve Miller, closely monitored and approved the controversial handling of tax-exempt applications by Tea Party
organizations. The documents also show that at least one group received an inquiry from the IRS in order
to buy time and keep the organization from contacting Congress.
With
new documents, stench of IRS scandal reaches into its third year. In 2013, Lois
Lerner, former head of the IRS non-profit section, pleaded the Fifth Amendment before the House
Oversight Committee. She had been called to testify about her division's unjustifiable harassment of
conservative applicants for nonprofit status. Just over a year later, it was reported that a
number of Lerner's work emails had gone missing due to a supposed problem with her hard drive. Then
last month, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration testified that IRS employees —
despite being under explicit orders not to destroy records — had "magnetically erased" as many as
24,000 of Lerner's missing emails from hundreds of data tapes where they were being stored.
IRS
Fails To Meet Deadline To Produce Lois Lerner's Emails. Emmet G. Sullivan, United States District
Judge for the District of Columbia, ordered the IRS last week to begin producing, every Monday, nearly 1,800 newly
recovered Lois Lerner emails. On Monday [7/6/2015], the IRS defied the order. The developments come in
the wake of Judicial Watch's FOIA lawsuit seeking documents about the Obama IRS' targeting and harassment of conservative
non profits (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Internal Revenue Service[).] Thanks to Judicial Watch's litigation, the
IRS was forced to admit that Lerner's emails were supposedly missing and, then, that the emails were on IRS back-up systems.
The
Penumbra School of Law. The administration at every level expresses its contempt for
Congress and its legal obligations knowing the attorney general will never prosecute its wrongdoing.
The most obvious at the moment involve record keeping by the IRS and Hillary Clinton. As you'll
recall, the IRS contributed to Obama's reelection campaign — perhaps even fixing its
result — by denying his opponents the tax exemptions to which they were entitled. Then it
made up cockamamie excuses why it could not produce the email record evidence which they were legally
obligated to preserve and produce. Now it turns out that the records requested did exist and
were destroyed after the agency was put on notice to keep and provide them to Congress.
IRS
Found to Have Erased Hundreds of Backup Tapes Regarding Tea Party Scandal. The IRS has been a
veritable circus of ineptitude since it was discovered to have been targeting tea party-affiliated groups.
The latest episode in this saga includes IRS employees "accidentally" deleting 422 computer backup tapes
regarding the aforementioned scandal. Yeah, and these people handle our most delicate information.
IRS
Deleted Hundreds of Back-up Tapes Containing Thousands of Lerner Emails After Congressional Subpoena
Was Issued. This used to be called obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence.
According to new information from the House Oversight Committee, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration
[TIGTA] Russell George and Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Tim Camus, the IRS deleted hundreds of
backup tapes containing thousands of emails belonging to former IRS official Lois Lerner, the woman at the center
of the conservative targeting scandal. The tapes were destroyed nine months after a congressional
subpoena was issued to the agency demanding they be preserved and turned over.
Destruction
of Evidence at the IRS. [Scroll down] Fox is told the hearing will definitively state there was a
destruction of evidence 10 months after a preservation order for the emails was in place, 7 months after a
subpoena was in place and 30 days AFTER the IRS realized there were potential problems locating the emails.
This destruction of evidence happened 22 days BEFORE the IRS Commissioner testified to Congress, in response to my
questioning on March 26, 2015, that they had the documents and they would provide all of them to Congress.
House
Republicans Considering Impeachment of IRS Head over Stonewalling in Lois Lerner Investigation. House Republicans
investigating the IRS's targeting of tea-party groups are seriously considering an effort to impeach IRS commissioner John Koskinen
or other agency employees for "culpable misdemeanors" pertaining to the destruction of e-mails written by Lois Lerner, the former
official at the heart of the scandal. "We've briefed the leadership's counsel, and I think that they're open to it, but it's
the type of thing where this town is like, 'oh, that's not how we do things, it's not really been used lately,'" a Republican member
of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says. "But, quite frankly, we really haven't had executive branch
officials behave this way like we do now."
Exactly Who is Going to
Prison? Republicans are going to consider impeachment. Just like they considered repealing Obamacare or
stopping Obamatrade. I'll believe it when I see it.
IRS
erased Lerner emails even after subpoena: audit. As many as 24,000 emails may have been permanently
lost, but the inspector general has managed to recover about 1,000 messages from the tapes because the IRS only
"degaussed" the tapes but didn't destroy them. Still, the move to erase the tapes after they had been
requested by Congress didn't sit well with Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who accused IRS chief John Koskinen
of obstructing Congress' investigation into the emails and tea party targeting. "They destroyed evidence.
That's what they did," Mr. Chaffetz, Utah Republican, said.
My guess: a Louisville slugger.
Lois
Lerner's Hard Drive Was Shredded. Former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner's hard drive
most likely crashed due to "an impact of some sort," like somebody hitting it or smashing it, according to new
congressional testimony. Then the hard drive was shredded and its pieces were sold for scrap. Lerner's
laptop, which crashed on June 11, 2011 between 5 and 7 PM, was sent to an IT technician two days later.
The Hewlett-Packard technician looking at her laptop determined that the hard drive failed because of an impact of some sort.
Another
Blow To IRS: Judge Demands Info on Lerner Emails, With 7/1 Hearings. Judicial Watch
announced today [6/22/2015] a second legal blow to the IRS which occurred on Friday. The agency was
ordered to report back to U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan by June 29 the status of the
recovery and release of emails of Lois Lerner and other IRS officials. The Court also ordered a
court hearing, scheduling a status conference for July 1, 2015. The developments are a
result of Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit and continued pressure seeking
documents about the Obama IRS's targeting and harassment of Tea Party and conservative opponents of
President Obama (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:13-cv-01559)).
Judicial
Watch: Federal Judge Orders IRS to Account for "Lost" Emails. Judicial Watch announced
that U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to report
to him by June 29 the status of the recovery and release of emails of Lois Lerner and other IRS
officials. The Court also ordered a court hearing, scheduling a status conference for July 1,
2015. The developments come in Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking
documents about the Obama IRS's targeting and harassment of Tea Party and conservative opponents of
President Obama (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:13-cv-01559)).
IRS'
Latest Email Excuse Draws It Closer To Rogue Agency Status. Let's cut to the chase
here: The IRS is obstructing justice because it doesn't want the truth to come out. The agency has
been caught red-handed targeting opponents of the Obama administration, including the tea party,
pro-Israel groups and conservative news media. It purposely delayed issuances of tax-exempt
status to nonprofit groups and held investigations entirely outside its own mandate. What the IRS
is hiding is bound to be the work of malicious political operatives cloaking themselves as impartial
civil servants, plotting among themselves against their political enemies through email. The
stiff-arms given by the IRS at every juncture — from Lerner's invoking her Fifth Amendment
right against self-incrimination at a House hearing to this latest claim about preventing
duplicates — is consistent with that scenario.
IRS
Finds 6,400 New Lois Lerner Emails, Gives Dumbest Excuse Yet For Not Releasing Them.
The Internal Revenue Service found 6,400 more Lois Lerner emails — but they're not
handing them over in court. The IRS' latest excuses are nothing short of infuriating.
Department of Justice lawyers Geoffrey J. Klimas and Stephanie Sasarak, acting as counsel for the
IRS, submitted a U.S. District Court filing June 12 in the case Judicial Watch v. Internal Revenue
Service. The court filing, provided to The Daily Caller, claims the IRS received new Lerner emails
from the Treasury Department's inspector general (TIGTA) but can't fork over the emails to Judicial
Watch, a nonprofit group suing to get the emails. Why? Because the IRS is busy making sure
that none of the emails are duplicates — you know, so as not to waste anyone's time.
IRS
Finds 6,400 Lois Lerner Emails But Won't Hand Em Over. The Internal Revenue Service
may have found 6,400 emails from Lois Lerner, who oversaw the tax agency's Exempt Organizations
Unit, but the government agency has no plans to share. Attorneys from the Department of Justice
representing the IRS say the emails won't be shared because the service is making sure that none of
them are duplicates. Lerner is at the center of a scandal in which the tax agency denied special
tax status to conservative groups.
IRS
using absurd excuse to avoid turning over newly discovered Lois Lerner e-mails. There
must be some seriously incriminating material in these e-mails if DoJ attorneys are willing to
beclown themselves by offering nonsense arguments to prevent their disclosure. Lois Lerner took the
Fifth Amendment for a reason. Most federal judges do not enjoy being mocked this way. But it is
possible to use nonsense arguments and filings to delay, and the goal clearly is to get past the 2016
election and hope that the public memory fades.
Federal
Judge: What's The Status On Lois Lerner's "Lost" Emails? Remember when the IRS claimed
they "lost" tens-of-thousands of emails belonging to former head of tax exempt groups Lois Lerner?
(Who by the way, is retired now with a full taxpayer funded pension after raking in hundreds-of-thousands
of dollars in bonuses). Remember when IRS Commissioner John Koskinen claimed there were no back up
tapes? Lerner's emails aren't lost and backup tapes do exist. Now, it's important to find out
what's in both.
Loretta
Lynch has a Lois Lerner decision to make. Republicans on the House Ways and Means
Committee have asked Attorney General Loretta Lynch for an update on whether she will pursue
criminal charges against former IRS employee Lois Lerner for her role in the IRS targeting scandal.
The committee last year identified three possible criminal charges that could be brought against Lerner,
and asked the Department of Justice to consider bringing those charges. At the time, the attorney
general was Eric Holder, and the committee chairman was Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich. The new chairman,
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., asked Lynch on Thursday [5/28/2015] where that criminal referral stands.
House
GOP demands criminal investigation into Lois Lerner. Insisting Lois G. Lerner is still
a target, congressional Republicans sent a letter to new Attorney General Loretta Lynch Thursday [5/28/2015]
asking her to follow through on their official request last year for a criminal investigation into Ms.
Lerner's behavior at the IRS. Led by Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee,
the Republicans said it's been more than a year and the Justice Department has yet to respond to the referral
the committee approved on April 9, 2014, listing three areas where lawmakers believe Ms. Lerner may have
broken the law. "The committee continues to believe that these serious charges should be pursued by the
Department of Justice," Mr. Ryan and his fellow lawmakers said in their letter.
6,500
Lois Lerner emails recovered from backup tapes. While the old and largely forgotten
IRS scandals have been replaced by whole news sets of scandals, I guess there was still some work
going on in the background. The Inspector General for the Treasury announced this week that more
than six thousand of Lois Lerner's emails — lost when "her computer crashed" a few years
ago — have been recovered from backup tapes and will be turned over.
Thousands
of new Lerner emails found. An inspector general investigating the IRS's improper
scrutiny of Tea Party groups has found thousands of emails from Lois Lerner, the agency official at
the center of that controversy, according to committees involved in the probe. Treasury's
inspector general for tax administration (TIGTA) said it found roughly 6,400 emails either to or
from Lerner from between 2004 and 2013 that it didn't think the IRS had turned over to lawmakers,
the congressional committees said. The committees have yet to examine the emails, aides on
Capitol Hill said.
Networks
Ignore Discovery of 'Lost' Lois Lerner E-Mails. Despite a combined eight hours of air
time on Wednesday, all three network morning shows ignored the revelation that 6400 "lost" e-mails
from ex-IRS official Lois Lerner have been found. On cable, Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer alerted
viewers, reminding, "The IRS claimed the emails were lost when learner's computer crashed three years
ago. They will now be examined by the Senate Finance Committee."
How Lois Lerner evaded
charges. Good soldiers in the Obama administration don't get indicted, thanks to other
good soldiers. And no doubt they get rewarded, too.
A
Flawed Legal Analysis Is Helping Lois Lerner. On March 31, Ronald Machen, the outgoing
U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, wrote House Speaker John Boehner to inform him that the
Justice Department would not present Lois Lerner's contempt citation to a federal grand jury.
The letter explaining his decision is an exercise in misdirection — the kind of misdirection
that magicians use to fool an audience. Why? Because at no point in his detailed, seven-page
legal analysis does Machen mention the most important point demonstrating that Lerner did, in fact,
waive her Fifth Amendment right.
Feds
won't pursue contempt charges against Lerner for not testifying before House. The
Justice Department has declined to pursue contempt of Congress charges against Lois Lerner for
refusing to testify about her role at the IRS in the targeting of conservative groups. The
department announced the decision in a letter Tuesday [3/31/2015] to House Speaker John Boehner,
whose Republican-controlled chamber made the request to prosecute, after holding Lerner in contempt
for refusing to testify at committee hearings.
No
justice from the Justice Department. [T]he Obama administration's Internal Revenue
Service is institutionally incapable of self-correction. And, now it is even clearer that the
Obama administration's Department of Justice is incapable of holding accountable those responsible
for a massive illegal targeting scheme. Even worse, its own involvement in the scandal not only
means that it can't properly investigate the IRS, it should instead be investigated for cooperating
with the IRS in its campaign of censorship and oppression. The latest troubling development
comes as the Justice Department announced it will not pursue criminal contempt charges against
former top IRS official Lois Lerner — who's at the center of a scandal that unlawfully
targeted conservative and Tea Party groups because of their political views.
Shocker!
Obama's DOJ Won't Seek Contempt Charges for Lois Lerner, Networks Ignore. On Wednesday [4/1/2015], the
Department of Justice announced it would not be seeking contempt charges against Lois Lerner for refusing to testify
to Congress on the IRS targeting scandal. The Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks, so far, have refused to report
on this big development in the Obama IRS scandal that they apparently just don't want to talk about any more.
Lois Lerner
Skates. The Justice Department says Lois Lerner, who used her IRS office to target the
Tea Party, didn't waive her Fifth Amendment rights before Congress and won't be prosecuted for
contempt over her missing emails. [...] Lois Lerner, poster child for hard-drive crashes and
missing emails, won't face charges for contempt of Congress either. After pleading her innocence at that
2013 hearing, Lerner went on to invoke her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. This raised the
question of whether the Constitution let her remain silent after she was not silent and pleaded her case.
DOJ
lets Lois Lerner off the contempt hook. The House sought a DOJ prosecution for
contempt. News that will shock no one, DOJ will not prosecute.
No
Criminal Charges For Lois Lerner Of IRS, Keeps Bonuses, Nice Retirement. If you were
targeted by the IRS, you probably thought that retired but officially silent Lois Lerner —
who ran a key IRS division — might face charges. Congress found her in contempt after
she professed her innocence, and thereafter took the Fifth. Much later, she broke her
silence to Politico, saying she did nothing wrong, claiming that she was the victim. The
U.S. Attorney's Office was supposedly considering prosecution, but now it announced she is off the hook
and will not be charged with contempt.
IRS's
Lois Lerner won't be charged with contempt. The Obama administration informed House
Speaker John A. Boehner this week it will not prosecute former IRS executive Lois G. Lerner for
contempt of Congress, concluding that she did not waive her Fifth Amendment rights to avoid answering
questions when she was called to testify nearly two years ago. Ms. Lerner, the figure at the center
of the IRS's tea party targeting scandal, is still facing investigation over the intrusive scrutiny of
conservative groups, but the decision by U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen does away with at least some of her
legal jeopardy.
Outgoing
US attorney hasn't acted on Lerner contempt charge. Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney
for the District of Columbia appointed by President Obama and set to step down next month, has not
acted on a contempt of Congress charge for former IRS official Lois Lerner. Machen, who
announced at the beginning of the week he'd step down April 1 to return to private practice, has not
referred Lerner's case to a grand jury. Her contempt citation for not testifying at two hearings has
been in Machen's hands since May 2014.
EmailGate:
First Lois Lerner, Then Hillary Clinton, Now Eric Holder. How Corrupt Is This Administration? Although we all
talk about Hillary's EmailGate, we shouldn't forget that this controversy actually started with Lois Lerner. When
Republicans tried to find out whether the IRS had purposefully targeted conservative organizations, this former head of
the Internal Revenue Service said her email had suddenly disappeared. In other words, there's no way that Lerner's
hard drive suddenly crashed causing her to lose two years of emails. It's just not possible.
Most
Transparent Administration Ever Suffers Curious Epidemic of Disappearing Email Systems, Crashed Hard
Drives and Lost Backup Tapes. Remember when Barack Obama promised his would be the
"most open and transparent administration ever"?
Lawyer:
Department of Justice Shut Down Search For Lois Lerner's Emails. The Department of
Justice blocked an attempt to force the Internal Revenue Service to search for Lois Lerner's missing
emails at off-site storage facilities, according to a lawyer pushing to obtain the emails. The
IRS never looked for Lerner's backup email tapes at the West Virginia storage facility where they
were being housed. Treasury deputy inspector general Timothy Camus told Congress that the IRS never
asked IT professionals at the New Martinsville, W.V. storage site for the backup tapes. Camus only
found the backup tape for Lerner's missing 2011 emails about two weeks ago.
Lois
Lerner's Hard Drive Was Searched By Legally Blind IRS Employee. The first IT
specialist to inspect the computer hard drive of former IRS exemptions director Lois Lerner was
legally blind, according to an affidavit filed last year by Stephen Manning, deputy chief
information officer for strategy and modernization at the IRS. Manning's July 18, 2014,
affidavit pertained to a lawsuit filed by True the Vote against the IRS alleging that Lerner led an
effort to target it and similar conservative groups by refusing to grant them tax-exempt status.
Investigators
Recover 32,000 Emails To and From Lois Lerner. Investigators said Thursday they have
recovered 32,000 emails related to a former IRS official at the heart of the agency's tea party scandal.
Among
IRS emails unearthed is one by Lerner that pretty much admits cover-up. Here's hoping
for Lois Lerner's sake that orange is her color and that she looks good in jumpsuits. As noted in
today's headlines, federal investigators have recovered 32,000 emails on 424 previously unaccounted
for backup tapes that relate to the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative organizations.
These are among the infamous "lost" tapes that the agency's chief, John Koskinen, swore under oath last June
had been "irrevocably lost because the disaster recovery tape onto which the agency's electronic correspondence
is backed up holds data for only six months." By November, Koskinen, feeling Congressional pressure, had
managed miraculously to pluck the missing 744 tapes from the ether and turned them over to the House Ways
and Means Committee.
IRS
watchdog reveals Lois Lerner missing emails now subject of criminal probe. The IRS's
inspector general confirmed Thursday [2/26/2015] it is conducting a criminal investigation into how
Lois G. Lerner's emails disappeared, saying it took only two weeks for investigators to find
hundreds of tapes the agency's chief had told Congress were irretrievably destroyed.
Investigators have already scoured 744 backup tapes and gleaned 32,774 unique emails, but just two
weeks ago they found an additional 424 tapes that could contain even more Lerner emails, Deputy
Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told the House Oversight Committee in a rare late-night hearing
meant to look into the status of the investigation. "There is potential criminal activity," Mr.
Camus said.
The Liberal Circus.
[Scroll down] The president said there was not a "smidgeon" of corruption in the selective
targeting of conservatives. Lois Lerner, the focus of investigations, pled the Fifth Amendment after
having received over $100,000 in merit bonuses. When congressional investigators wanted to subpoena
her computer records, IRS officials claimed both that her hard drive had crashed and that its data was
unrecoverable. The latter proved untrue; but then so far so has everything the IRS has said. The
only lesson is that any private citizen who replied to IRS inquiries in the manner that the IRS responded
to public subpoenas would be jailed.
IRS
Withheld Document From Inspector General Showing Existence Of IRS Email Tapes. The IRS
inspector general, tasked with the internal IRS investigation, reveals to House Oversight Committee
that the IRS withheld the documents showing the existence of the back-up tapes which contain
internal IRS email communication, thought to contain the missing Lois Lerner emails. [...] The
evidence so far showcases a chain of communication from the initial discussion with the Obama
Administration toward the IRS and Dept of Justice.
IRS
Employee Looking for Lois Lerner Emails Was Blind, Literally!. An IRS employee tasked
with trying to restore and obtain emails on Lois Lerner's IRS computer's hard drive was legally
blind. Stephen Manning, the deputy chief information officer for strategy and modernization at the
IRS, submitted an affidavit in the True the Vote vs. IRS litigation regarding the persons and procedures
used to attempt to recover Lois Lerner's hard drive containing emails pertaining to Tea Party targeting.
Treasury
IG: IRS Never Asked for Backup Tapes of Agency Emails. During congressional testimony
Thursday, the Treasury Deputy Inspector General Timothy Camus suggested the IRS did not do all it
could have to recover Lois Lerner's missing emails. Camus told Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) that while
investigating, his team realized the IRS had failed to turn over one relevant document. The IG
demanded and got the document in question, which subsequently led to the discovery of an additional
424 backup tapes they had not previously been aware existed at a government data center.
Investigators
Found 'Lost' Lois Lerner Emails In 2 Weeks. So "irretrievably lost" means they can be
easily found within in two weeks. In fact, it turns out that The IRS never even asked technicians
to recover the tapes.
IRS
watchdog reveals Lois Lerner missing emails now subject of criminal probe. The IRS's
inspector general confirmed Thursday it is conducting a criminal investigation into how Lois G.
Lerner's emails disappeared, saying it took only two weeks for investigators to find hundreds of
tapes the agency's chief had told Congress were irretrievably destroyed. Investigators have
already scoured 744 backup tapes and gleaned 32,774 unique emails, but just two weeks ago they found
an additional 424 tapes that could contain even more Lerner emails, Deputy Inspector General
Timothy P. Camus told the House Oversight Committee in a rare late-night hearing meant to look
into the status of the investigation. "There is potential criminal activity," Mr. Camus said.
Lois Lerner Received
$129K in Bonuses. Former IRS official Lois Lerner received $129,300 in bonuses between
2010 and 2013, records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show. Over a three-year
period, Lerner, the head of the tax-exempt division at the heart of the IRS targeting scandal,
received a 25 percent retention bonus — averaging $43,000 a year — on top of
her regular salary. The federal government uses retention bonuses to incentivize valuable
employees who are considering retirement or private sector jobs to stay at their agencies. Former
acting IRS commissioner Steven T. Miller recommended Lerner for a $42,000 retention bonus in
December 2009, when she first became eligible for retirement.
Let's see her e-mails.
Contrary to earlier assertions by the IRS, the Lois Lerner emails Congress sought were not lost forever.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, says
authorities have now managed to recover roughly 16,000 Lerner emails. This has led Johnson to send
Koskinen a letter in which the senator writes, "I respectfully request your assistance in better understanding
the IRS's document-retention and -production process." We prefer the way the senator put it on Fox News:
"I smell a rat. I smell a number of rats, and that's what we are going to get to the bottom of."
Seven Misconceptions about
E-mail. [Misconception:] Emails can be deleted. Reality: By using utilities
or by checking recipients' workstations, they can almost always be recovered.
Lois
Lerner Tried To Block Supervisor's Visit Because She Feared Targeting Would Be Exposed. Former IRS
official Lois Lerner tried to block an IRS supervisor's visit to the Cincinnati office that she oversaw during the
period in which her division was targeting conservative groups. Lerner made clear that she didn't want the
official talking to employees involved in early congressional and inspector general probes into the "c4" business,
according to newly unearthed emails.
Docs:
Ahead of 2012 Presidential Election Lois Lerner Begged Supervisor Not to Visit IRS Office.
New emails obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act Lawsuit show former IRS
official Lois Lerner begged her supervisor not to visit the Cincinnati office or ask specific questions
related to Congressional inquiries into whether the agency was improperly targeting conservative groups
just ahead of the 2012 presidential election. As a reminder, it wasn't until May 2013 when Lerner
admitted inappropriate targeting had occurred and plead the Fifth in front of the House Oversight Committee.
Lerner Objected to IRS Deputy
Director Visit to Cincinnati Office During Congressional Inquiries. The newly released documents include an
intense chain of emails in which Lerner pleads with Grant, who was a supervisor to her, to "put this [Grant's planned visit
to Cincinnati] off please" at the very time during which both the internal IRS watchdog and Congress were investigating
whether the IRS had been inappropriately targeting conservative groups in the months leading up to the 2012 elections.
New
IRS Emails Surface: Evidence of a White House Cover-Up? Newly released emails expose
possible collusion between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and President Obama's Department of
Justice, a disturbing new development in the IRS targeting scandal. The IRS originally claimed
that the emails, which were sent and received by former IRS administrator Lois Lerner, were all
missing. On November 22, however, IRS Inspector General John Koskinen announced that
30,000 of Lerner's emails between 2009 and 2011 had been recovered.
IRS
Watchdog Continues to Hide Records on White House Leaks. An independent IRS monitor
announced Monday it will block the release of roughly 400 more pages of documents related to
unauthorized leaks of confidential taxpayer information to the White House. The Treasury Inspector
General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) told the watchdog group Cause of Action it would be withholding
nearly all of the 2,500 documents it located that were related to unauthorized IRS leaks to the White House.
Earlier this month, TIGTA told Cause of Action it was withholding roughly 2,100 of the documents and said it would
take an additional two weeks to review the rest.
New
Lois Lerner emails indicate Obama's DOJ involved in IRS targeting scandal. In the
month prior to the 2010 midterm elections, Internal Revenue Service investigator Lois Lerner met
with Justice Department officials to discuss the criminal prosecution of tax-exempt political
groups. It had previously been revealed that Lerner investigated avenues for prosecuting certain
tax-exempt status applicants upon the suggestion of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) when the watchdog
group Judicial Watch obtained Lerner's emails on that subject via a FOIA request.
Emails
confirm 2010 Lois Lerner meeting with DOJ elections prosecutor. Emails obtained by
Judicial Watch through litigation confirm that Lois Lerner was in contact with DOJ officials about
the possible criminal prosecution of tax-exempt entities two full years before what the IRS conceded
was its "absolutely inappropriate" 2012 targeting of the organizations.
Smidgen
Alert — Dept. of Treasury Blocks Release of IRS to White House Emails Because The Content
Would Be Illegal To Share With Court. As the Daily Caller partly outlines[,] Secretary
of the Treasury Jacob Lew, Obama's former White House Chief of Staff, who was chief of staff when
the illegal IRS/White House scheme was rolled out, took the emails and documents that were set to be
released and now refuses to ever turn them over. His rationale? Secretary Lew claims he cannot
release information about improper disclosures of confidential taxpayer information —
because [...] that would be an improper disclosure of confidential taxpayer information.
Will
'Lost' IRS Emails Reveal A Corrupt White House? Leaking taxpayer information to the White House isn't
new, just as the email shell game in the IRS fiasco no longer shocks. But the discovery of data "lost" on
backup tapes may expose the extent of administration guilt.
A
Transparent Conflict of Interest — Treasury Secretary Jack Lew Blocks White House/IRS
Email Release. Enough circumstantial information exists to speculate the information
within the denied documents could outline collusion between the White House and the IRS —
to formulate a list of political opponents for targeting. The enforcement mechanism used for
targeting includes the DOJ and various other government agencies (ATF, OSHA, EEOC, EPA Banking/Finance)[.]
According to the jaw dropping IRS letter — Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, interceded and blocked the
FOIA discovery from being released.
Miracle at the IRS. After
saying over and over — in press statements, in court filings, in congressional
hearings — that the emails that went missing when Lois Lerner's hard drive crashed were
gone forever, up to 30,000 Lerner emails have now turned up and are on their way to Congress. But
not thanks to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. To the contrary, the emails were reclaimed from
disaster-recovery tapes by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. It's yet another
reminder of Koskinen's failures. Remember, Koskinen was installed at the IRS to restore credibility after
the public learned the agency had targeted conservative organizations — and then lied about it.
What
Will We Find In "Lost" Lois Lerner Emails. The Internal Revenue Service inspector
general has recovered up to 30,000 of Lois Lerner's emails that were thought to be lost because of a
computer crash. The emails were recovered from back up recovery tapes from the IRS email system.
Previously, it was thought the emails were lost forever. [...] While it's possible the emails will
link Lerner to the White House, it's more likely the information will reveal Lerner's personal
agenda against conservatives including possible illegal behavior.
It's
Probably Just A Coincidence That 30,000 Lois Lerner Emails Were Discovered Right After The
Election. By now, the whole world knows that on Friday [11/21/2014], 30,000 "missing"
Lois Lerner emails were discovered. We don't want you to think that there's anything shady going
on here. It's probably just a coincidence that they were found a couple of weeks after an important,
mid-term election. These 30,000 emails were allegedly lost forever. But, lo and behold, they
were discovered on backup disaster recovery tapes! Yes, the same kind of backup disaster recovery
tapes that experts have been telling us existed all along.
The Editor says...
Notice also that this announcement came the day after Obama's imperial declaration of amnesty for
illegal aliens, which is likely to displace this topic on all the weekend political talk shows.
30,000
missing emails from IRS' Lerner recovered. Up to 30,000 missing emails sent by former
Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner have been recovered by the IRS inspector general, five
months after they were deemed lost forever. The U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Administration (TIGTA) informed congressional staffers from several committees on Friday that the
emails were found among hundreds of "disaster recovery tapes" that were used to back up the IRS
email system.
Where are the
Handcuffs? [M]ultiple agencies of the Obama bureaucracy have thumbed their collective
noses at the law and federal judges. The rule of law means absolutely nothing to the Left, and
it's high time they were held to account.
The IRS Admits To Breaking The Law.
The law requires that an FOIA search encompass all "reasonably retrievable" records, from which the
party served can then argue for exemptions from disclosure. It does not permit the target to
choose not to look at its pleasure.
IRS:
Um, Yeah, We Never Actually Looked for Lois Lerner's Emails or Anything. Today's
banana republic update comes to us from the exasperated watchdogs at Judicial Watch, which has a
Freedom of Information Act lawsuit pending in the IRS targeting scandal. Some months ago, we
learned that former Tax Exempt Organizations honcho Lois Lerner generates an intense bio-electric
field that causes every hard drive that comes anywhere hear her to crash and lose all its data,
something that never seems to happen to hard drives outside the government any more, but verily the
Age of Obama is an age of wonders. Lerner's mutant hard-drive crashing powers supposedly wiped
out a ton of electronic correspondence relevant to the scandal.
Judicial
Watch: IRS "did not undertake any significant efforts to obtain" missing Lerner emails.
Judicial Watch has spent a great deal of time and resources seeking information about the IRS targeting
of conservative groups. In September, Judicial Watch asked the court for permission to conduct
discovery into how "lost and/or destroyed" records might be recovered; the IRS is fighting transparency
efforts, but their latest response to the discovery request contains inconsistencies that could pull the
rug out from under IRS officials responsible for the cover up.
IRS
Admits to Court it Hasn't Searched for Missing Lerner Emails. Judicial Watch announced
today [11/5/2014] that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) admitted to the court that it failed to
search any of the IRS standard computer systems for the "missing" emails of Lois Lerner and other
IRS officials. The admission appears in an IRS legal brief opposing the Judicial Watch request that
a federal court judge allow discovery into how "lost and/or destroyed" IRS records relating to the
targeting of conservative groups may be retrieved.
Treasury
Department won't let witness testify about Lois Lerner's 'lost' emails until AFTER the
election. The chairman of a powerful committee in Congress is demanding access
'without delay' to a key witness in the Lois Lerner email saga that has engulfed the IRS, but the
Treasury Department insists she can't testify until after the midterm congressional elections.
House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican, demanded late Wednesday in a letter
to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew that he must make Treasury counsel Hannah Stott-Bumsted available
before that Nov. 4 political milestone date. Stott-Bumsted was the first Treasury aide to learn
that the IRS was unable to locate two years' worth of disgraced official Lois Lerner's emails
because of a hard drive crash.
The Lois Lerner app.
Imagine if you downloaded something that ended up wiping out all the information you needed before
meeting with an IRS agent asking about discrepancies on your tax return. How sympathetic do you
think that IRS agent would be? But when it comes to the IRS itself, this is just what officials
would have us believe. Turns out too it's not just Lois Lerner, whose computer crashed right after
Congress asked for info about the tax targeting of conservative organizations.
Lois
Lerner Tries to Barge Into Neighbor's Home to Dodge Journalist. Jason Mattera [...] approached Lerner on the street in her upscale
neighborhood just outside Washington, D.C. and asked Lerner if she wanted to apologize to conservatives or to comment on her role in "using the
government as a weapon to crush political dissent." Lerner then dashed across a neighbor's yard and began knocking on the door.
IRS
Erased Key Records in Lawsuit, NetJets Says. There may be a pattern involving the IRS
losing e-mails and other key computer records. For months, the House Oversight Committee has been
pursuing the lost e-mails of Lois Lerner and other figures in the IRS tax-exempt organization
scandal. Now, the private-jet company NetJets is claiming in a lawsuit that as part of its tax
dispute with the agency the IRS "wiped clean a number of computer hard drives containing emails and
other electronic documents that the Government was required to produce."
Republicans and the IRS.
On Tuesday [9/22/2014], the Republican House passed several reform bills. One would ensure that
anyone who did what Lois Lerner did — i.e., send out confidential taxpayer info on her
private e-mail — would be violating the law. Others are designed to help taxpayers
appeal when their groups are denied tax-exempt status or to ensure that officials who deliberately
destroy federal records get the old heave-ho. Here's the problem: The bills now head to a Senate
controlled by Democrat Harry Reid. During his time as majority leader, Reid has ensured that the
best reforms passed by House Republicans never even come up for a vote — sparing President
Obama the bother of an embarrassing veto.
Lois
Lerner breaks silence. Employers won't hire her. She's been berated with epithets like
"dirty Jew." Federal agents have guarded her house because of death threats. And she's spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars defending herself against accusations she orchestrated a coverup in
a scandal that has come to represent everything Americans hate about the IRS. Lois Lerner is
toxic — and she knows it. But she refuses to recede into anonymity or beg for
forgiveness for her role in the IRS tea party-targeting scandal.
Lois
Lerner breaks silence: I'm 'not sorry for anything I did'. Lois Lerner, the former IRS
director accused of using her position to delay nonprofit applications to scores of conservative and
tea party groups, has broken her wall of silence in a sit-down interview with Politico to say: "I didn't
do anything wrong." "I'm proud of my career and the job I did for this country," she told Politico.
The Editor says...
I suspect that the most notorious criminals in history probably didn't think they were doing anything wrong, either.
Politico:
Lois Lerner is the Real Victim of the IRS Scandal. Lois Lerner wants a new job. She can't get one.
No one will hire her. So it makes perfect sense that she would go to the leftwing Politico for aid and comfort.
Lois
Lerner Says She Is No Jeffrey Dahmer. During the interview with Politico, Lerner was
still defiant: "I didn't do anything wrong. I'm proud of my career and the job I did for this
country." Added Lerner: "Regardless of whatever else happens, I know I did the best I could under
the circumstances and am not sorry for anything I did."
Sorry,
Politico, But Lois Lerner Is Not A Victim. Lois Lerner. Hero. Servant. Brownie-baking
puppy lover. Sister of the Blessed State. This is about all a person reading Politico's new
exclusive "interview" with the former head of the I.R.S. division that oversees tax-exempt groups, might take away.
"I didn't do anything wrong" claims Lerner, who, like any innocent person, is flanked by a major law firm's partner, two
personal attorneys and her husband — a lawyer. "I'm proud of my career and the job I did for this country."
And in around 3,700 obsequious words, Politico seems to agree. What exactly did she do for her country,
you ask? Well, sitting in her $2.5 million house in Bethesda, Maryland, this question, like most others,
goes unanswered.
Lois
Lerner's Sob Story. Behold, the martyrdom of Lois Lerner. At least, that is the
takeaway from Monday's Politico interview with the former head of the IRS's tax-exemption
unit, the guileless victim of right-wing conspiracy theorists, Republican operators, and Darrell
Issa. "Lerner ... has been painted in one dimension: as a powerful bureaucrat scheming with the
Obama administration to cripple right-leaning nonprofits," writes interviewer Rachel Bade. In
reality, the scandal-hounded Lerner is — didn't you suspect? — "a much more
complicated figure than the caricature she's become in the public eye." Of course, Richard Nixon
was "complicated," too, but he did not get 3,700 rehabilitative words in Politico.
Cry us a river,
Lois Lerner. Everyone in Washington has a P.R. machine, or at minimum, an agenda.
That's certainly the case with Lois Lerner, the former IRS executive whose division targeted
conservative nonprofit applicants with delays and harassment. Lerner's division of the IRS
systematically obstructed and denied status to Tea Party groups while subjecting many of the
smallest ones — those most vulnerable and least likely to be lawyered up — to
inappropriate demands for information that was not legally required. In one case, this included the
content of the opening prayer recited in meetings, and in others, this IRS Inquisition demanded that
leaders of certain groups pledge never to run for office.
More Abject Failure from Koskinen's
IRS. John Koskinen has failed the IRS and the American people. IRS Commissioner
John Koskinen testified last week about the missing emails lost forever due to computer failures.
When questioned about any more crashes or computer issues recently, Koskinen told the House
Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee that "Hard drive crashes continue as we speak."
Can someone please buy the IRS reliable computers and a backup system?
The Editor says...
Of course there is nothing wrong with the reliability of the IRS computers.
Any computer hard drive will "crash" if it is hit with a sledgehammer. How does Mr. Koskinen know (with enough
certainty to pronounce under oath) that hard drive crashes are still occurring, or will soon occur? One can rationally
infer from Mr. Koskinen's statement that he is aware of on-going intentional destruction of computer hardware.
Citing
IRS Wrongdoing, Judicial Watch Asks Federal Court to Permit Discovery to Find 'Missing' Emails in IRS Abuse Scandal. Judicial
Watch announced today [9/17/2014] that it has filed a Motion for Limited Discovery in its Freedom of Information (FOIA) lawsuit against the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in order to force the agency to comply with federal court orders to produce information about how "lost and/or
destroyed" IRS records relating to the targeting of conservative groups may be retrieved.
White
House knew of destroyed emails two months before Congress. Congressional investigators have released tesimony showing that an
attorney for the IRS told the Treasury Department counsel of the destroyed emails, who then passed the information on to the White House.
The conversations took place in April — two months before the IRS told Congress of the destruction of evidence.
Attorney
Representing Conservative Groups Not Surprised by More "Lost" IRS Emails. Surprise! The IRS claims it has lost
emails belonging to even more employees embroiled in the scandal surrounding the targeting of conservatives. Guy covered the
details of the newest revelations earlier today and the AP reported about the lost emails over the weekend.
We
still don't know why Lois Lerner's Blackberry was wiped clean. As lawmakers return to Washington to continue the
search for thousands of missing subpoenaed emails related to the Internal Revenue Service's alleged targeting of conservative
groups, questions abound. Among the most pressing is the fact that a Blackberry belonging to Lois Lerner, a former official
at the center of the scandal, was wiped clean shortly after investigators started asking questions about her alleged role in the
targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. Despite the fact that this revelation first came to light
in August, the IRS has yet explain why this was done.
Will Orange be the New Black for IRS Chief
Lois Lerner? First it was just Lerner's computer that was affected, then those of her closest co-conspirators, then "no more than
twenty" computers, and now an ever larger batch of burned out workstations. Even more interesting, the IRS has apparently not yet shared
this newest tidbit with Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, the distinguished and courageous jurist presiding over Judicial Watch's Freedom of
Information Act lawsuit.
IRS says it has
lost emails from 5 more employees. The Internal Revenue Service has lost emails from five more employees
who are part of congressional probes into the treatment of conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status, the
tax service disclosed Friday.
Why
did the IRS clean out Lois Lerner's Blackberry as probes began? Congress had little opportunity to debate the
Internal Revenue Service's missing-e-mail controversy while on break during the past month, but lawmakers will have plenty
to talk about when they return next week. One question likely to come up is why the IRS wiped out Lois Lerner's
Blackberry shortly after congressional staffers interviewed the then-IRS official about suspected targeting of conservative
groups. So far, the IRS has provided no answer. The issue came to light last month after U.S. District Court
Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered the IRS to explain its efforts to recover emails that went missing when the former
official's hard drive crashed in 2011.
IRS
scandal needs a special prosecutor. We have heard the phrase "phony scandals" applied
this summer to several important developments in President Obama's administration. Obama would now
love to place in this category even the IRS scandal, in which Lois Lerner's division of that agency
targeted and harassed conservative non-profit groups. Last summer, Obama had called that scandal
"inexcusable" and forced the head of the IRS to resign. How times change. This scandal, though
without the fatal consequences that attended the mismanagement of the Veterans Administration, is
nevertheless egregious and telling about the nature of the executive over which Obama presides. It
escalated significantly last month as evidence of a bureaucratic cover-up mounted. It bears watching,
and it deserves a truly independent investigation.
The Biggest Issue
in 2016. (1) Lois Lerner's lost e-mails were never "lost" at all, but have been archived, and (2) Lois
Lerner's BlackBerry, which also contained all the lost e-mails, was scrubbed and destroyed one year after her hard drive crashed.
Judge Sullivan shows no intention of letting Obama's underlings off the hook, and at this point a full-scale judicially ordered
independent prosecution of the crimes committed seems to be in the works. [...] We do not know today just who has been involved,
but it seems likely that the trail of wrongdoing stretches right into the White House. The longer they stonewall and lie, the
greater their criminal culpability. Already it seems certain that the criminal misconduct includes not only conspiracy to abuse
the power of the IRS, but also conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The Phony IRS Scandal
is Not So Phony. The Obama administration had clearly hoped to shut down the investigation
by claiming that the central figure in the investigation, Lois Lerner, and six other IRS staffers, had all
lost their emails when their computers crashed. They said that after they were unable to recover her
emails, they recycled the hard drive, so they didn't even have that to turn it over to the investigating
committee. Our friends at Judicial Watch have been leading the way in this investigation. And
this week they revealed that a Justice Department attorney told one of their attorneys that, in fact,
Lerner's emails were not lost. They stated that "...indeed all government computer records, are
backed up by the federal government in case of a government-wide catastrophe."
Discovery of backups for 'missing' Lois
Lerner IRS e-mail. Perhaps we now need a separate fourth branch of government
whose only job it is to secure all government data against deletion by the other three branches.
Judicial
Watch Statement on Discovery of Backups for "Missing" Lois Lerner IRS Emails. The Obama
administration had been lying to the American people about Lois Lerner's missing emails. There are
no "missing" Lois Lerner emails — nor missing emails of any of the other top IRS or other
government officials whose emails seem to be disappearing at increasingly alarming rate. All the
focus on missing hard drives has been a diversion. The Obama administration has known all along
where the email records could be — but dishonestly withheld this information.
The
Latest Admission from the Obama IRS is Not Only Maddening, It's Criminal. We were told
that the agency did have all of Lois Lerner's emails, then we were told they did not. The claim was
made that they were destroyed when her hard drive crashed. We were told that no backups of the
emails were done, even though that is required by law. On Tuesday [8/26/2014], Judicial Watch obtained an
admittance from the Justice Department that, contrary to the lies previously told, the backups were done, but
they would not search for the emails pertinent to the case because it would be too difficult. Now comes an
even more stunning admission from the Obama IRS that screams of criminal misconduct in the destruction of evidence.
IRS
scandal: Obama administration strategy = delay, derail, deceive. After being told
repeatedly by a number of administration officials — including the IRS Commissioner —
that former top IRS official Lois Lerner's computer problems resulted in the destruction of thousands of her
key emails, we have now been told that those emails actually exist — backed up by an emergency
system in the event of a catastrophe. The Obama administration is doing everything it
can — including presenting false and misleading information — to stall
what can only be described as a faux investigation.
IRS back-up baloney.
Some 15 months after Americans learned about the IRS' targeting of conservative groups, we still
have no clue how such an abuse was allowed to happen. And every day, the story only gets murkier.
This week, for instance, a government watchdog group, Judicial Watch, said administration officials
admitted that all the "missing" e-mails belonging to Lois Lerner (the woman at the heart of the
scandal) had been backed up after all — as part of a practice to back up all the
government's e-mails. No government official had said anything like that before.
IRS
Shocker: Filing Reveals Lerner Blackberry Destroyed. The IRS filing in federal Judge
Emmet Sullivan's court reveals shocking new information. The IRS destroyed Lerner's Blackberry AFTER
it knew her computer had crashed and after a Congressional inquiry was well underway. As an IRS
official declared under the penalty of perjury, the destroyed Blackberry would have contained the
same emails (both sent and received) as Lois Lerner's hard drive. We all know by now that Lois
Lerner's hard drive crashed in June 2011 and was destroyed by IRS. The emails of up to twenty other
related IRS officials were missing in remarkably similar "crashes," leading many to speculate that
Lois Lerner's Blackberry perhaps held the key. Now, the Observer can confirm that a year after the
infamous hard drive crash, the IRS destroyed Ms. Lerner's Blackberry — and without making any
effort to retain the emails from it. Judge Sullivan has had to pry information from the IRS to
learn anything about Ms. Lerner's Blackberry. Now, with these latest revelations, I'm confident
he's not finished.
Lois
Lerner's Blackberry deliberately destroyed after start of congressional probe: IRS
lawyer. Lois Lerner's Blackberry was intentionally destroyed after Congress had begun
its probe into IRS targeting of conservative groups, a senior IRS lawyer acknowledged in a sworn
declaration. Thomas Kane, Deputy Assistant Chief Counsel for the IRS, wrote in the declaration,
part of a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch against the IRS, that the Blackberry was "removed or wiped
clean of any sensitive or proprietary information and removed as scrap for disposal in June 2012."
That date — June 2012 — is significant because by that time, ex-IRS official Lerner had already been
summoned before congressional staffers who interviewed her about reports of the IRS' targeting of
conservative groups.
George
Will: IRS is 'off the rails' and 'corrupted'. George Will said Tuesday [8/26/2014] on
"Special Report with Bret Baier" that new revelations in the investigation into the IRS targeting
scandal show the agency is "off the rails" and "thoroughly corrupted." The president of the
conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch told Fox News Monday that Justice Department attorneys
have said the "missing" emails of former IRS official Lois Lerner likely still exist in back-up
computers. However, the attorneys told Judicial Watch that retrieving the emails would
be "too onerous."
Lois
Lerner's Emails Exist — and Always Have. The Obama administration is now
admitting that IRS Exempt Organizations Director Lois Lerner's emails, and all other "lost" IRS
records for that matter, have not been destroyed. They are backed up, as are all other government
records. To claim as the Obama administration originally did, that the emails were destroyed, is a
bald-faced lie. We all always knew that of course. But there is nothing this administration won't do
to change the subject when its shenanigans are uncovered. Now that they have been backed into a corner,
they say it is too much trouble to recover the information. Another lie. To suggest that these
backup systems are incapable of finding records is ludicrous. If records can't be recovered, why preserve them?
Will
IRS's Strategy of Destroying Evidence Pay Off? If the latest revelations about the IRS
are correct, then its officials have approached the abuse-of-power scandal with a clear strategy,
pretty much from the beginning. They have been betting that, since their illegal targeting campaign
against those who disagree with President Obama has had the backing of Democrats in Congress, they
needed only a media strategy, not a political one. And that media strategy appears to have been:
conceal or destroy potential (and actual) evidence, and assume that this activity will be less damaging than
whatever is in the files they've worked to hide. It's a direct challenge to the media, in other words.
GOP
lawmakers say DOJ probe into IRS 'compromised,' demand special counsel. House
Republicans are calling on the Department of Justice to appoint a special counsel for its probe into
the IRS targeting scandal, claiming new evidence shows the investigation is "compromised" due to
multiple instances of conflict of interest. One example, according to House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Regulatory Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Jim
Jordan, involved a DOJ attorney representing the IRS in litigation relating to the scandal who used
to work for the IRS and was involved in the targeting. However, Monday night [8/25/2014] a DOJ
source confirmed to Fox News that the employee in question, Andrew Strelka, "no longer works at DOJ."
Obama
IRS caught lying to the Courts, Congress and the American People. Judicial Watch does it
again, acting as an advocate for the American citizen when neither party appears willing to uphold the law.
Darrell
Issa: IRS Scandal Is 'Amazing Sequence' of Cover-Up, Denial. House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa ( R., Calif.) slammed the IRS' "amazing
sequences" of cover-ups during an appearance on Fox News, following a new report which suggests that
Lois Lerner's emails were never truly "missing" following a computer crash. Watchdog group
Judicial Watch learned Friday from a Department of Justice attorney that the federal government
backs up all their computer records in case of catastrophe. The Department of Justice now says it
would be "too hard" for them to obtain the emails from that database. Issa described the reports
as part of "What's emerging to be just an amazing sequences of cover-up, delay, denial, even what
now appears to be a false statement from the new IRS commissioner in which he said he moved heaven
and earth to get us Lois Lerner's lost emails.
Is
there no end to the Obama administration's duplicity in the IRS scandal? For months on end, Internal Revenue Service
Commissioner John Koskinen insisted that Lois Lerner's emails were destroyed when her computer's hard drive failed. Koskinen
even told Congress that IRS "moved heaven and earth" trying to recover the emails but simply could not find a way to do so. Now,
thanks to a determined federal judge, the country learns that all government emails are preserved in a doomsday kind of database.
Lerner's emails never were lost.
Networks
Dodge Huge IRS Scandal News as DOJ Attorney Says Lost Lerner E-Mails Do Exist.
Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton appeared on the Fox News Channel (FNC) Monday afternoon and
informed viewers that a Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney admitted to his organization on Friday [8/22/2014]
that the e-mails belonging to former IRS official Lois Lerner that were thought to be lost likely
still exist. He declared to FNC's Shannon Bream that the story of Lerner's hard drive being damaged
and destroyed and thus her e-mails were permanently lost has "all been a pack of malarkey" and "a
big lie." When it came to the major broadcast networks covering this huge story on their Monday
evening newscasts, there was no coverage to be found as ABC, CBS, and NBC all carried out the latest
censoring of news surrounding the IRS.
DOJ
attorneys suggest 'lost' Lerner emails likely still exist: Judicial Watch. In a
stunning revelation, the president of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch told Fox News
that Justice Department attorneys have intimated that Lois Lerner's "lost" emails likely exist in
back-up computers. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said the news came during a Friday
[8/22/2014] phone call with Department of Justice attorneys representing the IRS in Judicial Watch's
FOIA lawsuit against the IRS. Fitton said DOJ attorneys told him the federal government backs up
all computer records to ensure the continuity of government in [the e]vent of a catastrophe.
Judicial
Watch: DOJ Admits Lois Lerner's Emails Exist. A Justice Department official admitted
that former IRS official Lois Lerner's apparently missing e-mails actually exist on a backup server,
but the government doesn't plan to retrieve them. "A Department of Justice attorney told a
Judicial Watch attorney on Friday [8/22/2014] that it turns out the federal government backs up all computer
records in case something terrible happens in Washington and there's a catastrophe, so the government can
continue operating," Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton told Fox News's Shannon Bream.
Further
Misadventures of Obama's Deleted Administration. I think we'd all like to know more
about the IRS' policies for destroying hard drives, since they've been destroying so many of them
lately. It's been like a hard drive skeet shoot over there. Question: Is it safe for former Tax
Exempt Organizations director Lois Lerner to fly on commercial aircraft, since she evidently emits a magnetic field
that causes computers to crash all around her?
Judge launches special inquiry into missing IRS emails and Lerner
hard drive. Judicial Watch has sued over missing IRS emails in the federal district
court in D.C., pursuant to its FOIA request for such documents. The IRS was ordered to provide
explanations as to missing emails, particularly Lois Lerner. The IRS provided explanations, but
those were not good enough for the Judge, who launched his own inquiry into the matter, [...]
IRS
Scandal: Lies, [More] Lies, and Missing Hard Drives. In sworn affidavits filed in court by top
IRS muckety-mucks, the IRS maintains that Lois Lerner's computer was sent out to be fixed by a private contractor
because of an alleged problem with its hard drive. When the contractor was unable to retrieve the lost data,
the computer was forwarded to the IRS's criminal unit forensics lab, which was also unable to recover any data.
At that point the computer's hard drive was "degaussed" and batched with other defunct computer components for
destruction and/or recycling by an outside contractor. And since the IRS doesn't assign serial numbers to
internal computer parts, there's no way to track it down.
More
lost emails — When will Democrats have enough? Twenty different Obama administration
officials have lost or destroyed a portion of their email traffic. Email traffic that was, in some
cases, under subpoena or in others requested as part of a larger inquiry into the conduct of the
executive branch. [...] The brazenly contemptuous stonewall-and-erase-evidence approach to
congressional inquiries preferred by the Obama administration is perhaps this president's greatest
affront to our constitutional system of government. When you have records going missing across an
administration, it is impossible to conclude anything other than it is a coordinated and condoned
cover-up, and not just a series of incompetent, coincidental keystrokes wiping out information.
Tavenner: Transparency
for Thee But Not for Me. It has been widely reported that the latest Obama
administration official to delete emails requested by congressional investigators is Marilyn
Tavenner, who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Far less coverage, however,
has been devoted to the ironic fact that Tavenner's agency administers the Physician Payment Sunshine Act.
The "Sunshine Act," as it is generally known, is a provision of Obamacare meant to ensure that physicians conduct
business transactions with complete transparency. In other words, the very bureaucrat whose emails have
conveniently gone missing oversees the agency tasked with keeping your doctor and his business associates honest.
Is
it time to view the Obama administration as a criminal enterprise? [C]onsider the
steadily accumulating evidence about the Obama administration's modus operandi with potentially
incriminating documents subpoenaed by Congress: A scandal erupts. Congressional hearings
are held. Documents are requested and withheld. Subpoenas are issued. Contempt
charges threatened. A few documents dribble out. Then come the admissions that, oh by
the way, emails required by multiple federal laws to be preserved have either been destroyed or "lost."
Over and over and over... The latest example comes from the Department of Health and Human Services,
which admitted Wednesday [8/6/2014] that hundreds of Obamacare emails subpoenaed in 2013 by the House
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform were destroyed months ago.
Lost
emails scandal spreads to top Obamacare official. The Obama administration admitted Thursday [8/7/2014]
that it has lost emails from the key official who oversaw the botched federal Obamacare rollout last year, and the
health department may have broken the law by failing to report the lost emails to the National Archives.
Marilyn Tavenner, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, thought she had saved the emails as
official records but now realizes they "might not be retrievable," the Health and Human Services Department
said in a letter to Congress detailing the problem.
IRS notches legal
win over lost tea party emails. The IRS won what might be Round One in a series of
contests pitting tea party groups against the agency, with a federal judge rejecting a conservative
group's bid for a court-appointed forensics expert to hunt for ex-official Lois Lerner's lost
emails. Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia said True the
Vote's lawsuit against the IRS failed to show "irreparable harm" in its injunction relief request
and that "the public interest weighs strongly against the type of injunctive relief the plaintiff seeks."
Issa:
More Than 20 Obama Officials 'Lost or Destroyed' E-mails After House Launched Probes.
The revelation that Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Marilynn Tavenner did not
retain her e-mails means that more than 20 witness in the Obama administration to lose or delete
e-mails without notifying Congress, according to the top House investigator. "The Obama
administration has lost or destroyed e-mails for more than 20 witnesses, and in each case,
the loss wasn't disclosed to the National Archives or Congress for months or years, in violation
of federal law," House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.)
said of Tavenner's lost e-mails.
Key
ObamaCare official likely deleted emails now sought in House probe. A key ObamaCare official involved in the rocky
rollout of Healthcare.gov likely deleted some of her emails that are now being sought as part of an investigation into the problems
by a House committee, Fox News confirmed Thursday [8/7/2014]. The Department of Health and Human Services informed House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa in a letter Thursday that some of the emails belonging to Marilyn
Tavenner, who leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, may not be "retrievable."
Law
Prof Gets Cute with Trey Gowdy On IRS Scandal & Gets Perp-Walked to the Democrat Walk of
Shame. The Democrats thought it would be a good idea to invite Professor Charles
Tiefer, a fierce critic of the GOP's lawsuit against President Obama, to testify against the
creation of a Special Counsel for the IRS scandal. They were wrong. Trey Gowdy's tough and
incisive arguments put Tiefer on the defensive, making it difficult for the Harvard Law grad to
answer even basic questions.
Lois
Lerner ripping 'crazies' on right: Why some media folks don't care. To be sure, this investigation has dragged
on a long time without proving a link between the White House and the Cincinnati office's targeting of advocacy groups,
especially on the right, for special scrutiny of their tax-exempt status. Critics say that conservative outlets
such as Fox have tried to keep the story alive. But the administration has done a decent job of bringing the
story back to the headlines. The IRS acknowledged that it could not find two years' worth of lost emails written
or received by Lerner, who pleaded the Fifth when summoned by Congress. And the commissioner, William Koskinen,
sounded downright arrogant when he showed up on the Hill.
IRS
commissioner: Even if we find those lost emails, Congress 'won't concede error' and will find
something else to attack. Even if the IRS recovers thousands of missing emails
belonging to key officials involved in the targeting of conservative groups, congressional
investigators will likely "go on to something else" and continue to hound the agency, according to
IRS commissioner John Koskinen. Investigators "won't concede error. They'll say it was worth
pursuing, which it is. Whether it was worth making a federal case out of it or not is another
issue," he said in an interview this week with Tax Analysts, a nonprofit group. Certain lawmakers,
he added, are determined to go after the IRS for any reason they can find.
Lois
Lerner: A Partisan Hack, Not A Public Servant. A congressional panel has released new emails from
top IRS official Lois Lerner, revealing a boiling hatred for the conservatives she illegally targeted. So
much for claims that she was just a disinterested bureaucrat. The latest batch of emails released Wednesday [7/30/2014]
by the House Ways and Means Committee contained more than a "smidgeon" of hatred and intolerance from the IRS chief
of tax-exempt organizations already famous for singling out conservative Tea Party groups for enforcement scrutiny.
"Great," Lerner wrote to an IRS colleague who complained about conservative radio at work. "Maybe we are
through if there are that many a******s."
New
Emails: Lois Lerner Referred to Conservatives As '***holes' and 'Terrorists'. A newly
discovered email exchange from Lois Lerner's official IRS email account "directly demonstrates Ms.
Lerner's deep animus towards conservatives, which she refers to as '---holes,'" House Ways and Means
Committee Chair Dave Camp wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday
[7/30/2014]. In that Nov. 9, 2012 email, Lerner further suggests that conservatives will ruin the
country: "So we don't need to worry about alien teRrorists (sic). It's our own crazies that will
take us down," she wrote. Camp (R-Mich.) told Holder the email "shows that Ms. Lerner's
mistreatment of conservative groups was driven by her personal hostility toward conservatives."
Ex-IRS
official Lois Lerner hated conservatives, new emails show. Newly released emails by
Lois Lerner, the former IRS official at the center of the tea party targeting scandal, show "deep
animus towards conservatives, which she refers to as 'a**h***s,'" according to a House committee.
The emails were among a batch of new evidence the House Ways and Means Committee turned over Wednesday [7/30/2014]
to the Department of Justice (DOJ) in support of an investigation of criminal wrongdoing at the IRS.
Lois
Lerner's 'Deep Animus Towards Conservatives' Revealed in New Emails. The discovery of
a new trove of emails sent from Tax Exempt Organization director Lois Lerner's official IRS
account — in which she compares conservatives to terrorists, and refers to them as
"crazies," "rabid," "whackos," and "a**holes" — illustrates the cunning of Democrats in
dragging this scandal out for years. If these new emails had been revealed at the outset of the
story, back when Barack Obama was pretending to be outraged by the abuse of IRS power for political
purposes, it would have been devastating. It would have been difficult for the pro-Obama
media to control the firestorm. But now, years later, it's more like a head-shaky footnote,
confirming what we already knew about Lerner — a partisan operative who was keenly
interested in using her power to serve her political interests.
How Litigating
Lost E-mails Works. Two federal judges in the last couple of weeks have issued very
plain, direct, and uncompromising orders to the IRS with tight timeframes. As I noted in my earlier
article, there is no good response the IRS can make to these orders. Judges — really, any
judge — deeply resent being lied to with a straight face. That sort of behavior shows clear contempt
for their authority. There is no reason to doubt for a moment that the absurdly fabricated lies told to
Congress by IRS officials will be accepted by these two judges. What might follow then?
The judges might, sua sponte, find the IRS official involved in direct contempt of court.
These officials could be sent to a federal jail and held as punishment for direct contempt.
All IRS roads lead to the archivist. The Internal
Revenue Service is the House of Representatives' public enemy No. 1. The agency has quietly admitted
that it has lost emails for seven employees at the center of the agency's targeting of conservative groups,
including the former employee at the heart of the scandal, Lois Lerner. The admission of a
loss of records during the course of a congressional investigation hints at either gross
bureaucratic negligence or a federal agency gone legally astray — perhaps both.
IRS
IT officials testify in court that Lois Lerner's emails may still exist. On Wednesday [7/23/2014],
House Republicans revealed that at least one Internal Revenue Service official believes that it is possible
that the agency did not "recycle" all of the hardware and backup tapes on which were stored former IRS executive
Lois Lerner's missing emails. This development may contradict testimony from IRS Commissioner John Koskinen
who told members of Congress that none of Lerner's emails could be recovered. The claim came from Stephen
Manning, an IRS IT official, and Todd Egaas, director of technology operations and investigative services for
the tax collection agency. Both testified in the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. last week about
the IRS's efforts to collect and recover data from Lerner's hard drive.
The
IRS Scandal and the Politicization of Justice. [T]he Justice Department
has been supposedly conducting a criminal investigation into the IRS targeting of conservatives
since Holder announced an investigation in May of 2013 without result. DOJ investigators apparently
had no idea that the emails of Lois Lerner and other key employees had been lost; investigators had
not bothered in all that time to interview any of the victims; and Holder put an Obama campaign
donor who works in the Civil Rights Division in charge of the investigation — a lawyer with no
experience in this type of investigation at all.
Tale
of the Tapes: IRS head confirms investigators have found backup tapes in Lerner probe. IRS
Commissioner John Koskinen, testifying before a House oversight subcommittee, stressed that he does not know
"how they found them" or "whether there's anything on them or not." But he said the inspector general's
office advised him the investigators are reviewing tapes to see if they contain any "recoverable" material.
The revelation is significant because the IRS claimed, when the agency first told Congress about the missing emails,
that backup tapes "no longer exist because they have been recycled." It is unclear whether the tapes in IG
custody contain any Lerner emails, but Koskinen said investigators are now checking.
Trey
Gowdy Eviscerates IRS Commissioner. Wednesday [7/23/2014] at a House Oversight and
Government Reform subcommittee hearing on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Rep. Trey Gowdy
(R-SC) would not let IRS Commissioner John Koskinen off the hook over his failure to bring
acceptable answers to Congress about the supposed loss of former IRS official Lois Lerner's emails.
IRS backup
tapes discovered!. You can tell that this is a huge story because the Mainstream Media
are completely ignoring it, leaving Fox News the privilege of continuing to break the story that
could well be bigger than Watergate. [...] [IRS Commissioner John] Koskinen is a savvy lawyer who
realizes that if he does not inform himself of the detailed facts, he can present testimony under
oath that there is no information to his knowledge about sensitive topics, without triggering
perjury liability. He has already employed this tactic multiple times in presenting incorrect
information to the Issa Committee, based on his failure to inform himself.
IRS
experts: Lois Lerner hard drive was just 'scratched' — not damaged beyond recovery.
Top IRS officials told congressional investigators that Lois Lerner's hard drive — the
one containing emails that could shed light on the IRS targeting scandal — was
irreparably damaged before it was destroyed completely in 2011. But now, investigators have had a
chance to talk to the technical experts inside the IRS who actually examined Lerner's computer, and
the experts say the hard drive in question was actually just "scratched," and that most of the data on it was
recoverable. The IRS computer experts also told the committee that they had recommended seeking outside
help in recovering the data from Lerner's computer — something IRS management declined to do.
Lois
Lerner's Hard Drive Was 'Scratched' Then 'Shredded'. Ex-IRS official Lois Lerner's
computer hard drive was "scratched" and the data on it was still recoverable. But the IRS did not
try to recover the data from Lerner's hard drive, despite recommendations from in-house IRS IT
experts to outsource the recovery project. The hard drive was then "shredded," according to a
court filing the IRS made to House Ways and Means Committee investigators.
In the tug-of-war between the Tea Party and the IRS, the Democrats pull for the IRS.
Democrat
Rep. Elijah Cummings calls for end to 'public harassment' of IRS chief John Koskinen.
The top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform panel is objecting to a plan to call
the Internal Revenue Service commissioner to testify for a third time in a matter of weeks, calling
it "public harassment of an agency head." Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., sent a letter Monday [7/21/2014]
to Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., objecting to a decision to call Commissioner John Koskinen to testify at
a hearing on Wednesday. It would be the third time Koskinen appeared before the panel in the past month,
Cummings noted.
The Editor says...
Answering questions raised by Congress is Mr. Koskinen's job. As the head of the IRS, which is currently
up to its neck in scandals, Mr. Koskinen has a lot to answer for. Congressman Cummings is making a feeble
attempt to drum up sympathy for the IRS Commissioner.
What
Happened To the IRS IT Asset Management Team? An Ohio-based trade association, the
International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers (IAITAM), wants to know why the
IRS's IT Asset Managers have apparently "disappeared at a key juncture." IAITAM administers
internationally accepted certifications for information technology professionals, and according to
their records "at least three IT Asset Managers ... were working at the IRS prior to the 13 May 2013
Inspector General Report [that detailed the IRS abuse of conservative political groups]." However,
IAITAM claims in a press release Monday [7/21/2014] that those workers "were shuffled out from those
positions around the time of the report."
6
questions about the IRS's missing emails, from IT experts. Did the IRS intentionally
lose e-mails to cover up potentially incriminating communications relating to the agency's targeting
controversy, or did the records go missing because of bad technology management? As for the latter
question, few organizations are in a better position to make an assessment of the situation than the
International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers, which deals with these types of
issues on a regular basis.
IRS:
Lerner emails may exist after all. The IRS might not have lost the backups of former
agency administrator Lois Lerner's emails after all, according to a top IRS official. In
testimony released Monday, Thomas Kane, the IRS's deputy associate chief counsel, told House
Oversight investigators last week that the agency was examining whether all the backup tapes which
held the emails have been recycled. The IRS told lawmakers in June that the tapes had been
recycled, one of the reasons that an untold number of Lerner's emails were missing. Since then, the
IRS commissioner, John Koskinen, has repeatedly stood by those statements in congressional testimony.
IRS
official: Lost Lois Lerner emails may still exist. Could the IRS have those missing
Lois Lerner emails after all? New testimony from a key Internal Revenue Service official indicates
the IRS may not have lost two years of emails sent by former top IRS official Lois Lerner after all.
That is what the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee suggested Monday morning in a newly released
transcript of a recent closed-door interview with IRS Deputy Associate Chief Counsel Thomas Kane.
IRS
seeks help destroying another 3,200 hard drives. Days after IRS officials said in a
sworn statement that former top agency employee Lois G. Lerner's computer memory had been wiped
clean, the agency put out word to contractors Monday that it needs help to destroy at least another
3,200 hard drives. The Internal Revenue Service solicitation for "media destruction" services
reflects an otherwise routine job to protect sensitive taxpayer information, but it was made while
the agency's record destruction practices remain under a sharp congressional spotlight.
Lois
Lerner emails reveal gaping open-records loophole. The Lois G. Lerner emails released
this month revealed a potentially huge loophole in federal open-records practices when an IRS tech
staffer acknowledged that the agency doesn't regularly store — and never checks —
instant message chats as official government records. Analysts say there is no question that the
Internal Revenue Service and all other federal agencies should be storing chats and even cellphone text
messages that may constitute official government documents, but a check by The Washington Times suggests
that hardly any agency is doing so.
Now
IRS Reports EVEN MORE Computer Crashes, Doesn't Know If Emails Still Exist. IRS Deputy
Associate Chief Counsel Thomas Kane said in transcribed congressional testimony that more IRS
officials experienced computer crashes, bringing the total number of crash victims to "less than
20," and also said that the agency does not know if the lost emails are still backed up
somewhere. The new round of computer crash victims includes David Fish, who routinely corresponded
with Lois Lerner, as well as Lerner subordinate Andy Megosh, Lerner's technical adviser Justin Lowe, and
Cincinnati-based agent Kimberly Kitchens
Rep.
Stockman: Still Waiting for NSA Metadata on Lois Lerner's Emails. Rep. Steve Stockman
(R-Tex.) says he's still waiting for the National Security Agency (NSA) to hand over metadata of
emails sent by former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official Lois Lerner, which he says is an
appropriate request by Congress to get to the bottom of the IRS scandal and protect Americans' First
Amendment rights. On June 13, Stockman sent a letter to NSA Director Michael Rogers requesting
that the agency "produce all metadata it has collected on all of Ms. Lerner's email accounts for the
period between January 2009 and April 2011." Stockman said he sent the letter just hours after the
IRS blamed a "computer glitch" for the allegedly lost emails, which House Republicans subpoenaed in
their investigation of whether the IRS inappropriately targeted certain conservative groups for
political reasons.
Lois
Lerner's Illegal Instant Message Trick. It was so brazen. Right there, over email,
Lois Lerner warned her colleagues "Congress has asked for emails... so we need to be cautious about
what we say in emails." Then she asked whether the IRS's instant messaging application was being
archived, and was told that — contrary to law — archiving had been disabled.
She responded: "Perfect."
IRS:
Lerner's hard drive was wiped clean in 2011. The IRS said under oath Friday [7/18/2014] that
former agency official Lois Lerner's hard drive was destroyed and recycled, echoing earlier testimony from
its commissioner. In its most extensive comments yet on Lerner's hard drive, the agency said in court
filings Friday that the hard drive was destroyed in 2011 to protect confidential taxpayer information.
Before that, the IRS said, the hard drive underwent a process designed to permanently erase stored data.
That process occurred after a series of IRS technical officers examined Lerner's hard drive, and found that
it couldn't be restored after a crash.
The Editor asks...
What are the names of those "IRS technical officers," and how did they wipe the data off Lois Lerner's
hard drive if it had "crashed?"
Lois
Lerner's Former FEC Pal Under Investigation Claims Her Computer Crashed Too. Really,
how much more smoke do we need to choke on before we understand exactly what is burning here[?]
Former
Congressman Says 'Arrest and Confine' Lois Lerner Until She Talks!. Congressman Steve
Stockman, fresh from visiting the Texas border, was interviewed on TPNN's "The Capitol Hill Show"
with fill-in host, former Congressman Ernest Istook on Friday, to discuss the Obama border crisis,
the impeachment of Barack Obama, and whether to arrest the Obama IRS's Lois Lerner.
Department
of Justice: We Heard About IRS Missing Emails On The News. James Cole, deputy attorney
general in the Department of Justice, testified Thursday [7/17/2014] that the DOJ heard about the destruction
of IRS officials' emails in the news, even though DOJ has formally been investigating the IRS for more
than a year. "I think we learned about it after that, from press accounts," Cole told House
Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan at a hearing Thursday on the
DOJ's response to the wave of computer crashes at the IRS that wiped out seven different employees'
hard drives.
Would
You Believe, Another Crashed Hard Drive? House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Monday [7/14/2014] made yet another request to the federal
government for details about a crashed hard drive that may have contained information allowing criminal
charges to be brought against a federal official. Issa's newest letter concerns the hard drive of
April Sands, a former employee at the Federal Election Commission who resigned in the spring after
admitting to violations of the Hatch Act. That law puts restrictions on the ability of government
officials to conduct political activities while on the job, or from government offices.
Resolution
Filed for Arrest of Lois Lerner. On Thursday, Tea Party Congressman Steve Stockman
announced that he and several other lawmakers had "filed a resolution directing the Sergeant-at-Arms
to arrest Lois Lerner for contempt." Lerner has been at the center of the IRS scandal as she was
the head of the nonprofit department that oversaw tax exempt status designations. She and the IRS
waged a years-long campaign of harassment against Tea Party groups in an apparent effort to stymie
political efficacy. On Wednesday [7/9/2014], Congress discovered emails that show an attempt by
Lerner to cover her tracks as investigators investigated her department's actions.
IRS
scandal: Lois Lerner's 'perfect' method for hiding emails. At what most expected to be
a relatively routine House oversight committee hearing on Wednesday [7/9/2014], there was yet
another IRS bombshell. On April 9, 2013, just days after seeing the draft Treasury Inspector
General Report that revealed the IRS's massive Tea Party targeting scheme, Lois Lerner, then
director of exempt organizations at the IRS, sent an email to an IRS IT official asking whether the
IRS's internal chat system was searchable. What's equally as troubling and unbelievable is that
congressional investigators and the American people learned of this internal chat system only on
Wednesday — the first time this critical communications method inside the IRS was disclosed.
House
Drafting Statement to Arrest Lois Lerner for Contempt. Lerner has come under renewed
scrutiny this week on two fronts. Emails show that she was aware of a key email that later went
"missing." More importantly, other released emails show that she sought to hide information from
Congress as it was investigating the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups. The House has the power to
arrest and jail on charges of contempt.
Lois Lerner email: "we need to be cautious about what we say in emails". This
evidences a consciousness of guilt, even if somewhat after the fact of the harassment of conservative groups. She's also not
the brightest bulb in the theater — if you are worried about saying incriminating things in emails because Congress may
discover the emails, don't talk about it in emails.
Second
federal judge tells IRS to explain lost Lerner emails. U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton told Obama
administration lawyers on Friday [7/11/2014] he wants to see an affidavit explaining what happened with Lerner's hard drive.
The IRS claims her computer suffered a crash in 2011 that wiped her email records at the time clean. But at a hearing
examining a lawsuit against the IRS by conservative group True the Vote, Walton said he wants to know what happened to Lerner's
hard drive, which allegedly was recycled. He asked for an affidavit from those involved in handling the crashed drive.
Federal
judge to IRS: Explain these "lost" e-mails, please ... under oath. The excuse of "the
hard drive ate my homework" flies just as well in federal court as it does in any middle school, it
seems. After Judicial Watch filed a complaint over the lack of notice on their FOIA demand that the
Lois Lerner e-mails no longer existed, a federal judge ordered the IRS to explain what happened within
30 days — and that explanation has to come under oath.
Lois Lerner Did Print Out 'Some'
Emails, After All. Lerner's lawyer Bill Taylor initially claimed that Lerner did not print out and file her emails,
as the Federal Records Act required her to do, before they allegedly went missing in a 2011 computer crash and her hard drive
was "recycled" by the IRS. Taylor also claimed that Lerner "did not think it was required," despite clear instructions for
employees on the IRS website. But now the story is changing. Taylor told a Virginia-based publication Wednesday that
Lerner printed out "some" of her emails. "During her tenure as Director of Exempt Organizations, she did print out some
emails, although not every one of the thousands she sent and received," Taylor said.
Lawyer: Lerner may have printed some
emails. Former IRS official Lois Lerner said she warned her colleagues to be careful about what they write in emails
amid congressional inquiries, according to new emails released by House Oversight Republicans. She also asked whether the IRS's
internal messaging system could be searched, in the same email to an IRS colleague. It was sent April 9, 2013, less than
two weeks after the IRS inspector general that unearthed the tea party targeting practice shared a draft report with the agency.
What
Lois Lerner told her IRS colleagues not to say in emails. Embattled former Internal Revenue Service senior executive
Lois Lerner cautioned colleagues against including comments in official emails and text messages that might be seen by Congress.
"I was cautioning folks about email and how we have several occasions where Congress has asked for emails and there has been an
electronic search for responsive emails — so we need to be cautious about what we say in emails," Lerner said in an
April 9, 2013, email to IRS technology staff member Maria Hooke and Nannette Downing, manager of the IRS Exempt Organizations
Exam Unit. "Someone asked if OCS conversations were also searchable — I don't know, but told them I would get
back to them. Do you know," Lerner asked.
Former
IRS Director: IRS Scandal Due to Budget Restrictions. A former IRS director said Tuesday that IRS mismanagement
was due to budget restrictions and a backlog of applications, claiming it had nothing to do with tax-exempt organizations.
"This issue with the IRS performance has been building for a long time, and critical decisions were made actually back in 2003.
Training was cut back dramatically in 2003 because of budget restrictions," said Marcus Owens, former director for the Exempt
Organizations Division of the IRS for 10 years, during a panel discussion hosted by Citizens for Responsibility and
Ethics in Washington (CREW) at the Capitol.
Federal
Judge Orders IRS to Explain Lost Emails. A federal judge on Thursday [7/10/2014] ordered the IRS to explain
under oath how it lost a trove of emails to and from a central figure in the agency's tea party controversy.
Republicans
Say Ex-I.R.S. Official May Have Circumvented Email. Lois Lerner, the former Internal
Revenue Service official at the center of an investigation into the agency's treatment of
conservative political groups, may have used an internal instant-messaging system instead of email
so that her communications could not be retrieved by investigators, Republican lawmakers said
Wednesday [7/9/2014]. The accusation against Ms. Lerner, the former head of the agency's division
on tax exemption, came nearly a week after the I.R.S. gave investigators thousands of her emails, including
some that were destroyed when her hard drive crashed in 2011 but were recovered from the accounts of people
with whom she had corresponded.
IRS
Official Whose Computer Crashed Was Responsible For Spinning Congress On Targeting. Nikole Flax
served as ex-IRS official Lois Lerner's point person on delaying and reviewing all IRS responses to questions
about what Lerner called "c4 stuff." Flax was tasked with emailing "affirmative messages" to IRS
officials if she approved of their responses to questions about the targeting. Flax, a frequent White
House visitor, is one of seven IRS employees whose emails were allegedly destroyed in a wave of computer
crashes that afflicted the IRS' Washington and Cincinnati offices.
Litigating Lost E-mails.
[Scroll down] In such a hearing, all the absurdities, all of the impossible coincidences, all the smirking lies
would be brought before justices who are unaccustomed to lawyers arrogantly telling them childish fabrications.
These justices would then be able to interrogate those who have been having fun committing perjury to a House committee.
Given this current attitude by the high court towards Obama's duplicitous behavior, it is likely that the Supreme Court
would find that the Obama administration is not acting in good faith to produce the e-mails. The court might then
issue an order compelling officials to produce the records or be found in contempt of court.
Lois
Lerner discussed new IRS 'scrutiny' guidelines same month her emails disappeared.
Former Internal Revenue Service executive Lois Lerner, once the head of the division which oversaw
tax-exemption applications, spoke at a 2010 government conference where she joined former chief of
staff to the IRS commissioner Nikole Flax, in discussing new guidelines the agency would use when
scrutinizing applications. According to a report via The Daily Caller's Patrick Howley, Flax and
Lerner both briefed federal bureaucrats on the new approach to vetting groups applying for tax-exempt status
apparently amid a series of computer crashes that permanently deleted the emails of both IRS officials.
Court
Grants Judicial Watch Hearing Over Missing IRS Emails. Judicial Watch filed a Motion
for Status Conference in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to confer
about the emails of Lois Lerner and other IRS officials, which were the subject of longstanding
Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and a lawsuit, and which the IRS now
claims to have "lost" (Judicial Watch v. IRS (No. 1:13-cv — 1559)). U.S. District
Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan almost immediately granted our request and ordered a federal court
hearing on the missing IRS emails be set for July 10!
Another
federal judge tells IRS to explain itself on lost emails. The IRS recently told
Congress that a mysterious crash of the hard drives last year irretrievably destroyed nearly two
years of emails to and from Lerner and the others to and from people in other federal agencies,
including the White House. But True the Vote wants a digital forensics expert from outside the
IRS to assess the evidence. "Even if the ill-timed hard drive 'crash' was truly an accident, and
even if the IRS genuinely believes that the emails are 'unrecoverable,' the circumstances of the
spoliation at issue cry out for a second opinion," True the Vote's attorneys told Walton in the
motion filed late Monday [6/30/2014].
Shifting Sands.
This week, the efforts to push the IRS scandal under the carpet seem to be unavailing. Increased
numbers of IT experts say the crashed drive story is implausible. [...] In fact, no one seems to be
buying the IRS tale. A Fox news Poll indicates 76% of Americans believe the IRS deliberately
destroyed the emails evincing it had deliberately targeted Obama's opponents in violation of the
law. Capping off the week, we learned that the EPA is now also claiming crashed drives destroyed
a critical email trail.
Lois
Lerner's unconvincing defenders. Judging from an appearance on CNN by former IRS
executive Lois Lerner's attorney, William Taylor III, the embattled former IRS official at the
center of the targeting scandal is embracing an argument similar to the White House's defense of
the IRS as a whole: Republicans are on a political witch-hunt. More accurately, Taylor's
defense of his client is based on the notion that Lerner is the real victim of targeting here.
Lois
Lerner Attorney Claims She Pleaded The Fifth To Avoid Being Bullied. Sunday [6/29/2014] on CNN's "State of the Union," former
IRS official Lois Lerner's attorney, William Taylor was questioned by host Candy Crowley about why she would pled the fifth if she was
innocent. "If she's done nothing wrong she doesn't need to be subjected to the kind of bullying that goes on in that committee,"
Taylor said.
Lois Lerner Fights
Back! Let's look at his opening move: "She doesn't know what happened," Taylor said
of the 2011 computer crash that erased two years' worth of Lerner's correspondence. "It's a little
brazen to think she did this on purpose." First, he is actually asserting that she didn't do it on
purpose. But it did happen, so she either she did accidentally or someone with reach power and
understanding of the consequences of the e-mails ordered it done.
Lois
Lerner's Lawyer: 'A Little Brazen' to Say She Purposely Destroyed Hard Drive. Lois
Lerner is back in the news cycle after the IRS told a House committee recently a chunk of her
emails are missing because of a failed hard drive, with House Republicans holding multiple hearings
on the matter in the past week. And in an interview with POLITICO, Lerner's lawyer says it's "a
little brazen to think she did this on purpose." William Taylor III says all the Republican
hand-wringing about Lerner doing something sinister is just "silly" because, he said, she honestly
doesn't know what happened to the emails. He charges that Republican "critics of Ms. Lerner and the
IRS seize indiscriminately on small pieces of fact to claim they prove scandal." Taylor also
claims that Lerner "requested that IT use every possible resource" to fix the hard drive in 2011
after she discovered it crashed.
The IRS Says
It Lost a Bunch of Lois Lerner's Emails. That Deserves More Scrutiny. The loss of a
personal computer hard drive shouldn't be able to permanently eliminate emails from a well-run
workplace email system. Those emails are run through central email exchange servers, and backups
are typically kept using those central exchanges. Add to that Lerner's prominence in the
investigation — she has repeatedly declined to answer questions before Congress, invoking
her Fifth Amendment right not to self-incriminate — and the year it took for the IRS to
inform the House Ways and Means Committee that the emails were lost in a crash, and the dog-ate-my-emails
bit starts to smell rather fishy.
Breaking:
Meet Emmet Sullivan, IRS Judge Who Once Sicced a Special Prosecutor on DOJ. Americans are appalled over
the false testimony of four consecutive IRS Commissioners, Lois Lerner's countless acts of malfeasance, and the IRS's
targeting of conservative groups and specific individuals, among them Senator Grassley. The ultimate outrage came
over the lame, intellectually insulting assertions that all of the most relevant emails have gone missing from multiple IRS
computers at the same time.
About
That 'Server Ate My Emails' Thing. Is the IRS really claiming both the IRS' mail
server and Lois Lerner's local hard-drive crashed? If the server's hard-drive failed, that would
mean email for everyone within the organization who had an account on that particular mail server
would not be able to access their email accounts. Email still being sent from other email accounts
on the same mail server that hosted Lois Lerner's account, and during the same time period that Lerner
claims her hard-drive crashed, would indicate the mail server was still operational, despite any
misfortune that befell Lerner's local hard-drive.
IT
Trade Association Questions Whether Lerner's Emails Were Destroyed. Were Lois Lerner's
allegedly lost emails actually destroyed? An Ohio-based trade association, the International
Association of Information Technology Asset Managers (IAITAM), isn't so sure, and they don't find IRS
commissioner Koskinen's explanation of their loss very plausible. IAITAM administers internationally
accepted certifications for information technology professionals. According to the group's standards,
if Lerner's supposedly malfunctioning hardware was properly destroyed, there would be records of it.
'Suspicious':
Experts, GOP lawmakers question Lerner's lost email explanation. IRS Commissioner
John Koskinen, in testimony on Capitol Hill this week, cited those emails as proof of the hard
drive crash. But Lerner's communications with the agency's IT team referred to her desire to
retrieve "lost personal files" — not lost emails. And that detail is "very
suspicious," according to David Kennedy, chief executive of information security firm TrustedSec.
Kennedy said that when government computers crash, email recovery should be a priority. But in
Lerner's communication with the IT team, "There is no talk about the recovery of the emails,"
Kennedy said, adding, "It didn't seem like they really wanted to recover the data."
It's
Time For AG Holder To Appoint A Special Counsel To Investigate The IRS. You may have
heard that the Internal Revenue Service has lost some emails. We are going to help the agency find
them — either on their own, or through an investigation by a Special Counsel. These
aren't just any emails. They are emails from 2009 through 2011 that Lois Lerner sent as head of the
division of the IRS responsible for targeting conservative groups based on their political beliefs.
In March, the IRS promised to turn over these emails as part of the ongoing congressional investigations
into political targeting. Now the agency says they are lost, the result of an untimely crash of Lois
Lerner's hard drive. Other key employees' emails are lost too, apparently the result of the
coincidental demise of additional IRS hard drives.
The
sleeper case that could bust open the IRS scandals. In the absence of a special
prosecutor, the best opportunity for piercing the veil of secrecy and evasion that surrounds the
IRS handling of groups perceived as enemies of the Obama administration lies in civil litigation.
The National Organization for Marriage has just obtained a $50,000 settlement from the IRS for its
criminal release of confidential donor information to an opposition group. But so far Eric Holder's
Justice Department is not pursuing inquiries into who feloniously released that information.
IRS Spent $4.4 Billion on
IT. The IRS under the Obama Administration has spent over $4 billion on contracts
labeled under information technology and software despite IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testifying
this week that budgetary restraints prevented the agency from spending $10 million to save and
store emails. Koskinen said "declining budget resources" at the IRS caused the agency decided to
reject spending the $10 million needed to ensure emails were properly secured. A review of IRS
spending by the Free Beacon shows the agency has spent a massive amount on what it labeled as
IT/software and data processing contracts in the past five fiscal years. The official government's
spending website shows the IRS spent $4.4 billion during this time period.
Blitzer
Grills IRS Head: Why Shouldn't Taxpayers Use 'Crashed Hard Drive' Argument? After
days of getting hammered by Republican members of Congress on Capitol Hill over the last few days,
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen sat down with Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room Thursday
afternoon [6/26/2014] and attempted to defend his agency's reaction to the scandal involving Lois
Lerner's missing emails. "I apologize to anybody who had their applications held up needlessly,"
Koskinen said. [E]verybody needs to be confident that the IRS is going to treat them fairly,
Republicans, Democrats, whatever organization they belong to. It's a serious matter."
Email
reveals how Lois Lerner targeted GOP Senator after she accidentally received invitation meant for
him. Congressional investigators say they uncovered emails Wednesday [6/25/2014]
showing that a former Internal Revenue Service official at the heart of the Tea Party targeting
scandal also sought to audit Republican Senator Chuck Grassley in 2012. According to the emails,
former IRS official Lois Lerner mistakenly received an invitation to an event that was meant for
the Iowa Senator. An event organizer had offered to pay for Grassley's wife, Barbara Ann,
to attend the event. In an email to other IRS officials, Lerner suggests referring the matter
for an audit. 'Perhaps we should refer to exam?' Lerner wrote in a December 4, 2012 email.
Meet
The Seven IRS Employees Whose Computers 'Crashed'. The Federal Records Act requires
IRS employees to save all of their emails pertaining to agency business and to also print those
emails out in case they have a computer crash. IRS commissioner John Koskinen claimed in
testimony in March that the IRS employees' emails were saved on servers, but then testified this
month that he doesn't know of any "magical way" to get the missing emails back. The IRS canceled
its six-year business relationship with the email-archiving firm Sonasoft in September 2011, weeks
after Lerner's computer crash, and also prematurely retired data storage devices at its IT offices
in Maryland.
IRS scandal
evolving too fast for reporters to ignore. A handful of former IRS executive Lois
Lerner's emails released by the House Ways and Means Committee seem to be serving as a Rorschach
test for political actors and members of the press alike. For some, the early reaction to those
emails revealed more about an individual's thinking about the IRS scandal, and the Republican-led
House committees, than it did about the alleged misconduct of one of the country's most powerful
law enforcement agencies.
Gohmert
and Flores Propose $1M Bounty for Lerner E-mails. Representatives Bill Flores and
Louie Gohmert, both Texas Republicans, have proposed a million dollar bounty for the recovery of
former IRS official Lois Lerner's e-mails. They've filed the Identify and Recover Sent Emails
Act, which, if passed, would award $500,000 to anyone with "pertinent information sufficient for
prosecution" of anyone involved in the destruction of Lerner's e-mails or a cool $1 million to
anyone who can recover the e-mails outright. How is the sizeable bounty to be funded?
From the IRS budget.
Jon
Stewart: IRS, federal government behavior 'borders on criminal idiocy'. Comedian Jon
Stewart isn't impressed with the Internal Revenue Service's story that it simply lost Lois Lerner
emails during a 2011 hard drive crash, saying that the government's behavior "across all platforms
borders on criminal idiocy." In response to the agency's assertion that IRS employees had an
email quota of 150 megabytes per mailbox he replied, "That's 1 percent of what Gmail
offers users for free," he said Tuesday [6/24/2014].
Lerner
sought IRS audit of sitting GOP senator, emails show. Congressional investigators have uncovered
emails showing ex-IRS official Lois Lerner targeted a sitting Republican senator for a proposed internal audit, a
discovery one GOP lawmaker called "shocking." The emails were published late Wednesday [6/25/2014] by the
House Ways and Means Committee and pertain to the woman at the heart of the scandal over IRS targeting of
Tea Party groups.
One
Million Dollar IRS Bounty Offered For Info Leading to White House. With idea that
surely someone somewhere knows something, one of the non-profits that was victimized by the IRS, is
offering a million dollar bounty for smoking gun evidence that leads to the White House. In May,
Catherine Englebrecht's group, True the Vote created The IRS Bounty which offers a million dollar
"crowd-funded award for new, relevant evidence implicating IRS senior leadership or Obama White
House officials in the IRS scandal."
Media
Bias and the Obama Scandals. If you are a New York Times reader, let me bring
you up to date: the IRS, urged on by Democratic Party politicians, has gone to considerable lengths
to suppress conservative-oriented nonprofit organizations. Among many other things, it sent
1.1 million pages of documents, some of them confidential materials that it is a felony to disclose,
to the FBI, encouraging the FBI to stir up criminal prosecutions of conservative donors. When its
activities came to light, the IRS stonewalled and likely destroyed incriminating documents, while its key
employee refused to testify under oath, relying on her privilege against self-incrimination. Scandal, anyone?
Now
EPA says it can't find emails requested by Congress because of hard drive crash. Does
the federal government have any systems at all to back its email archives? Maybe not, because the
Environmental Protection Agency is now using the same excuse as the IRS is using in response to a
Congressional subpoena: the computer ate our homework.
Trail Of Lost IRS Emails Might
Lead To White House. One of the seven people, including Lois Lerner who lost emails from the period of Tea Party targeting by
the IRS, served as chief of staff to former IRS head Steven Miller. She also made 35 visits to the White House. The funny
thing about emails is that they are never orphans. When you send one, there's always a recipient who has his or her own copy. The
"lost" Lois Lerner emails had recipients. How about subpoenas to all of them during the Tea Party targeting period?
IRS
Commissioner: 'I Do Not Remember' How I Was Told Lerner Emails Lost. While Jim Jordan
(R., Ohio) grilled IRS Commissioner John Koskinen about the first time he learned his agency had
lost Lois Lerner's emails, Koskinen insisted he remembers nothing about the situation. When Jordan
responded incredulously, Koskinen explained, "We were in the middle of filing season as all this
was going on."
IRS's Own Employee Manual Proves They Are Lying. ["]Refrain from sending large
attachments to work groups or audiences. Remember every email message and any attachments, embedded graphics and photographs require a copy
for each Exchange server store where each recipient's mailbox resides.["]
Welcome
To The Executive Dictatorship. There is almost nothing the president of the United
States cannot do. This week, we found out President Barack Obama's IRS not only targeted
conservative nonprofit applicants with impunity but then destroyed the emails that could have
illuminated the process behind such targeting. Meanwhile, the attorney general — the
executive officer charged with fighting government criminality — continues to stonewall
an independent prosecutor, maintaining along with his boss that there is not a "smidgen of
corruption" in the IRS.
IRS
Failed to Share News of Lost Lerner Emails. Testifying before the House Oversight
Committee today, U.S. Archivist David S. Ferriero said the IRS failed, as required by law, to
notify him that records — in this case the lost emails of Lois Lerner — had
been destroyed. "They did not follow the law," Ferriero said. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen
testified Monday [6/23/2014] that he knew of the lost email records in April and didn't tell a soul, not even
the committee to which he had promised to provide them.
The Merger of
the Party and the State. If you suspected that the Administration's plan was to
stonewall until things die down and it was safe to resume ruining the lives of its opponents, [IRS
Commissioner John] Koskinen's performance in recent days would have more or less confirmed it.
[...] On his previous appearance before Congress, the IRS Commissioner gave false testimony. As he
has now conceded, he has known since February that Lois Lerner's and other officials' emails were
"lost" and "irretrievable". Gone, forever, and the hard drives destroyed. Yet the following month
he was asked by Trey Gowdy why the IRS was taking so long to cough up the requested emails, and
said that it was because they had to be "screened". That was a lie.
Scarborough
Savages NYT For Burying IRS Email Scandal: 'This Is A Scam!' Co-host Mika Brzezinski
had just wrapped up explaining another possible scandal for New Jersey Republican Governor Chris
Christie, involving diverted funds for the Pulaski Skyway, when Scarborough pounced on the
newspaper. "Let's see, so this is the top of The New York Times," he began. "I'm trying to
figure out where the IRS story — is it on the front page? Because actually, there
was an investigation launched yesterday of the IRS — an internal investigation."
Mark
Levin: Democrat Response to House IRS Email Inquiry a 'Cover-up,' 'Criminal Corruption'. On
his Monday [6/23/2014] radio show, conservative talk show Mark Levin reacted to how congressional Democrats in a
House Oversight Hearing had conducted themselves earlier over the committee's inquiry into missing emails related
to an investigation of former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner. [...] "So let me be very blunt about
it — the Democratic Party now is conducting itself as the mob," Levin said. "The Democratic
Party is in a full-scale cover-up on this scandal — even more than Benghazi, on the IRS scandal.
"White House Learned of Lerner's Crashed Hard Drive 6 Weeks Before Congress". This is
criminal. No two ways about it. All of it. It matters not that the hard drives of key players crashed in ways that were statistically
near impossible; because the information is still out there somewhere [the NSA, perhaps, as noted by BBH in the comments? Or archived by an
off-site back up company?], and forensics experts would be able to find it. But Boehner still has not empaneled a select committee —
and no one is ever going to get to actual bottom of this if Congress can help it, because as I've surmised since day 1 of this breaking
scandal, it isn't only Democrats who were complicit, either actively or by omission, in the targeting of TEA Party groups.
IRS
Chief Admits: WH Wrong that Scandal Was Just 'Rogue Agents'. [Rep. Trey] Gowdy
pointed out that the White House inserted itself in the controversy, and asked whether the White
House's claim that misconduct was conducted solely by "two rogue agents in Ohio" was correct.
Koskinen responded, "Not that I know of." Gowdy then pressed Koskinen, and got him to admit that
the White House inserted itself into the scandal, and that a scandal could exist, even if it didn't
reach the White House.
IRS
Head Gets Cute About 'Lost' Emails & Has the Grin Wiped Off His Face. During a rare
Monday night hearing [6/23/2014], House Republicans hammered embattled IRS commissioner John
Koskinen over the "lost" Lois Lerner emails and over his continued insistence that there was no
criminal wrongdoing in their coincidental disappearance. While, as to be expected, Rep. Trey
Gowdy (R-SC) repeatedly challenged Koskinen, for instance, when he demanded that he cite a
particular statute or statutes (law, viz.) on which to base his claim that no criminal wrongdoing
occurred. When the commissioner replied, "you can rely on common sense," Gowdy went off: [...]
Fournier
to CNN: 'I Was Naive' to Give Obama Benefit of the Doubt on IRS. "A year ago exactly
tomorrow I called for a special prosecutor in this case while giving the president the benefit of
the doubt," he told CNN's John King. "I now realize how naive I was to give the administration the
benefit of the doubt. This needs to be investigated by an independent prosecutor." Congress has
now held several dramatic interrogations of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen over Lerner's missing
emails. Associated Press White House correspondent Julie Pace added that even if the lost emails
represented no sinister intent, the IRS wasn't exactly acting apologetic to a public that doesn't
yet believe its story.
CNN
Reporter Spars with Earnest on IRS Emails: Like Saying 'Dog Ate My Homework'. Josh
Earnest once again faced some tough questioning from reporters on his second day as White House
press secretary Tuesday, this time about missing emails tied to the IRS targeting scandal. CNN's
Jim Acosta confronted Earnest about the lack of evidence, which to him sounded like "the dog ate my
homework" excuse. "On the face of it, it doesn't sound credible," Acosta said. Earnest pushed
back, saying, "If you listen solely to the arguments that are offered up by Republicans, you might
have reason to question their credibility."
National
Archives boss: IRS 'did not follow the law' on lost Lerner emails. The top U.S.
official in charge of archiving federal records testified Tuesday that the IRS ran afoul of the law
by neglecting to tell his office that a trove of emails from the woman at the center of the
targeting scandal disappeared after an apparent hard drive crash. Archivist of the U.S. David
Ferriero, speaking before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, made clear that
federal agencies are supposed to report whenever their records are destroyed or even accidentally
deleted. But he said that after emails from embattled IRS official Lois Lerner vanished after a
computer failure in 2011, nobody told the National Archives. "They did not follow the law,"
Ferriero said.
Smoking
Gun in the IRS Scandal? During questioning by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman
Darrell Issa at his June 23, 2014 appearance and testimony, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen provided
a startling revelation, one that could conceivably lead to the dam bursting in the IRS scandal. At
the 2:21-2:28 mark of his testimony, Koskinen said: ["]All emails are not official records under
any official records Act, only emails are saved that reflect agency actions.["] [...] Koskinen's above
statement, coupled with the utterly ridiculous notion that the emails of seven IRS personnel potentially
implicated in the scandal have been lost forever, strains credulity, never mind common sense.
Fox
News Poll: Voters think IRS emails were deliberately destroyed. The consensus is:
it's no accident. More than three-quarters of voters — 76 percent —
think the emails missing from the account of Lois Lerner, the ex-IRS official at the center of the scandal
over targeting of conservative groups, were deliberately destroyed. That's according to a new Fox
News poll. That suspicion is shared across party lines, albeit to varying degrees. An
overwhelming 90 percent of Republicans think the emails were intentionally destroyed, as do
74 percent of independents and 63 percent of Democrats.
Issa:
'Serious Questions' Tonight for the IRS Commissioner. The House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee will hear testimony from IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in a rare,
prime-time hearing Monday night [6/23/2014]. "We have some serious questions for the
commissioner," Committee Chair Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) told Fox News Monday morning. "The
biggest one being, you came before us, you said you'd tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth, under oath. Do you believe you told the whole truth? Of course, the answer is, he
did not tell the whole truth."
Reminder:
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen is Major Democratic Donor. IRS Commissioner John
Koskinen is in the spotlight as he is set to further testify to Congress regarding the IRS
targeting of conservative groups. It is important to remember that Koskinen has shelled out nearly
$100,000 to Democratic candidates and groups. Koskinen has been contributing to Democrats for
four decades, starting with a $1000 contribution to Democratic candidate for Colorado Senate
candidate Gary Hart in 1979. Koskinen has been a reliable donor over the years, contributing a
total of $19,000 to the Democratic National Committee from 1988 to 2008. He has made a contribution
to the Democratic candidate for president in each election since 1980, including $2,300 to Obama in
2008, and $5000 to Obama in 2012.
'We
have a problem with you, and you have a problem maintaining your credibility'.
[Scroll down] Just ten days ago the IRS informed congressional investigators that a hard
drive crash had destroyed 28 months of emails to and from Lerner, who led the IRS's office in
charge of vetting and policing tax-exempt nonprofit groups. In an opening statement Monday night [6/23/2014],
Koskinen argued that 'it is not unusual for computers anywhere to fail, especially at the IRS in
light of the aged equipment IRS employees often have to use in light of the continual cuts in its
budget these past four years.' 'Since Jan. 1 of this year, for example,' he claimed,
'over 2,000 employees have suffered hard drive crashes.'
Fireworks
Erupt After GOP Rep Tells IRS Boss His Personal Integrity Is in Question. Monday
night at a evening congressional hearing on the Internal Revenue Service claims that Lois Lerner's
email's were lost due to a computer crash, Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) confronted agency commissioner
John Koskinen over whether he had contacted the FBI since he claimed he "can not say no crime was
committed," and that Lerner had pleaded the Fifth Amendment "to avoid criminal prosecution."
Turner grilled Koskinen demanding to know why the FBI has not be contacted asking, "Will you call
the FBI, integrity of your agency is absolutely at stake?"
An
arrogant and lawless IRS. It is a mix of arrogance and delusion that
seems designed to incense Republicans. Koskinen had delayed informing Congress of the lost e-mails
for months, even while assuring members they would be provided. "It was my decision that we
complete the investigation," he said, "so we could fully advise you as to what the situation was."
Translation from management-speak: We wanted to get our story straight before we advised you of
anything. Koskinen complained about the breadth of subpoenas and the "piecemealing out" of
information. Translation: We will provide you what we want when we want. "Every
e-mail," Koskinen assured the House Ways and Means Committee, "has been preserved that we have."
Except the ones they don't have — and somehow snuffed out, tied to an anvil and thrown
into the ocean.
Declarations Of
War. [Scroll down] I cannot remember an exchange between an appointed Cabinet
official and an elected federal legislator that's remotely comparable to these. Commissioner
Koskinen's arrogance and defiance are unprecedented. He appears unconcerned with what might follow
his open refusal to cooperate with the investigation, the most important such since Teapot Dome. No
appointee concerned with his tenure in his position would exhibit such an attitude except after having
secured assurance of protection against any significant penalty. Such protection could only issue
from higher up in the Administration: specifically, from the White House.
Readers
School Politico on 'Missing' IRS Emails. [Scroll down] ["]Most large corporate
and government entities keep backups possibly forever. Been in this business a long time,
contracting for both. Both corporate and government user emails are archived or mandated to archive
if the size reaches whatever limit set by their exchange (or other email) servers. In addition,
periodic backups of all servers (most weekly, some more often) would mean there are redundant
offsite backups, hundreds (thousands if incremental).["]
IRS
Cancelled Contract with Email-Storage Firm Weeks After Lerner's Computer Crash. The
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) cancelled its longtime relationship with an email-storage contractor
just weeks after ex-IRS official Lois Lerner's computer crashed and shortly before other IRS
officials' computers allegedly crashed. The IRS signed a contract with Sonasoft, an
email-archiving company based in San Jose, California, each year from 2005 to 2010. The company,
which partners with Microsoft and counts The New York Times among its clients, claims in its
company slogans that it provides "Email Archiving Done Right" and "Point-Click Recovery." Sonasoft
in 2009 tweeted, "If the IRS uses Sonasoft products to backup their servers why wouldn't you choose
them to protect your servers?" Sonasoft was providing "automatic data processing" services for
the IRS throughout the January 2009 to April 2011 period in which Lerner sent her missing emails.
Questions
Mount About Effort to Drive Democrat Votes for Cochran. [Scroll down] Two
observations about the Sonasoft story: first, the IRS's cancellation of the Sonasoft contract
occurred in the context of a $1.8 billion annual budget for information services, plus $330 million
annually for "business systems modernization." All of that, and the IRS couldn't afford an email
archiving service? Not only that, it had to recycle its backup tapes to save money? Ridiculous.
Paul
Ryan Unloads on IRS Commissioner in Hearing. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Friday laid into IRS Commissioner John
Koskinen for failing to keep Congress informed about the lost Lois Lerner emails, and was forced to conclude that he cannot believe Koskinen's testimony.
"This is unbelievable," Ryan began. "I am sitting here listening to this testimony... I just, I don't believe it. That's your problem, nobody
believes you."
White House Calls IRS
Investigation A 'Conspiracy Theory'. Friday at the daily briefing, White House press secretary Josh Earnest repeatedly dismissed
concerns over Internal Revenue Service claims that two years of Lois Lerner's emails are lost forever as "conspiracy theories."
Reference material:
Spoliation of evidence. The spoliation of evidence is the
intentional or negligent withholding, hiding, altering, or destroying of evidence relevant to a legal proceeding. [...] The spoliation inference is a negative evidentiary inference
that a finder of fact can draw from a party's destruction of a document or thing that is relevant to an ongoing or reasonably foreseeable
civil or criminal proceeding: the finder of fact can review all evidence uncovered in as strong a light as possible against the
spoliator and in favor of the opposing party.
Black's Law Dictionary, 1991, page 1401.
Krauthammer's
Take: IRS Playing 'Adversarial Game' with Lerner Emails. Putting aside the validity of whether the emails are totally erased,
Krauthammer said the commissioner could at least acknowledge the frustrations caused by their absence, but instead defiantly claimed the agency
had nothing to apologize for during a recent congressional hearing. Instead, the administration has played an "adversarial game" with the
Congress throughout the process. "That's why people feel there is a true scandal underneath here because of the way in which they are
concealing, and delaying, and stonewalling," he said.
About Those Missing Emails.
Lois Lerner's emails are lost, and they need finding. In the meantime, their very disappearance tells us that Congress is sniffing
down the right trail. A year into congressional investigations of IRS targeting, we know two things beyond a doubt. We
know from the public record that starting in 2010 the most powerful leaders of the Democratic Party — President Obama, Senate
chairmen, House Democrats — ran a ceaseless campaign pressuring the IRS to silence conservative groups.
The Lost IRS E-mails Exist! When
you write an e-mail, it goes to your server to be sent to the person you e-mailed. Your server keeps a copy of that e-mail, and
of all your e-mails — sent and received. [...] When you read your e-mails from your PC, tablet, or smartphone, they are
all accessing the e-mails that reside on the server. The only reason you can access them from different devices is because
they exist on the server. We went through this with Al Gore years ago, when he destroyed his PC and supposedly lost
his e-mails. It was bogus then, and it's bogus now.
Kim Strassel and the WSJ on the Lost IRS Emails.
According to Strassel's column today [6/20/2014], the contents of Lois Lerner's hard drive were wiped out by forces unknown "about
10 days after the Camp letter arrived," that is to say, a letter from House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp inquiring into
targeting of conservative groups. [...] Thank heavens for Kim Strassel and her colleagues at the WSJ, because otherwise it
would seem as if few in the press were willing to focus serious investigative attention on this extraordinary scandal.
IRS
Official Whose Emails Were "Lost" Visited White House More Than 30 Times. Last night on The Kelly File Chief
Counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice Jay Sekulo revealed that the former chief of staff to former IRS Commissioner
Steven Miller, Nikole Flax, visited the White House 35 times after talking with former head of tax exempt groups Lois Lerner
about working to criminally prosecute conservative tea party groups for "lying" about political activity. At the White House,
Flax met with a top Obama aid during some of those visits. This entire exchange is worth your time.
"Never apologize, never
explain", the IRS brazens it out. It is one thing to say "Never apologize, never explain" as an adjunct or symptom of cultural
self-confidence, quite another in an atmosphere of duplicity, evasion, or brazen contempt. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen presented a
breathtaking example of the latter when he blithely admitted that the IRS had simply "recycled," i.e., tossed out, physically destroyed,
Lois Lerner's malfunctioning hard drive that (he claimed) was unrecoverable. "I don't think an apology is owed," he told a stunned
House Ways and Means Committee.
The Editor says...
If I had a hard drive crash in my own computer, and there was anything even remotely important on that drive, if I could not afford to
have the data recovered, I would wrap it up and stash it in my garage, hoping to someday be able to afford a professional recovery of the missing files.
On the other hand, if I had a hard drive that contained incriminating information, and an investigation of my business had just been announced,
and if I were inclined to feloniously destroy the evidence on that hard drive, I would make that hard drive disappear forever. I might also claim that
the hard drive had been "recycled."
The IRS case involves half a dozen simultaneous hard drive "crashes," which in my opinion were
probably induced with the same sledgehammer. All of those hard drives happened to belong to the central figures in a major scandal.
The likelihood of these events happening exactly as the IRS now claims are approximately zero. As is so often the case, the government
is lying to the American people. The truth will be known someday, and it may not be soon because the Justice Department has been
completely politicized. But that day would arrive sooner if the Republican-controlled House of Representatives asserted its
checks and balances on the Executive Branch.
Darrell
Issa calls White House attorney on IRS email loss. House Oversight Chairman Darrell
Issa is hauling in a former IRS counsel-turned-White House attorney to testify on the disappeared
Lois Lerner emails. The California Republican on Thursday evening [6/19/2014] requested Jennifer
O'Connor of the White House Counsel's office to testify on Tuesday morning about her knowledge of
the crashed hard drive of ex-IRS tax exempt chief Lerner. The IRS says the crash erased two years'
worth of Lerner's emails just when the IRS was beginning to pull conservative social welfare groups
for additional scrutiny.
IRS
commissioner: You know, e-mail isn't necessarily an "official record"; Update: IRS Manual says it
is. The issue isn't that some things should be kept in hard copy; it's that the
electronic copy of all e-mail is supposed to be retained for a much longer period, as
well as storing important records by hard copy. That's certainly the expectation
that the federal government has of us.
We know the
whereabouts of the "lost" IRS emails. Access to any of those records can be had with a simple directive from
the President of the United States. The facility where the records are stored, along with the private emails, text
messages, google searches and 20 trillion domestic phone calls since 2001 is owned and operated by America's National
Security Agency which, among other things, is responsible for the monitoring of American citizens and storing any and all
digital interactions captured on private and public telecommunications lines. The NSA's most advanced intelligence
monitoring facility is located at Camp Williams and is called the "Utah Data Center." If the emails ever existed, whether
they were deliberately wiped or accidentally lost, the National Security Agency undoubtedly has a digital record of them.
On
the Missing IRS Emails, Two Observations. As Scott [Johnson] noted earlier today [6/20/2014], IRS
Commissioner John Koskinen testified before the House and Ways and Means Committee this morning. Koskinen was
grilled about Lois Lerner's lost emails, and was unapologetic. It is clear that the IRS made no systematic
effort to retain emails beyond six months, and Koskinen testified that this is OK because emails are not necessarily
"records." Documents that are not "records" can be deleted at will. Koskinen's position is tenuous,
however, in light of the broad definition of "record" under federal law.
The IRS Had a Contract With an Email Backup
Company. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said it can't provide emails sent between 2009 and 2011 that were requested
by congressional investigators because of hard drive crashes. The agency said that emails stored on dead drives were lost forever
because its email backup tapes were recycled every six months, and employees were responsible for keeping their own long-term archives.
IRS contracted with
email archiving company in 2005. Is that a smoking gun I smell? It turns out the IRS contracted with a company that
provides email backup services starting in 2005. This first came to light in the Twitter feed of moregenr, who noticed that the
IRS appears on the client list of email archiving service provider Sonasoft.
Ryan to IRS: "Nobody
Believes You". IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified before the House and Ways and Means Committee
this morning [6/20/2014]. [...] In his testimony, we learn that in IRS-world, agency emails are not considered records
subject to preservation under otherwise applicable law. According to Koskinen, the agency's "email system is not
being used as an electronic record keeping system."
Is
It Time for a Special Prosecutor? The anniversary of the Watergate burglary arrived this week, along
with the disquieting revelation that it's not just disgraced former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner
who's taking the Fifth. Her email is clamming up, too. More than a year into the controversy over the
tax agency's targeting of conservative non-profit groups, IRS officials casually told congressional investigators
last week that a 2011 computer crash caused thousands of sought-after Lerner emails to disappear. So, can the
mess at the IRS now objectively be called an Obama administration scandal?
The IRS's
'Lost' Email Deception. As political pressure builds on Capitol Hill, it can finally
be revealed that a mysterious, politically progressive electromagnetic pulse may have hit the hard
drives of Lerner and six of her IRS underlings. Obama officials now claim the emails of all seven
government employees to outside organizations and agencies including the White House have been consigned
to oblivion. As a result of this devastating "attack" the IRS is suddenly claiming it no longer
possesses tens of thousands of emails from Lerner and her subordinates, a year after congressional
investigators demanded the likely incriminating electronic communications.
What
is the IRS hiding? The 24,000 documents, which should have been backed up nightly,
were requested more than a year ago but have now been determined to be "unrecoverable" by the
techies over at the IRS. You don't say? No one has indicated they will ask the National Security
Agency, which apparently has all emails ever sent in or out of this country, for help. John
Koskinen, the IRS commissioner who took the job only six months ago with a pledge to restore the
public trust, testified in March that emails were hard to find, but he never revealed any destruction
of them resulting from "computer crashes." That news came in a letter from him, of course, late
last Friday — when revealing information is always released — and begs the question
of whether Koskinen has any idea of what's going on, lied then or is lying now.
IRS
boss faces 'cover-up' claims ahead of Hill hearing on missing emails. A congressional
hearing Friday [6/20/2014] into how the Internal Revenue Service lost thousands of emails from an
ex-official accused of targeting conservative groups turned into an angry shouting match, with
Republicans accusing the IRS commissioner of lying to Americans. "This is unbelievable," Rep.
Paul Ryan, R-Wis., angrily told IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. That's your problem. Nobody
believes you." Koskinen responded, "I have a long career. That's the first time anyone's
said I don't believe you." "I don't believe you," Ryan shot back again.
Obama's
Unbelievable Missing IRS Emails. Reminiscent of nothing so much as Nixon secretary
Rose Mary Woods's infamous selective erasures of her boss's tapes, today's sought-after
communiqués are, we are told, victim of a crashed computer and a failed hard drive, both
belonging to Lois Lerner, the chief of the IRS tax-exempt office at the center of the controversy.
And in good Nixonian style, it's not just Lerner whose emails have gone unaccounted for. Six more
IRS employees connected to the original targeting outrage have records the agency cannot submit to
Congress — including Nikole Flax, chief of staff to the man eventually fired for his
role in targeting conservative groups while serving as acting commissioner.
'Nobody
Believes You': Ryan Blasts IRS Head Over Lost Emails. New claims have surfaced that
[Lois] Lerner's hard drive was destroyed and emails from several other officials also have gone
missing. Koskinen got the hearing off to a contentious start by telling House Ways and Means
Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) that he doesn't feel an apology is owed for the lost emails.
Camp had challenged Koskinen about why he did not apologize in his opening statement. Later, Rep.
Paul Ryan (R-WI) went off on Koskinen, telling him simply "nobody believes you." He called out
Koskinen for "burying" the disclosure about Lerner's lost emails in a 27-page letter to the Senate.
'Let
Me Finish!' GOP Rep. Dave Camp and IRS Commissioner's Testy Exchange. At the close
of Koskinen's prepared remarks, Camp immediately went for the gut in thanking the commissioner:
"What I didn't hear him from that was an apology to this committee." "I don't think an apology
is owed," Koskinen replied. And we're off. "There's not a single e-mail has been lost since the
start of this investigation." The back-and-forth remained at a near-boil for the next several
minutes, with Camp accusing the commissioner of deliberately keeping the lost emails a secret.
Despite knowing about the email loss in February, the IRS had not informed Congress until last
Friday. "It was my decision that we complete the investigation so we could fully advise you with
what the situation was," Koskined explained of the delay. "We were not keeping it a secret.
My position has been that when we provide information, we should provide it completely."
IRS commish:
No apologies for losing Lerner emails. [T]he lost emails are denting the IRS's credibility,
which has already suffered from the tea party scandal in which the agency targeted conservative groups for
improper scrutiny, asking questions about their religious leanings and donors. The agency also wrongly
blocked approval for some of those application, in some cases for years. "Nobody believes you," Rep.
Paul Ryan, the GOP's 2012 vice presidential nominee, told Mr. Koskinen, questioning how an agency as powerful
as the IRS could not have the capacity to store all emails. "You ask taxpayers to hang onto seven years
of their personal taxpayer info in case they're ever audited, and you can't keep more than six months of
employees' emails?"
White
House: No emails between White House, Lerner. The White House said Wednesday [6/18/2014] it has
found no emails between any person in the executive office of the president and a top Internal Revenue Service
official who has been connected to the improper scrutiny of political groups.
We Don't Need No Stinkin'
Emails. They're openly sneering at us now. Late on Friday [6/13/2014], the Internal Revenue
Service revealed that two-and-a-quarter years of Lois Lerner's emails have been "lost". Yesterday
the IRS told Congress that it is unable to produce the emails of six other officials involved in
the targeting of conservative groups, among them Nicole Flax, the chief of staff to then IRS
commissioner Steven Miller. We now learn that the IRS only retains email on its server for six
months. After that, the email exists only on the hard drive of the physical desktop computer of the
employee in question. And therefore, if that hard drive crashes, those emails are lost forever.
By the way, do feel free to try that excuse if the IRS asks you to produce any document more than six months old.
The Editor says...
I believe it is reasonable to surmise that the hard drive from Lois Lerner's computer "crashed" after it was
removed from her computer and repeatedly hit with a sledgehammer. I believe it is also safe to assume that the same thing
happened to the disk drives in the computers of the other central figures in the IRS scandal, since they all "crashed" at about
the same time. The Congressional investigators should press the IRS for the name of the "recycler" to whom the hard
drives were turned over for destruction, and demand a certificate that shows where the disk drives came from and the
person ordering the destruction.
IRS
Officials: 'Oops, Lerner's Hard Drive Is Gone Too'. Four year-olds can make up better
stories than this. I don't care how long it takes but I hope at least one or two Republicans stay
focused on this until somebody fries for it.
IRS
commissioner won't apologize for lost e-mails. In his most contentious hearing since
becoming commissioner six months ago, Koskinen testified about efforts the IRS has made to recover
e-mails that were lost when Lois Lerner's computer hard drive crashed in 2011. Lerner is the former
director of the Exempt Organizations office that held up the tax exemption applications of conservative
groups from February 2010 through the 2012 election. Ways and Means Chairman David Camp, R-Mich.,
pressed Koskinen on why he didn't notify Congress about the problem with Lerner's e-mails when he first
found out about it in February. "You can blame it on a technical glitch, but it is not a technical
glitch to mislead the American people," Camp said. "You say that you have 'lost' the emails, but
what you have lost is all credibility."
Sources: Lois
Lerner's emails likely gone forever. Ex-IRS official Lois Lerner's crashed hard drive
has been recycled, making it likely the lost emails of the lightning rod in the tea party targeting
controversy will never be found, according to multiple sources. "We've been informed that the hard
drive has been thrown away," Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Finance Committee,
said in a brief hallway interview. Two additional sources told POLITICO the same late Wednesday
[6/18/2014], citing IRS officials.
The Editor says...
Politico is not exactly a Tea Party newsletter. In this case they are "citing IRS officials," which means they are
attempting to popularize the wishful thinking of the IRS; that is, that the "lost" (and no doubt incriminating) emails
are gone forever, so we might as well forget about trying to find them in the remote email servers, the off-site backup
tapes, and the Fusion Centers.
Catherine
Engelbrecht: "This administration is rattling the very foundations of this republic".
Catherine Engelbrecht from True the Vote doesn't buy the thee 'lost emails' claim from the IRS and
doesn't hesitate to call it a coverup. She goes on to say: [Video clip]
Wall Street Journal: IRS scandal 'worse
than Watergate'. The revelation that the computers of Internal Revenue Service
workers, including Tea Party prober Lois Lerner, were erased of critical emails sought by lawmakers
has elevated the affair to — and maybe beyond — an old familiar presidential
scandal, Watergate. "The IRS tea-party audit story isn't Watergate; it's worse than Watergate,"
according to deputy Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Daniel Henninger. "The Watergate
break-in was the professionals of the party in power going after the party professionals of the
party out of power. The IRS scandal is the party in power going after the most average Americans
imaginable," he added.
Democratic
Congressman Compares IRS Scandal to Area 51, Obama Birth Certificate and Benghazi. In
Friday's House Ways and Means Committee hearing about Lois Lerner's missing emails, Rep. Lloyd
Doggett (D-TX) compared the investigation to other famous conspiracy theories like Area 51, Obama's
birth certificate — and the murder of four Americans in Benghazi. He said it was not a serious
investigation and wondered how IRS Commissioner Koskinen could take it seriously.
The Editor says...
Ridicule is one of the first defenses used by dishonest politicians and their shills.
GOP
fury after report claims IRS 'recycled' Lerner hard drive. The top Republican on one
of the House committees investigating the IRS targeting scandal reacted furiously late Wednesday [6/18/2014]
to a report that ex-IRS official Lois Lerner's hard drive had been recycled, making it likely that many emails
sent to and from Lerner prior to the summer of 2011 will never be recovered. The Politico report cited
two anonymous sources, as well as Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who confirmed that the Senate Finance Committee
had been told that the hard drive had been discarded.
Lois
Lerner Emails: Nothing Digital Ever Dies. To say that the IRS "lost emails" has engendered skepticism is
putting it mildly, especially in right-of-center circles. "The Obama administration's claim that the IRS has 'lost' two
years of Lois Lerner's emails is implausible to anyone who understands how email systems work," writes conservative
attorney John Hinderaker, a Claremont Institute fellow. "The Obama administration is lying, and lying in a remarkably
transparent way." To hear the IRS tell it, it wasn't just the hard drive on Lerner's computer that crashed; it was
the hard drive on six other computers. The agency also lacked a centralized archive, it says now, and employed an
archaic practice of re-using the tapes backing up its system every six months — thereby erasing the material
already there. Who knew the IRS was so frugal?
IRS
'Lost' Emails From Official That Met With Top Obama Assistant. The IRS recently
claimed that it lost emails from Nikole Flax, who served as chief of staff to former IRS
commissioner Steven Miller. Flax was one of seven IRS employees including ex-official Lois Lerner
whose emails to and from White House officials and other Obama administration agencies were
purportedly deleted and could not be handed over to congressional investigators. Flax held
personal meetings with a top assistant to President Obama and also colluded with Lerner to
prosecute conservative activists. Flax made 31 visits to the White House between July 12,
2010 and May 8, 2013, according to White House visitor logs. Flax's visits started in the early
days of the IRS targeting program and ended just two days before the IRS scandal broke on May 10, 2013.
Pelosi:
'They Need a New Technology System at the IRS'. [Scroll down] "If the IRS truly got rid of
evidence in a way that violated the Federal Records Act and ensured the FBI never got a crack at recovering files
from an official claiming a Fifth amendment protection against self-incrimination, this is proof their whole line
about 'losing' e-mails in the targeting scandal was just one more attempted deception," House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) said in response. "Old and useless binders
of information are still stored and maintained on federal agency shelves; official records, like the e-mails
of a prominent official, don't just disappear without a trace unless that was the intention."
IRS Contempt of Congress.
The IRS is now telling Congress that it has lost the emails of no fewer than seven IRS employees
central to the targeting of conservative nonprofits, though that's only half the outrage. There's
also the IRS's quiet admission that it has spent most of the past year willfully defying Congress.
IRS
Head Koskinen Lied About 'Lost' Lerner Emails. Rep. Darrell Issa's House Oversight
Committee has subpoenaed IRS Commissioner John Koskinen to testify June 23 about Lois Lerner's
suddenly lost emails. One of the topics is expected to be his prior contradictory congressional
testimony. Koskinen testified about the emails at an Oversight hearing in March and, as
investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson notes, gave quite the opposite impression from the current
storyline that has every computer nerd in America rolling on the floor laughing. Koskinen said
the reason that requested emails were difficult to provide was that IRS emails "get taken off and
stored in servers." He failed to mention any Lerner hard-drive crash that allegedly occurred long
before, only to be divulged in this administration's habitual Friday data dump of unpleasant news.
Obama's
double asterisks on IRS. As Congress investigates the IRS chicanery, the IRS has
responded to a request for emails to and from Lois Lerner, who spearheaded the Tea Party
harassment, by saying, basically, that the dog ate its homework. Or, rather, the IRS claims,
somewhat dubiously, that "a hard drive crash" on Lerner's computer led to the loss of emails to
outside entities "such as the White House, Treasury, Department of Justice, FEC, or Democrat
offices." You know, the very people she's accused of coordinating her harassment with.
With those emails missing, it'll be harder to prove whether Lerner's Tea Party harassment might have
been at the behest of other wrongdoers, perhaps going as high as the Oval Office itself. But
since government agencies seldom "lose" evidence that makes them look good, reasonable people might
suspect that there's a cover-up going on.
Congress
to Obama: Send Us 'All Communications' Between Your Office and Lois Lerner. Rep. Dave
Camp (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is asking President Obama to
"ensure accountability" in the ongoing IRS investigation by providing his committee with "all
communications between Lois Lerner and any persons within the Executive Office of President for the
period between January 1, 2009 and May 1, 2011." The IRS informed Congress on Friday [6/13/2014]
that an untold number of Lerner's emails to outside agencies, including the White House, were lost during
the 2009-2011 time frame due to a "computer crash."
Issa
Subpoenas Lois Lerner's IRS Computer Hard Drive. Because the IRS told Congress late
last Friday that former IRS official Lois Lerner's computer had apparently crashed and her emails
from January 2009 to April 2011 were now lost, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
issued a subpoena today for that computer hard drive, other electronic devices, and all
communications and documents related to that PC crash. "After a year of beating down efforts by
the Obama administration and its allies to obstruct an investigation into targeting, the IRS now
says it lost perhaps the most critical evidence," said House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa
(R-Calif.) in a June 17 statement.
If
you think the IRS' latest claim on 'lost' emails is unprecedented, Gawker has some news for
you. As the Internal Revenue Service tries its best to convince a skeptical nation
that it's unable to recover nearly two years' worth of subpoenaed emails because of a supposed
computer crash, it's important to remember that this isn't the first time that a federal agency has
"struggled" to produce requested correspondences. [...] Gawker editor John Cook wrote the State
Department nearly two years ago for all emails between Reines and reporters from various news groups,
including the New York Times and BuzzFeed, and State has yet to fulfill his request.
The
IRS's stunning and shameful record-keeping hypocrisy. [Scroll down] A local
hard-drive failure would have nothing to do with that record retention in a professional IT
environment. The data would still reside on the servers and could be easily reconstituted from the
backup. In fact, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified in March that the data existed on the
agency's servers, and not the local hard drives. The claim that the IRS recycles its backup tapes
every six months is equally ludicrous. The federal government has more strict expectations for
publicly held corporations. Sarbanes-Oxley regulations passed more than a decade ago specifically
require retention of email data for five years, and make the kind of destruction claimed by
the IRS in this instance a crime punishable by 20 years in prison.
Krauthhammer
Slams Obama: What He Just Did "Is A High Crime". The IRS has conveniently "lost" all
of Lois Lerner's emails regarding the targeting of conservative groups over a two year period.
The same government that claims to capture all of Americans' phone call data and emails suddenly
claims that they cannot find any of Lerner's emails.
Lerner
on missing emails: 'Sometimes stuff just happens'. The two years of missing emails
from the account of Lois Lerner may be a problem for most people but for Lerner, it's just part of
life. "Sometimes, stuff just happens," Lerner wrote to an IT expert in 2011 who was trying to
retreive the emails that were lost in her "hard drive crash."
The
Real Story of the IRS Scandal. So now the IRS claims that a computer crash has
irrevocably erased pertinent e-mails (an excuse I will remember when I am audited). National
Review's John Fund reports that the IRS manual says backups must exist. If e-mails — which
exist on servers, clouds, and elsewhere — can be destroyed this way, someone should tell the NSA
that there's a cheaper way to encrypt data.
Six
More IRS Targeting Scandal Figures' Emails have Disappeared. The federal government
swooped into Gibson Guitar's Tennessee headquarters in August 2011, with armed agents, and shut the
company down temporarily. The suspected crime was using illegally imported wood. Not a particularly
important crime, yet the government treated it as if it was a clear and present danger to the
republic. No charges have even been filed in that case. In the case of the IRS, the suspected
crime is weaponizing government against citizens who exercised their rights as such. That is a
clear and present threat to the republic. There is an active cover-up happening right now in the
very heart of the IRS. It's time for a raid, a round-up, and trials.
'Lost'
IRS emails: Get real, Team Obama, we're not that gullible. Any American with even a
rudimentary knowledge of how electronic messages are sent knows that email records are largely
impervious to anything but the most widespread and systematic computer crashes. Further, we also
know that computer crashes are focused events. When a computer "crashes" it's not able to delete
incriminating emails from specific time periods while leaving all others intact. Indeed, in the
aftermath of this absurd assertion, the response from experts was overwhelming: The story makes no
sense. IRS emails were not permanently stored on Lois Lerner's computer alone (of course) but on
servers that preserve records. They would remain there even if Lerner decided to do something
outrageous like light her computer on fire in an effort to hide her criminal activity.
IRS
Commissioner Subpoenaed to Testify About Lost Lois Lerner Emails. Today [6/16/2014], the House Oversight
Committee subpoenaed IRS Commissioner John Koskinen to testify at a hearing Monday about Lois Lerner's "lost" emails.
On Friday, the IRS disclosed to Congress that it had lost many Lois Lerner emails dated from January 2009 to April 2011 due
to a previously undisclosed computer crash in 2011. In a letter to Koskinen today, Chairman of the Oversight Committee
Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said that the Federal Records Act (FRA) was passed by Congress to avoid this very scenario.
"The FRA requires agencies to make and preserve records of agency decisions, policies, and essential transactions, and to
take steps to safeguard against the loss of agency records," wrote Issa.
IRS
Was Required By Law to Print Out Lois Lerner's Emails. The Internal Revenue Service
is required by federal law to keep records of all agency emails and to print out hard copies of the
emails to make sure they get saved in the event of a computer glitch. The IRS recently claimed
that it lost 24,000 of 67,000 emails that ex-official Lois Lerner sent between 2009 and 2011, due
to a computer crash. The IRS, which agreed to turn over all of Lerner's emails to the House
Committee on Ways and Means, specifically lost emails Lerner sent to other Obama administration
agencies and the White House. Lerner is a major figure in the targeting scandal that has
hit the IRS.
'Plot
lines in Hollywood are more believable'. The IRS 'lost' the emails of six other
agency officials associated with a scheme to target conservative organizations — in
addition to those of former official Lois Lerner — and kept it a secret for months, the
House Ways and Means committee learned on Tuesday [6/17/2014]. The news prompted the House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee to issue broad subpoenas on Tuesday afternoon for hard
drives, thumb drives and other backups that Lerner and the tax authorities may have used to archive
her messages.
Why
Darrell Issa just asked the IRS to hand over a hard drive. House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa on Tuesday issued a subpoena to the Internal
Revenue Service, ordering the agency to turn over the hard drive they claim is responsible for
wiping out two years of critical email communications. Issa has dramatically widened his probe
into the IRS after the agency announced last week that it had lost the emails, which may have
provided information about an IRS policy of targeting for extra scrutiny and delay many
conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.
IRS
Knew Lerner Emails Were Missing For Months, 'Lied To' Congress. The Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) knew for months that Lois Lerner's emails had been destroyed, even before the current
IRS commissioner testified that his agency would produce all of them. The IRS knew as early as
February 2014 that Lerner's emails were missing, top lawmakers on the House Committee on Ways and
Means confirmed Tuesday. The IRS had this knowledge nearly three months before IRS commissioner
John Koskinen agreed at a hearing to turn over all of Lerner's emails to the committee.
Additionally, the IRS failed to deliver emails from six other IRS employees at the heart of the IRS
targeting scandal including former IRS official and frequent White House visitor Nikole Flax,
according to the Ways and Means Committee.
Attkisson
On Missing IRS Documents: If The Emails Really Are Lost, 'That's Quite A Story In Itself'.
[Sharyl] Attkisson said that regardless of whether the emails were lost accidentally or improperly, the
individuals responsible should be held accountable. "One official wrote me... to say this is entirely
implausible, and he said there are criminal penalties for destroying federal records, which makes sense,
including liability for negligence for not taking the necessary steps to protect files, including a federal
requirement to backup data. This doesn't happen. He said ... all email servers are backed up
with something called 'RAID' (Redundant Array Of Independent Disks), and it's nearly impossible for something
to delete the files, and that even if that were to happen they would not be gone forever," she said.
A Tale of Two Scandals.
In a truly stunning development in the Internal Revenue Service scandal, the agency last week informed Congress that
more than two years' of Lois Lerner's email communications with those outside that agency — from 2009 to
2011, meaning the key years at the heart of the targeting-of-conservatives scandal — have gone missing.
Quite strangely. The IRS says it cannot locate them. The reason is that Lerner's computer crashed.
GOP:
IRS lost emails go beyond Lerner. Two top Republicans said Tuesday [6/17/2014] that in addition
to Lois G. Lerner's emails, the IRS appears to also have lost records from six other agency employees
involved in the tea party targeting scandal. Reps. Dave Camp and Charles Boustany Jr., who are
respectively the chairmen of the House Ways and Means Committee and a key oversight subcommittee, said one of
those employees whose records have been lost was Nicole Flax, the chief of staff for the acting IRS commissioner.
IRS Has Lost
More Emails... It's not just Lois Lerner's e-mails. The Internal Revenue Service says it can't
produce e-mails from six more employees involved in the targeting of conservative groups, according to two
Republicans investigating the scandal. The IRS recently informed Ways and Means chairman Dave Camp and
subcommittee chairman Charles Boustany that computer crashes resulted in additional lost e-mails, including from Nikole
Flax, the chief of staff to former IRS commissioner Steven Miller, who was fired in the wake of the targeting scandal.
WH
on Lois Lerner's Vanished Emails: 'You've Never Heard of A Computer Crashing Before?
The Internal Revenue Service has told Congress that many of the emails to and from Lois Lerner were
lost in a computer crash in 2011. "You've never heard of a computer crashing before?" White House
spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday [6/16/2014], when a reporter asked if that was a "reasonable
explanation." "I think it's entirely reasonable, because it's the truth and it's a fact, and
speculation otherwise I think is indicative of the kinds of conspiracies that are propagated around
this story," Earnest said.
Krauthammer:
Second Article of Impeachment Against Nixon Was For Abusing The IRS. ["]These guys
are living on a different planet. They asked for this a year ago, it's now discovered they are
lost. I've seen quotes from computer experts who worked for decades at Microsoft who say that this
can absolutely be found. And we already heard from one of the IRS officials a few months ago that
all of this stuff is backed up. Now, the idea — here we have Nixon lost
18 minutes. Obama's now lost two years of emails, and one thing that people don't
remember, the second article of impeachment for Richard Nixon was the abuse of the IRS to pursue
political enemies. This is a high crime; this is not a triviality.["]
Proof that Friday document dumps work!
Only
CBS Covers IRS Losing Two Years of Lois Lerner Emails. On Monday [6/16/2014], only CBS This Morning
reported Friday's stunning revelation that the IRS somehow lost two years worth of emails from Lois Lerner, the
official at the center of the agency scandal in which conservative groups were unfairly targeted.
At the top of the morning show, co-host Norah O'Donnell wondered: "How did the IRS lose emails in
the scandal targeting conservatives after the government spent millions to back up data?"
More
about Friday afternoon document dumps.
IRS
Commissioner Subpoenaed to Testify on Lois Lerner's 'Lost' Emails. Rep. Jason
Chaffetz was even more perplexed than most Americans when he heard last week that the Internal
Revenue Service had lost two years of Lois Lerner's emails. He had been told "they're there" by no
less than IRS Commissioner John Koskinen himself. Lerner directed the IRS' tax-exempt division at
a time tea-party groups faced additional scrutiny or delays in their applications. Lawmakers are
now seeking her email communications to determine the extent of her involvement — or that of
others — with this alleged harassment of conservative groups.
The Ticking
IRS IT Department Time Bomb. It's not unusual for a political operative to take a
fall in order to be a "good soldier" under the theory that it is easier to get hired by a campaign
or put in a government job or a friendly think tank after committing an ethical lapse than to be
hired by a campaign or being employed by a friendly think tank after reporting on an ethical lapse.
This however doesn't apply to the IT department, these guys can often find better work at a
better wage outside of government and their expertese and ability to get job is not tied to.
Neal Boortz:
The IRS scandal is now worse than Watergate. News surfaced Friday that the IRS can't
find any of Lois Lerner's potentially incriminating emails because of "a computer crash." "You
really have to have your head in cement to not understand that the reason [the IRS] can't find
those emails is because they are very incriminating," Neal Boortz said. "They tie Obama and the
Whitehouse to the IRS scandal."
The
Latest On Lois Lerner's "Lost" Emails, With A Bombshell At The End. My opinion of the
federal government's efficiency is not high, but I find it hard to believe that this is really how
the IRS manages its records. I am not a tax lawyer, but I assume that any corporation subjected to
an IRS audit, or any other kind of government investigation, that had this lousy a system of preserving
records would be crucified. That is all very interesting, but the question remains: did
Lois Lerner really lose the only copies of her 2009-2011 emails in a hard drive crash?
Congress
will drag IRS commissioner into TWO hearings to explain how 28 months of Lois Lerner's emails were
'lost'. The aggressive Republican chairman of a House investigative committee
demanded Monday [6/16/2014] that IRS Commissioner John Koskinen explain — in
person — how 28 months of emails to and from embattled former official Lois Lerner
were 'lost' to a computer crash. California Rep. Darrell Issa, who chairs the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee, wrote to Koskinen in reaction to his agency's claim Friday that the
IRS no longer has copies of emails between Lerner and anyone outside the IRS from January 2009 through April 2011.
Darrell
Issa subpoenas IRS commissioner over lost Lois Lerner emails. House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa has subpoenaed the commissioner of the Internal
Revenue Service to testify next week before Congress about a trove of lost emails that could
contain evidence of a plan to targeted conservative groups. Issa, R-Calif., will hold a June 23
hearing aimed at finding out more about two year's worth of emails — from 2009
to 2011 — that the IRS has reported lost. The emails were from former top IRS
official Lois G. Lerner to Justice Department and Treasury officials. Issa had
requested the emails because he and other Republicans believe Lerner played a key role in the
targeting scheme and they believe she can link the targeting to even higher levels of the government.
Former
IRS Information Tech Worker Doubts Agency's Claim to have 'Lost' Lerner's Emails.
This person worked at the IRS facility in New Carrollton, Maryland. He worked on the agency's
Prime Systems Integration Services contract, or "Prime," a contract inked between the IRS and
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) in 1998 to modernize the IRS' digital record-keeping system.
CSC is the primary contractor, but other well-known companies including IBM, BearingPoint, Northrup
Grumman, Unisys and Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) are secondary players on the
same contract. The former IRS IT contractor finds it difficult to believe that the IRS could
really have lost two years' worth of Lois Lerner's emails. First, he points to the United States
Code for government record retention.
IRS
scandal gets Nixonian: The 18½-minute (or 26-month) gap. The case against
Nixon was airtight. The Watergate break-in was bad, but there was more, much more. Article 2
of the Articles of Impeachment against Nixon charged that he "endeavored to obtain from the Internal Revenue
Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax
returns for purposes not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens,
income tax audits or other income tax investigation to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner."
And he had. There was proof. Watergate was worse, got all the press, but Nixon had completely abused the
power of the presidency and had to go.
The
Dog Ate My E-Mails, for Two Years. Who knew that the Obama administration had a
penchant for black humor? Earlier this year, in February, President Obama told Bill O'Reilly during
an interview on Fox News that there was "not even a smidgen of corruption" in the IRS scandal
involving the targeting of conservative nonprofit groups. In July 2013, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew
foreshadowed his boss's nonchalance by insisting that there was "no evidence" that any political
appointee had been involved in the scandal.
CNN
Mocks Lois Lerner's Vanished IRS Emails. CNN anchor John King scoffed at the IRS' excuse last week that over
two years of emails from disgraced official Lois Lerner were inadvertently lost in a hard drive crash, joking you'd have to
believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny to "believe that [her] emails just suddenly went 'poof.'" King discussed
the IRS' explanation Monday morning [6/16/2014] with a CNN panel, noting that the tax revenue service trotted out the
story over a year after Republicans initially requested Lerner's emails. As former head of the IRS Exempt Organizations
office, Lerner was accused of orchestrating a deliberate campaign targeting Tea Party and other conservative organizations
for extra scrutiny.
IRS
Commissioner, in March: Lerner's Emails Are 'Stored in Servers'. In one of the Obama
administration's most shameless weekend news dumps, the IRS claimed on Friday afternoon that a hard
drive glitch erased many of Lois Lerner's emails sent between 2009 and 2011. The Associated Press
reports that Congressional Republicans are irate over this tardy and dodgy "disclosure," which is
sure to catapult the IRS targeting scandal back into the spotlight.
The White House now speaks for the IRS?
White
House: IRS made good-faith effort on e-mails. Facing a furor from angry Republican lawmakers, the White
House said Monday [6/16/2014] that the Internal Revenue Service engaged in a good faith effort to find lost emails from
an IRS official whose division processed applications for tax-exempt status by politically oriented groups.
Legal
Expert: Obama's Secret Message To IRS Officials Would Have Made Nixon Proud. In an
interview with Brian Wilson and Larry O'Connor of WMAL's Mornings on the Mall, legal analyst
Joe diGenova stated that the IRS's announcement that it could not find Lois Lerner's emails was
actually initiated by President Obama.
Watch
the IRS Commissioner Testify They Had ALL of Lois Lerner's Emails & Would Turn Them Over! Congressman Jason
Chaffetz angrily reminded Americans that contrary to current reports, the IRS commissioner had smugly testified in March that
all of Lois Lerner's emails would be turned over to Congress after receiving their subpoena. Friday afternoon [6/13/2014]
officials made the maddening announcement that the IRS had "accidentally" deleted emails from Lois Lerner that might explain
how the Tea Party targeting scandal occurred.
America, the
Headless Horseman. Forget the endless scandals that seem to come at us every other
day — the latest being the Benghazi terrorists using State Department cell phones (!), a crusade of
Hispanic children pouring over our Southern border in the company of cartel drug lords and, of
course, the suddenly "missing" IRS emails of Lois Lerner — the Obama administration has reached
levels of hitherto unknown incompetence. It is a complete and utter debacle.
Obama thinks
Americans are Stupid. If the average hard-working American taxpayer gave that excuse
to the IRS enforcers how understanding would they be? The IRS Commissioner John Koskinen
(appointed to the post by Barack Obama) had previously assured the House Oversight and Government
Reform Committee that these emails had been archived and would be made available for inspection.
The IRS has voluminous records stored away on all Americans going back years. The government spends
tens of billions of dollars on record-keeping and computer technology. How stupid does Obama thin
Americans are?
Just
How Stupid Does Obama Think We Are? I have a sixth grader and a seventh grader and
when I posed this dilemma to them they both rolled over laughing. At the tender ages of 11 and 13
even they understand that email, both inbound and outbound, by definition is not prisoner to the
computer from which it either originated, or on which it was ultimately received. It is
transmitted over a vast array of interconnected servers to move from point A to ultimately arrive
at point B. Many call this newfangled contraption the world wide web, or internet.
Additionally most organizations have a central email server (SMTP), or, depending on their size, array of
servers, through which all email is transmitted.
Also posted
under Liberals think you're stupid.
Did
The IRS Really Lose Lois Lerner's Emails? Let a Special Prosecutor Find Them. A sloppy mistake, the
government calls it, but you couldn't blame a person for suspecting a cover-up — the loss of an untold
number of emails to and from the central figure in the IRS tea party controversy. And, because the public's
trust is a fragile gift that the White House has frittered away in a series of second-term missteps, President
Obama needs to act. If the IRS can't find the emails, maybe a special prosecutor can.
The IRS Loses
Lerner's Emails. The suspicion that this is willful obstruction of Congress is all
the more warranted because this week we also learned that the IRS, days before the 2010 election,
shipped a 1.1 million page database about tax-exempt groups to the FBI. Why? New emails
turned up by Darrell Issa's House Oversight Committee show Department of Justice officials worked
with Ms. Lerner to investigate groups critical of President Obama.
Lois Lerner's
Lost Emails: Questions for the IRS. According to the House Ways and Means Committee,
the IRS reports having "lost" former IRS manager Lois Lerner's emails to and from other IRS
employees sent between January of 2009 and April of 2011 due to a 'computer crash.' In light of
the disclosure, these are some of the logical requests that should be made of the IRS: [#1] Please
provide a timeline of the crash and documentation covering when it was first discovered and
by whom; when, how and by whom it was learned that materials were lost; the official documentation
reporting the crash and federal data loss; documentation reflecting all attempts to recover the
materials; and the remediation records documenting the fix. This material should include the names
of all officials and technicians involved, as well as all internal communications about the matter.
[#2] Please provide all documents and emails that refer to the crash from the time that it
happened through the IRS' disclosure to Congress Friday that it had occurred. [...]
The
Obama Administration's Claim That Lois Lerner's Emails Are "Lost" Is Ludicrous. This
is what the administration said: ["]The IRS told congressional investigators Friday it cannot
locate many of Lois Lerner's emails prior to 2011 because her computer crashed that year.["] This
statement, on its face, is silly. Emails are collected on email servers. Each user (e.g., Lois
Lerner) has an account on an email server, where that person's emails are collected. It is common
for emails to be deleted from the user's own desktop or laptop computer, but no one worries about
that. When it is time to collect emails — something I do all the time in my law
practice — you go to the email server and pull out the user's entire account. A crash of
the user's computer is irrelevant and will not cause emails to be "lost."
IT
experts call BS on IRS claim to have lost Lerner emails. Jason Howerton of The Blaze
interviewed veteran IT expert Norman Cillo, "an Army veteran who worked in intelligence and a
former program manager at Microsoft," who laid out six reasons, complete with charts, why he
believes Congress is being lied to. [...] He goes on to describe the ways in which data can be
recovered from a personal computer disk that has crashed, as well, citing his experience with a
data recovery firm that can pull data off a computer that has been sitting at the bottom of a lake.
Now, this case is going to get interesting, when the cover-up starts to get traced back to its
origin. This is by definition a conspiracy, since multiple parties had to be involved. Some of them
are going to get cold feet. Ace reporter Sharyl Attkisson lays out the questions she would present,
and they are enough to make the IRS officials involved start thinking about copping a plea and
implicating the higher ups.
A
Dog Ate 2 years of Lois Lerner's Emails. Now What? So the IRS suffered a catastrophic hard disk
failure and — lo and behold! — two years of Lois Lerner's emails have vanished: poof!
Just like that. Imagine. Evidence of those happy days targeting conservative groups, gone. [...] When we
lost a hard disk at my office with lots of archival material, we were pretty glum. [...] But here's the thing.
After we lost that hard disk, we wised up and started backing up. We have redundant backups in our
office and offsite back ups as well. And we're a tiny company with no IT department. The IRS
commands the resources of the federal government and as much of your money as it chooses to glom on to.
Is it credible that they have no backups of two years' worth of emails of a senior staff person — a
senior staff person who just happens to be at the center of a huge scandal?
IRS
Commissioner previously testified Lois Lerner emails were archived. As news breaks that the IRS is
claiming to have lost 2 years worht [sic] of Lois Lerner's Emails to Outside Agencies Are Gone, Representative
Jason Chaffetz took to Twitter to point out previous testimony in which it was claimed Lerner's emails were
archived. [Video clip]
2013
Treasury IG Report May Hint What Was in Destroyed Lerner Emails. A cottage industry
grew up following the revelation that Rosemary Woods, Richard Nixon's secretary, performed feats of
contortionism worthy of Barnum and Bailey in order to "accidentally" erase 18½ minutes of a
June 20, 1972, tape that most experts agree contained a conversation between the president and Chief of
Staff H.R. Haldeman discussing Watergate. Perhaps some day we'll have a similar photo of how Lois
Lerner "accidentally" crashed her computer to erase nearly two years of emails. To this day, we
don't know what those missing 18½ minutes contained. Oliver Stone in Nixon used the
tape gap to try to link him to the JFK assassination. Many Watergate experts think since other
meetings Nixon had during the day referred to the FBI, that Nixon may have told Haldeman specifically
to tell the FBI to back off and halt the investigation so that it led only to the original conspirators.
Will the missing Lerner emails suffer a similar fate?
IRS
says it cannot locate Lois Lerner emails prior to 2011. The Internal Revenue Service
told Congress Friday it has lost a trove of emails to and from Lois Lerner, a central figure in the
agency's Tea Party controversy, sparking outrage from congressional investigators who have been
probing the agency for more than a year. The IRS said it cannot locate many of Lerner's emails
prior to 2011 because her computer crashed during the summer of that year.
All the President's
Apologists. Of all the controversial revelations of 2013, from the news that White House
operatives may have altered the Benghazi talking points to the discovery that the National Security Agency
was collecting and warehousing the communications records of average Americans, the details involving the
targeting of conservative groups by the most intrusive agency of the federal government was by far the most egregious.
All the President's
Apologists. During the annual meeting of the American Bar Association in May 2013, a
senior official at the Internal Revenue Service named Lois Lerner divulged information she knew
would be released in a forthcoming report by the tax agency's inspector general. She preemptively
apologized for what she called the "inappropriate" scrutiny of conservative groups applying for
tax-exempt status, which came under her bailiwick as the director of the IRS Exempt Organizations
Division. [...] Surely, it had been Lois Lerner's intention to defuse the politically explosive
ramifications of the scandal when she begged forgiveness for her department's misuse of authority
even before anyone knew what had happened. But the significance of her disclosure, along with the
illuminating discovery that she had actually planted the question to which she had responded, was
immediately apparent.
IRS
Says It Lost Two Years of Lerner E-mails. House Ways and Means Commitee chairman Dave
Camp has hit a roadblock in his investigation of the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of
conservative groups: The IRS says it has lost over two years' worth of e-mails sent by former
agency official Lois Lerner, the one of the chief subjects of the committee's investigation.
Camp, who is retiring in November, is calling for an investigation into the matter and forensic
audits by the Department of Justice and Treasury Department Inspector General for Tax Administration.
Lois
Lerner's "Lost" Emails. Eliana [Johnson]'s report is just stunning — no
matter how many times similar "mishaps" have occurred in this administration. The IRS, like other
government agencies, has lots of reasons to maintain e-mails, so I'm curious about whether they
will be similarly informing courts, Congress, litigants, FOIA petitioners, and other people and
bodies they must periodically make disclosures and reports to that they've lost nearly two years'
worth of agency communications? Or was this just one of those highly, highly unusual computer
crashes that affects only the e-mail account of Lois Lerner and any executive branch official with
whom she happened to exchange messages?
The two-year gap.
The IRS has informed the House Ways and Means Committee that it has lost Lois Lerner email messages
from January 2009 — April 2011. Harkening back to the allegedly accidental erasure of
18½ minutes of critical Oval Office recordings that contributed to Richard Nixon's resignation
from office, the IRS attributes the loss of Lerner email to a computer crash. Some email survives: the
agency retains Lerner email to and from other IRS employees during this period. The IRS claims it
cannot produce email written only to or from Lerner and outside agencies or groups, such as the White House,
Treasury, Department of Justice, FEC, or offices of Democrat congressmen. Funny how that works.
IRS
Claims to Have Lost Over 2 Years of Lerner Emails. Today [Friday 6/13/2014], Ways and
Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) issued the following statement regarding the Internal
Revenue Service informing the Committee that they have lost Lois Lerner emails from a period of
January 2009 — April 2011. Due to a supposed computer crash, the agency only has Lerner
emails to and from other IRS employees during this time frame. The IRS claims it cannot produce
emails written only to or from Lerner and outside agencies or groups, such as the White House,
Treasury, Department of Justice, FEC, or Democrat offices.
The IRS is used as a weapon against conservative individuals and groups
For years, I've heard people joke that if you get on a powerful politician's bad side, you'll get audited by the IRS and they'll make your life miserable.
The first time I noticed this cause and effect was in 1996, when Patricia and Glenn Mendoza shouted something at President Clinton as he passed by.
They were arrested for it, and sure enough, they had trouble with the IRS shortly
thereafter.*
Overviews:
So
why didn't onetime crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried have any problems with 'debanking'?
[Scroll down] The government also does it dirty work — censorship, debanking,
deplatforming — through "public-private partnerships," meaning, NGOs on government
contract. They serve as hitmen for the big guy behind the scenes (meaning, the government)
for censorship, deplatforming, debanking, because they can't be seen with dirty hands.
Debanking arguably began with the IRS's assault on the Tea Party activists for their
politics — they were denied permits for tax-exempt status which swung the 2012 election
to Barack Obama. Not one IRS deep-stater was punished for this naked partisanship and the
profoundly partisan official at the head of this effort, Lois Lerner, was permitted to retire to
her mansion in the Virginia horse country with full pension. After that, much cruder
debanking started popping up, first to gun dealers, and then pot shop owners — large
numbers of whom got debanked. A group called 'Gays against Groomers' had its PayPal account
shut down, too.
Eric,
Merrick, and Jeff. Then there was Lois Lerner, who was the former director of the
Exempt Organizations Unit of the IRS. Lerner took to heart Obama's criticism of the Supreme
Court's 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, and systematically
denied tax-exempt status to conservative organizations. In May 2013, she confessed to the
targeting of conservative groups, and later, appearing before Congress, she declared her innocence
and then invoked the Fifth Amendment to refuse to answer any questions. On April 9, 2014, the
House Ways and Means Committee sent a letter to the DOJ referring Lerner for criminal
prosecution. The letter stated: "In particular, the Committee found that Ms. Lerner used
her position to improperly influence IRS action against conservative organizations, denying these
groups due process and protection rights under the law. The Committee also found she impeded
official investigations by providing misleading statements in response to questions from the
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Finally, Lerner risked exposing, and may
have actually disclosed, confidential taxpayer information, in apparent violation of Internal
Revenue Code section 6103 by using her personal email to conduct official business."
Six
Democrat Scandals That Should Have Ruined Careers. The IRS Targeting Scandal involving the infamous Lois Lerner
may be the worst scandal in American history, including Teapot Dome and Watergate. Our federal government militarized
the Treasury Department for the purpose of targeting conservative groups. If a group with "patriot" or "Tea Party" in
its name applied to the IRS for non-profit status, they were either harassed or summarily dismissed. Using the
authority of the IRS to attack political opponents is bad enough. It was a scandal that should have been at least
worthy of President Barack Obama's impeachment and potential imprisonment of key players. But what was most scandalous
regarding the IRS Targeting Scandal was the timing. J. Russell George, the Inspector General who investigated the
scandal, was aware of the IRS shenanigans in 2012, well before the reelection of Obama. In serious instances, which
this scandal certainly was, Inspectors General are required to notify Congress within seven days of discovery. But
George was silent, and didn't alert anyone until after the election. It was a blatant example of partisanship, waiting
until the election was over, yet only Congressional Republicans seemed to care. To date, no one has been
truly held accountable.
Catherine
Engelbrect and the Prestigious True The Vote Organization Release Powerful Warning on the Marxist Coup in 2020.
Catherine Engelbrecht is the Founder and President of True The Vote the nation's largest voters' rights group. [...] The
voter rights organization was so successful that True the Vote and its founder Catherine Engelbrecht, were targeted by top
federal government agencies including the IRS, DOJ, FBI, ATF, OSHA. Under the Obama Administration, those agencies launched
23 audits, investigations, and inquiries, persistently attacking the patriotic group. Engelbrecht and her organization
were harassed by the Obama IRS for months. The Obama IRS wanted to know Facebook posts, tweets and where Catherine
intended to speak.
Squeaky clean, huh? Obama forgot about
these 25 scandals. [#3] Obama IRS targets conservatives: In 2010, the Internal Revenue Service began
subjecting tea-party and conservative groups to intrusive scrutiny when they applied for nonprofit status. The IRS
later issued an apology and blamed mistakes on low-level employees. But it fought for more than five years demands for
full disclosure and documents sought by tea-party groups. In March of 2016, a federal appeals court accused the IRS of
stonewalling the release of lists of tax-exempt organizations targeted for political scrutiny and scolded the tax agency for
compounding an offense by continuing to fight disclosure.
Listen to Joe diGenova.
If diGenova's track record holds, a legal rain of ruin is about to befall the deep state operatives who tried to steal the
2016 election and, failing that, to unwind the result. And if, in fact, the enormous surveillance powers of our
intelligence agencies were usurped by the Obama administration to spy for years before the election on the opposing political
party, then the implications go far beyond just one election and one presidential candidate. If that happened, then
there can be no doubt that, when candidate Obama promised to "fundamentally transform America," he really meant it. If
Obama's "fundamental transformation" involved not only the atrocious harassment and intimidation of the Tea Party patriots by
his Internal Revenue Service, but also included surveillance state spying on the Republican Party generally, there must be no
question about whether the deep state actors should be punished for their actions.
Obama Minions
Shouldn't Act High and Mighty When It Comes to Abuse of Power. Let's start with the IRS scandal. Where
were the restrictions to protect everyday Americans from people like Lois Lerner, the former IRS official who oversaw the
organization's systematic discrimination and intimidation of conservative nonprofits? Don't count on a Democratic
Department of Justice to act as a watchdog — despite clear evidence of illegal behavior and unprecedented abuses
of power by the IRS, Obama's DOJ decreed that no criminal acts had been committed. The scary thing is that if
Republicans didn't take control of Congress in the wake of the scandal, the IRS likely would have continued this kind of
behavior through 2016. Even though the IRS had destroyed evidence in the middle of the investigation, that Lerner used
an e-mail account under the name of "Toby Miles" for official business, and that she was held in contempt of Congress, our
cool-guy-in-chief said "not even a smidgen of corruption" plagued the agency.
Who Will Hold the IRS Accountable?
Americans don't toss and turn at night over fears of a hazy network of Russian hackers. But they do fear letters from
the IRS. To their credit, a few conservative Republicans in the House still draw attention to the unresolved scandal at
the IRS. "Frankly in my view the most corrupt IRS commissioner that I've ever dealt with continues in my view to mislead
Congress," according to Kevin Brady, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means. "And until he's removed I don't
think the IRS will ever regain its credibility." Brady is referring to the still-unsacked John Koskinen, the Obama-appointed
IRS commissioner who stonewalled Republicans during the Lois Lerner investigation.
The
Worst Perversion. Under the Obama administration's watch, the Internal Revenue Service and other federal
agencies from the BATF to the NLRB were illegally used to target and harass the president's political enemies. The IRS
targeting scandal was the most high-profile of these, but others are just as worrisome. Federal investigations and
congressional oversight were obstructed, and investigators were lied to outright — a serious crime. The
administration protected the wrongdoers and saw to it that they retired with generous federal pensions rather than serving
federal sentences for their crimes. [...] Having an IRS that sorts nonprofits by their political stances in order to
facilitate the harassment of political rivals is in real terms far worse than anything Bill Clinton got up to with Monica
Lewinsky, and far worse than the shenanigans that Gordon Liddy and the rest of the Nixon henchmen got up to in the
Watergate. The BATF harassment of True the Vote and other Obama-administration enemies is the stuff of which banana
republics are made.
The
Endless Scandal That Is the Obama Administration. The exercise in futility on the part of TaxProf in highlighting
the "IRS Scandal," which was instigated and maintained by President Obama himself, is finally likely to have some relevance to
the real world, starting on January 21, when Donald Trump takes office. TP has done yeoman's work in documenting this
scandal, although with Obama in office, it has been mostly meaningless. This is one particular part of the swamp Trump
must drain. A good start would be firing and indicting everybody in IRS who was responsible for this abomination.
'Legacy':
10 Ways Barack Obama Broke the American System. [#7] IRS scandal. Encouraged by Obama's attacks on "dark money"
and conservative political donors, the Internal Revenue Service began singling out conservative non-profit organizations for
excessive scrutiny, denying them the ability to operate during the crucial 2012 elections, and trying to pry loose private
information on their donors, their meetings, and even the content of their prayers. To this day, no Obama administration
official has been punished for that horrific abuse of power.
Obama
Says He's Had A Scandal-Free Administration. Here Are 11 of His Scandals. [#3] The IRS targeted
conservative organizations. In 2013, Lois Lerner, who directed the Internal Revenue Service's Exempt Organizations
Unit, admitted that Tea Party organizations were targeted under the agency, but blamed it on lower-level employees.
Such organizations were heavily scrutinized with invasive questions. Since then, Lerner and IRS commissioner John
Koskinen have denied any wrongdoing and have stonewalled congressional efforts to investigate the matter, citing computer
crashes for being unable to turn over related emails. Meanwhile, a federal court concluded in August that conservative
groups might still be facing targeted scrutiny from the IRS.
2010-2016:
The Era of Political Repression in America. [Scroll down] Since 2010, the "Democratic" government attacked and successfully suppressed the Tea Party
and other grassroots conservative groups. Obama's IRS was screening non-profits' applications by keywords such as "Tea Party" and "patriots,"
then delaying them and harassing their founders. The IRS also specifically targeted individual conservative donors for audit, along with
organizations associated with the Republican Party, such as Crossroads GPS, and their supporters. "Democratic" state prosecutors ordered
pre-dawn SWAT raids on allies of Republican Scott Walker in Wisconsin, and jailed political author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza for "illegally"
contributing $20k to a Republican candidate without real chances in New York. All these attacks share one common attribute — the
opposition has been attacked under allegations of financial crimes. Of course, this is not the same as murdering opposition, but such
attacks are also harder to notice, and they soil the victims rather than the perpetrators. And such pressure tactics have an even stronger
deterring effect than the murder of opposition leaders — there are only a few leaders who can be murdered, but there are about a million
audits conducted every year. Thus, to an ordinary person, going to a meeting or donating $300 to a political organization, weaponized
IRS audits are a bigger threat than targeted murders.
Alphabet Soup Corruption.
[Scroll down] The Internal Revenue Service is likewise now a tainted agency, having lost the public trust. In similar
fashion to the Clinton email scandal, the FBI found that the IRS had mismanaged taxpayer accounts, but argued that the agency had
no deliberate intent to break the law. Yet Lois Lerner, an IRS director of tax-exempt organizations, publicly confessed to
targeting Tea Party groups and others deemed inordinately conservative. Lerner, who pled the Fifth Amendment before Congress
and was held in contempt, was allowed to retire with full pension, after ensuring that several conservative grassroots organizations
were denied tax-exempt status in the critical months before the 2012 presidential campaign.
Timely news and commentary:
Don't
Shoot Matt Taibbi Either, Take 3. The misuse of the IRS for political purposes is an
old story. No one at the IRS will ever pay a price for its continuing misconduct insofar
as it is directed at anyone who annoys the Democrats and the deep state. The question raised
by Taibbi's case is who's zoomin' who — i.e., who sicced the IRS on Taibbi? It
would be nice to know.
IRS
investigation of Taibbi stinks worse than you thought. Remember the minor
controversy — maybe not so minor, if you were paying attention — regarding
the IRS showing up at Matt Taibbi's door the day he testified before Congress about the
government's censorship efforts? No? Well the MSM didn't think it odd that one of the
most feared government agencies in America (who doesn't shiver when they hear the word "audit?")
sends agents to your house. IRS agents almost never do that, because it is scary, expensive,
and unnecessary unless there is a criminal investigation going on. It is extremely
rare. The timing was certainly odd, and it was noticed. A few people, conspiratorially
I am sure, thought that maybe it was an intimidation tactic. Shocking, I know, especially
since the whole point of the hearing that Taibbi was testifying at was the "weaponization of
government," which is something the Democrats vehemently deny happens.
The
IRS Opened its Investigation into Reporter Matt Taibbi's Taxes on Christmas Eve, the Same Day He
Dropped Twitter Files #9. In a letter to IRS Director Daniel Werfel Wednesday, House
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) revealed that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
opened a case targeting independent journalist Matt Taibbi on Christmas Eve 2022, coinciding with
Taibbi's Twitter Files reporting on the intelligence community's collusion with multiple tech
platforms. The IRS, according to recently obtained documents, then produced a dossier on
Taibbi that included information such as his voter registration records, whether he possessed a
hunting or fishing license, and whether he had a concealed weapons permit.
IRS
whistleblower breaks cover after claiming Hunter Biden was given preferential treatment during tax
probe. The IRS whistleblower in the Hunter Biden probe has broken his cover after
claiming the president's son was given preferential treatment in a tax probe. Gary Shapley, a
14-year IRS agent, said he immediately saw deviations in Hunter's tax probe investigation when he
was assigned the case in January 2020. He became concerned that prosecutors were mishandling the
'controversial' case and felt bound to blow the whistle due to his oath of office. 'This is a
job, and my oath of office is to treat everybody fairly that we investigate,' he told CBS News.
'[This case] was way outside the norm of what I've experienced in the past. There were
multiple steps that were slow-walked — were just completely not done — at the
direction of the Department of Justice.
Matt
Taibbi Reveals New Details About IRS Investigation Of Him That Began Shortly After First Twitter
Files Release. The IRS opened an investigation into journalist Matt Taibbi in 2022,
immediately following his publishing of a Twitter Files report, according to a letter sent to the
IRS on Wednesday by Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, which was shared on Twitter by
Taibbi. Taibbi released his first edition of the Twitter Files on December 2 in which he
revealed alleged misconduct between the social media giant and government agencies. Documents
indicate the IRS began an investigation into Taibbi's 2018 tax return on December 24, 2022,
according to Jordan's letter; the IRS did not reach out to Taibbi regarding the 2018 return until
last Christmas Eve, three weeks after his first Twitter Files release. "During the pandemic IRS
revenue officers were not making field visits," the IRS reportedly explained as their reason for
hesitating for such a long time before opening the investigation.
The
Obama IRS targeting political opponents in an effort to silence them before elections. It was
a clear violation of the First Amendment, yet every participant of the government was above the law.
They destroyed computers and lied to Congress, but the Justice Department let them off. ["]The
U.S. Justice Department has reached a settlement with dozens of conservative groups that claimed the Internal
Revenue Service unfairly scrutinized them based on their political leanings when they sought a tax-exempt
status, court documents showed.["] [...] It looks like the Biden IRS is still targeting political
enemies instead of doing their job. I have been a CPA for 46 years and not once have I seen a house
call. Should we trust the IRS with 87,000 more agents?
The
IRS lets pirates function as nonprofits. My memory is long enough to remember that the IRS did everything
possible to prevent Tea Party and Jewish conservative groups from claiming nonprofit status in the years leading up to
Obama's 2012 reelection. We know that wasn't accidental. Likewise, there's no accident behind the fact that
the IRS continues to give tax-deductible status to a group that even the Ninth Circuit conceded is a terrorist
organization in a piratical mode. The federal bureaucracy does not exist for America's benefit; it functions
entirely for its own.
Some
unanswered questions about those Biden classified documents. The case the strange timing and announcement
of the document discovery reminds me of is Lois Lerner's initial announcement that she regretted the customer service
problem her IRS agents had caused by unnaturally delayed customer service for certifying Tea Party groups.
Incompetents at the Cincinnati field office were blamed, but don't worry, they had it all fixed now. Why
pre-emptively admit there was a problem at all? [...] Turns out there was a lot more to that story, a systematic bid to
sic the IRS onto Tea Party groups to withhold their certifications as tax-free outlets, to swing the 2012
election. Lois Lerner ended up testifying to Congress, with a load of taking the fifths and not recalling, as
emails rolled out about her deriding conservative groups and eventually, huge numbers of these emails getting
"accidentally" destroyed. We know there was something big with that one during Joe Biden's vice presidency.
The initial announcement was the signal that something very funny was going on, something far worse than what they were
trying to spin.
Documents
Reveal Senate Democrat Pressured IRS, DOJ to Target Conservative Groups. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse,
D-R.I., called for revoking a tax exemption for a conservative group for not masking up and socially distancing during
the pandemic, insisted on a slew of investigations of other conservative groups, and pressed for the Internal Revenue
Service to expand its reach. A total of 176 pages of correspondence from and to Whitehouse was obtained from
the IRS by the conservative watchdog group American Accountability Foundation through the Freedom of Information Act and
shared with The Daily Signal. "It's abundantly clear that [Whitehouse] is trying to take the 87,000 new IRS agents
and put them to work investigating me and my friends because he doesn't like their politics," Tom Jones, president and
founder of the American Accountability Foundation, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview Tuesday. The letters
span from Jan. 19, 2021, the day before President Joe Biden took office, into May 2022.
The
Trump Special Counsel is Another Clinton Payback. Under Obama, the IRS and the DOJ had illegally targeted
conservative nonprofits in order to silence political dissent. While Lois Lerner, sourly testifying before
Congress, became the profoundly unsympathetic face of the IRS, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
revealed who was playing a key role in criminalizing dissent. "The Justice Department convened a meeting with
former IRS official Lois Lerner in October 2010 to discuss how the IRS could assist in the criminal enforcement of
campaign-finance laws against politically active nonprofits. This meeting was arranged at the direction of Public
Integrity Section Chief Jack Smith," the Committee stated. According to the Republican National Lawyers
Association, "Public Integrity Section Chief Jack Smith told investigators that officials at the Justice Department
discussed targeting conservative nonprofit groups with Lerner as early as October 2010." A year later, Smith
became a Wasserstein Fellow. Despite all this, Smith flew under the radar. While Lois Lerner was denounced,
Smith remained virtually as anonymous as his name, including his actual name, John Smith, but Smith was just doing his
job. Not on our behalf, but for those who had put him in his role.
The
Internal Revenue (Election Rigging) Service. [Scroll down] I'm focusing now on the IRS, which first hit
my radar screen when with no consequences whatsoever[,] Loretta Lynch's Department of Justice declined to press criminal
charges against Lois Lerner, whose outfit delayed and denied the Tea Party reform groups the tax-exempt status to which they
were entitled, hamstringing them against the very well-financed (probably including illegal funds from abroad) Obama
crowd. This time, pay attention to Black Lives Matter, an utterly corrupt outfit whose riots and lootings destroyed so
many cities and wreaked havoc on the black communities and their businesses. The damage continues to this day as the
riots fueled the defund police movement, a ridiculous effort that leaves the poor and the black communities particularly
vulnerable to violent crime, and as another consequence caused an exodus of needed businesses from those places.
Democrats
get ready to unleash the IRS for selective enforcement on political opponents. Democrats have an amazing array
of third-world dictator tricks targeting their Republican opponents. Item A is their bid to use the IRS to cut off
Republican freedom of assembly. [...] They're so concerned about superspreader events, they want to permanently shut down
conservative groups themselves for thier events so that conservatives can't assemble at all. Sounds pretty convenient
for their purposes. Not only do they want to take away our freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom of
religion, they'd also like to take away freedom of assembly. Just like they did during the Obama presidency when
conservative groups such as the Tea Party were targeted by the IRS with long delays for approval and long intrusive
questionaires about distant relatives. That targeting, according to some accounts, actually swung the election to the
low-popularity President Obama in 2012. Now they're back up to their dirty tricks, trying to use COVID as an excuse to
shut conservative groups down and deprive them of their constitutionally guaranteed right to assembly. Instead of
fining groups for violations or whatever is normally done, their plan is to shut the groups down.
Senator
on Panel that Oversees IRS asks Tax Agency to Strip Conservative Group of Nonprofit Status Over COVID-19 "Superspreader"
Events. Reminiscent of the Obama Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) witch hunt of conservative groups, a U.S.
Senator who sits on the committee that oversees the tax agency is pushing it to revoke a student charity's nonprofit
status. The veteran lawmaker, Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, says the conservative student organization,
Turning Point USA, should lose its nonprofit rating because it held large events that could help spread COVID-19. In a
letter to IRS Commissioner Charles P. Rettig the senator describes the gatherings as "superspreader" events. He
specifically mentions a Palm Beach, Florida winter gala at the Mar-a-Lago Club famously owned by former President Donald Trump.
"According to press reports and social media posts, many participants gathered and mingled indoors without wearing masks, in
violation of Palm Beach County's COVID-19 regulations," Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, writes to the
IRS chief. The powerful chamber has oversight over the IRS, among many other government agencies. "In holding
these 'superspreader' events, Turning Point USA knowingly exposed hundreds of young people and staff working at the events to
serious risk of infection," the letter continues. The legislator asks the IRS to review whether the group, which has
more than 250,000 student members, should continue to enjoy its tax-exempt nonprofit status.
True
The Vote Wins Historic $2 Million Settlement Against IRS. Last week Catherine Engelbrecht announced a historic
legal victory in her decade long battle against the IRS for targeting her group, True The Vote, as part of the Obama
administration's weaponization program against political opposition. U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton issued a
stunning ruling (full pdf below) in favor of True the Vote, and penalized the IRS. Judge Walton forced the IRS to pay
maximum attorney's fees due to discrimination against the conservative organization that stemmed from the Lois Lerner
scandal. The financial award is likely to exceed $2 million.
True
the Vote Wins Battle Against IRS as Judge Orders Tax Agency to Pay Legal Fees in Decade-Long Fight. True the
Vote, a nonpartisan conservative election integrity group that fought a nearly decade-long battle with the IRS and other
federal agencies that unfairly targeted the group, has won a major decision in federal court and shall be awarded maximum
attorney fees. "This is a huge victory for every American who thinks that they can't go up against the government and get
what they deserve," Catherine Engelbrecht, True the Vote's founder, told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview ahead of
the group's public announcement of the victory. "This is an opportunity to make very clear that we didn't back away and,
therefore, American citizens didn't back away — and we won."
Joe
diGenova Discusses Declassification and the Origin of the Obama Political Surveillance Operation. Now that we
have significant research files on the 2015 and 2016 political surveillance program; which includes the trail evident within
the Weissmann/Mueller report; in combination with the Obama-era DOJ "secret research project" (their words, not mine); we are
able to overlay the entire objective and gain a full understanding of how political surveillance was conducted over a period
of approximately four to six years. This is likely why there is institutional panic. Working with a timeline, but
also referencing origination material in 2015/2016 — CTH has tried to show how the program operated. The
exploitation of government collected information explains an evolution from the IRS Files in 2010 to the FISA Files in 2016.
More importantly, research indicates the modern political exploitation of the NSA database, for weaponized intelligence
surveillance of politicians, began mid 2012.
So
IRS Tea Party persecutor Lois Lerner had help all along: John McCain. Sen. John McCain, not too long
after seeking conservative and Republican votes in his failed 2008 bid for the presidency, went right after those same
conservative voters without telling them, by egging on the IRS to ruin them. It's the sort of political back-stabbing
that defies belief, taking an active role in destroying the Tea Party, which was an authentic grassroots movement of local groups
calling for smaller government. Sure enough, Judicial Watch has found McCain's central role right there in the documents.
John McCain Staffer Told Lois Lerner
To Audit Non-Exempts Till They Collapsed. Judicial Watch released some documents revealing that a John McCain
staffer urged Lois Lerner to audit non-exempt organizations until they financially collapsed. What he didn't know was
Lerner was already attacking the 501(C)(3), groups. By April 30th, 2013, Sen. John McCain's staff director
Henry Kerner, had moved on to be the chief counsel on the McCain-chaired Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee[.]
On that last day of April he urged a group of senior IRS officials, including the infamous director of exempt organizations
Lois Lerner that if she thinks the groups were being political to "audit so many that it becomes financially ruinous."
Judicial
Watch Ob
