Thursday, June 26, 2014

Is Lois Lerner's Blackberry a Smoking Gun?

The IRS has admitted to intentionally targeting conservative groups and said it did so because they "criticize how the country is being run". It's unheard of in a democracy



Paul Ryan Obliterates IRS Official (June 20, 2014). 

 UPDATE:



June 25, 2014

Trail of Lost IRS Emails Leading to White House?




22 juni 2014

IRS Canceled Contract With Email Storage Contractor

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.




Is the IRS targeting black Conservatives too? 




June 20, 2014

The IRS is losing emails, but maybe the NSA has a record. (Source)

Sekulow: "Collusion Between IRS and the FEC" on Fox News with Sean Hannity  (Aug. 13).
June 17, 2014

IRS LOSS OF EMAILS DRAWS FLURRY OF RIDICULE



 May 6 , 2014

IRS Crackdown on Conservatives Continues




Oct. 9, 2013

White House and the IRS Exchanged Confidential Taxpayer Info

Top Internal Revenue Service Obamacare official Sarah Hall Ingram discussed confidential taxpayer information with senior Obama White House officials, according to 2012 emails obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and provided to The Daily Caller. Lois Lerner, then head of the IRS Tax Exempt Organizations division, also received an email alongside White House officials that contained confidential information. (Source)


 Sept. 18, 2013

IRS Thought Obama Wanted Crackdown on Tea Party

IRS employees were “acutely” aware in 2010 that President Obama wanted to crack down on conservative organizations and were egged into targeting tea party groups by press reports mocking the emerging movement, according to an interim report being circulated Tuesday by House investigators. The report, by staffers for Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, quoted two Internal Revenue Service officials saying the tea party applications were singled out in the targeting program that has the agency under investigation because “they were likely to attract media attention.” In the report, the investigators do not find evidence that IRS employees received orders from politicians to target the tea party, and agency officials deny overt bias or political motives. (Source) Official Memo (PDF) Emails show IRS’ Lois Lerner specifically targeted tea party

 August 24, 2013

IRS and Obama Waging War on Political Enemies

If the White House illegally had the Koch Brothers tax returns, which, per the article below, it appears they did, then Obama has been working with the IRS for 2 years to wage a war on his political enemies. Today he said he just learned about the IRS war Friday. Excerpted from a September 20, 2010 article in The Weekly Standard: …a lawyer for Koch Industries now tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that the administration may have crossed a line by revealing tax information about Koch Industries. (Source)


Aug. 15, 2013

Issa Extends IRS Probe, Demands Personal Emails

In a letter sent Tuesday, Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said the ongoing investigation indicated that Lois Lerner sent some official documents to her personal email address, which "raises concerns" about whether the committee can fully understand her role in the improper targeting from official emails alone. As such, he requested that Lerner hand over all correspondence "referring or relating to your official duties" dating back to the beginning of 2008. House Oversight subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) also signed the letter. (Source)


 Aug. 8, 2013

Epic: Darrell Issa Destroys IRS Chief for Stonewalling on IRS Investigation

Caddell: "IRS goes into the White House"

Pat Caddell: "IRS Goes Into The White House"

July 20, 2013

DARRYL ISS: 'IRS Profiling Trail Leads to the Top'

We can now officially say that the IRS harassment of conservative groups is a political scandal connected to the Obama political machine. Despite the best obfuscatory efforts of Obama henchmen like Rep. Elijah Cummings, yesterday the IRS scandal was tied to a political appointee of President Obama. Step-by-step the chain is being followed upward by the House Oversight Committee chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa. Jay Carney's assurances that two rogue agents in a back office in the 27th most populous metropolis of America were the problem has been exposed as a blatant, outrageous lie. Now we know that Obama's hand-picked agent was leading the initiative, as far as the people below him in the federal apparatus knew. (Source)
Tea Party leader Becky Gerritson during House Ways and Means committee hearing on June 11, on the IRS' targeting of conservative groups.


July 4, 2013

Docs Reveal: "IRS Employees Do 100% Union Work"

Republican congressional leaders are demanding to know why the Internal Revenue Service pays hundreds of full-time employees to do union work. The revelation came as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request from Americans for Limited Government. More than 200 IRS employees spend 100 percent of their work time doing union work, according to IRS documents (Source)


June 28, 2013

TEA PARTY APPLICATIONS "100% IRS PROFILED"

The Internal Revenue Service did flag tax-exempt applications from liberal groups for extra attention, but they did not receive the same scrutiny as did those from Tea Party groups, according to the inspector general who investigated the IRS targeting. The word "progressive" was included on a "be on the look out" list, or BOLO list (...) used to determine which groups' application should be studied more carefully (...) "In total, 30 percent of the organizations we identified with the words 'progress' or 'progressive' in their names were processed as potential political cases (...) In comparison, our audit found that 100 percent of the tax-exempt applications with Tea Party, Patriots, or 9/12 in their names were processed as potential political cases" during the audit's time frame. (Source)


June 27, 2013

IRS CHIEF IS "SHOCKED, SHOCKED!"

Congressman Confronts the IRS Chief About Multi-Agency Federal War On Citizens Opposed To Obama: "Is This Still America?" He's Shocked, shocked!




June 20, 2013

Rogue Agents Theory Shattered

A D.C.-based supervisor in the IRS's tax-exempt status division has indicated during interviews with congressional investigators that the targeting was deliberate and not run by rogue agents in Cincinnati. Holly Paz, who until recently was a top deputy in the IRS division that handles applications for tax-exempt status, told congressional investigators she was personally involved in reviewing Tea Party applications for tax-exempt status as far back as 2010, reviewing as many as 30. The involvement of Paz thickens the plot considerably and shatters the theory that two rogue agents in Cincinnati got bored in their cubicles one day and decided to target for special scrutiny Tea Party and other conservative groups. Paz's supervisor was Lois Lerner Read More..


IRS TARGETING A DHS WHISTLEBLOWER

DHS official P. Jeffrey Black tried to fix problems that he saw in the Department of Homeland Security’s air marshal program. He testified before Congress about it. He appeared in a documentary about it. Then the IRS magically showed up at his door. What are the odds, huh? (...) Then came the audit, which an Internal Revenue Service agent told him about the same day the movie premiered — “almost to the hour,” he said. They slapped a lien on his home after investigating him for a year. They hassled him, determined that the government owed him money, and then poof! they were gone. The government still owes Black money. Significantly, it’s CNN that is reporting Black’s story. The mainstream media are now actively looking for and reporting on stories about the IRS abuse of taxpayers and whistleblowers, that are not bubbling up out of alternative conservative media. The IRS claims, of course, that its audit decisions come from the bureaucracy and not any political appointees. That would be the same bureaucracy that gives very heavily to the Democrats. That would be the same bureaucracy, broadly speaking, that targeted the Tea Party. So that excuse really does not fly. Read on..


June 19, 2013

HIGH NOON: 'AUDIT THE IRS' TEA PARTY RALLY

UPDATE: Speakers Include: Glenn Beck, Senator Mike Lee, Rep. Michele Bachmann, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Rand Paul, Jenny Beth Martin, Rep. Steve King, Rep. Dave Camp, Rep. Louie Gohmert, Rep. Jim Jordan, Rep. Tim Huelskamp, Rep. Jim Bridenstine, Rep. John Fleming, Rep. Tom Graves, Rep. Tom Price, Rep. Mike Kelly, Rep. Matt Salmon, Tea Party Leaders, Dana Loesch, Steve Bannon, Sonnie Johnson, Jim Hoft, Niger Innis and Andrew Marcus

UPDATE: Conservative and Libertarian activists will storm DC on Wednesday for the largest Tea Party protest since 2010. The protest — drawing tea partiers like TV host Glenn Beck and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul — is in response to the Internal Revenue Service’s recent admission that it has been profiling conservative groups for intrusive scrutiny. The gathering on the West Lawn of the Capitol is being called the 'Audit the IRS' Rally (sign up).
"At noon tomorrow, we are going to tell the world about how the IRS tried to crush the Tea Party movement".
Others expected to appear are senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp are also on the speakers list. A number of representatives from local tea party groups who have been unfairly targeted by the IRS are also expected to attend the rally. The rally is organized by the Tea Party Patriots, that has frequently sponsored similar protests in 2010.


June 17, 2013

41 TEAPARTY GROUPS SUE THE IRS

41 conservative groups have now joined in the lawsuit against the IRS for unlawful targeting of Tea Party, Constitutional, pro-Life and pro-Israel organizations in the run-up of the 2012 election. Read on (video)..



June 14, 2013

FBI Director, "Case Is Solved"

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Thursday grilled a seemingly uninformed FBI Director Robert Mueller on the IRS scandal. Mueller was unable to answer basic questions about the investigation into the tax agency’s political targeting of conservative groups. “Based on everything I’ve seen, quoting [Rep. Elijah] Cummings, this case is solved,” Jordan began. “What can you tell us?”


June 11, 2013

IRS Singled Out All TeaParty Requests

Campaign finance zealots and free speech regulators have sought to stifle the freedom of conservative organizations, such as the Tea Party, by falsely claiming they are “political” while giving a pass to leftist groups that still enjoy unimpaired 501(c) IRS tax-exempt status. As the IRS attacked Tea Party groups, it left hundreds of leftist activist groups alone. A quick review of just eight of those leftist, tax-exempt activist groups demonstrates the IRS's hypocrisy. Read on..  (includes video)


June 4, 2013

UPDATE:
CNN.. The Internal Revenue Service has told House GOP investigators they have identified 88 IRS employees who may have documents relevant to the congressional investigation into targeting of conservative groups, according to a congressional source familiar with the investigation. >>>


TEA PARTY LEADERS Will Testify Before Congress This Week – HERE IS THE LIST


May 31, 2013

 UPDATE: 

May 26, 2013

UPDATE: "OBAMA CROSSED THE LINE"

Janet Daley at The Telegraph is giving an excellent recap of the outrage so far! "Even for liberals, Obama has crossed a line"

Barack Obama announced an end to America’s war on terror last week. (...) Presumably, this pronouncement was designed to win back the favour of the liberal media, which has been energetically disowning him ever since his administration staggered into the most spectacular series of Washington scandals since Watergate. This suspicion is reinforced by the fact that buried in that War on Terror (End Of) speech was an almost subliminal attempt to address one of the most damaging of the White House embarrassments.

But we must begin at the beginning, since the President’s tribulations – which are infamous by now in the United States – have received little coverage in the British press. The most serious of them was almost too shocking to be credible, but it had to be believed because the officials in charge made a point (indeed, contrived an opportunity) to apologise for it publicly. It seemed that the Internal Revenue Service – the US equivalent of the UK’s HM Revenue and Customs – had been deliberately discriminating against organisations with the words “Tea Party” or “patriot” in their titles. In other words, they had been singling out for high pressure audits and super-scrutiny, groups that were thought to be critical of the Obama administration.

Those who had spoken out against the President’s expansion of government power, or in favour of tax-cutting, or even those who sought to educate public opinion in what they believed to be the meaning of the Constitution, were interrogated and intimidated in a way that Lois Lerner, the head of the tax division responsible, admitted was “absolutely inappropriate”. Inappropriate? The only word that would suffice here would be “outrageous”, or maybe “illegal”. The IRS is one of the mightiest federal government agencies. It has terrifying powers over ordinary citizens that our own dear HMRC would die for. And, by its own admission, it had been carrying out a politically targeted vendetta against organisations that were simply exercising the right, guaranteed to them by the First Amendment to the Constitution, to free speech and assembly. (This would be roughly the equivalent to HMRC engaging in a concerted campaign of harassment designed to put Ukip out of business.) Read more..


May 22, 2013


CORNYN OPENS HOTLINE
UPDATE : Senator John Cornyn’s office has launched an online “hotline” for Texans who believe they were unfairly targeted by the IRS to share their stories. Cornyn has already highlighted three separate cases of constituents in a video — including True the Vote, which has filed suit against the IRS — and encourages other groups to speak out. “Let’s make it clear that Texans will not stand for the kind of behavior typically associated with corrupt tin-pot dictators — not with the greatest democracy in the world,” he writes on his website.

National Review: Senator Creates Site for Targeted Conservative Groups


 May 21, 2013

SMOKING GUN: IRS WAR ON OBAMA’S ENEMIES BEGAN DAY AFTER HE MET WITH IRS UNION CHIEF AT WHITE HOUSE

“For me, it’s about collaboration.” — National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley on the relationship between the anti-Tea Party IRS union and the Obama White House Is President Obama directly implicated in the IRS scandal?

Is the White House Visitors Log the trail to the smoking gun? The stunning questions are raised by the following set of new facts.

March 31, 2010. According to the White House Visitors Log, provided here in searchable form by U.S. News and World Report, the president of the anti-Tea Party National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelley, visited the White House at 12:30pm that Wednesday noon time of March 31st. The White House lists the IRS union leader’s visit this way: Kelley, Colleen Potus 03/31/2010 12:30

May 18, 2013

 TEA PARTY TO IRS: SEE YOU IN COURT

Claims that the Internal Revenue Service's intentional targeting of conservative and Tea Party groups was not politically motivated are truly outrageous and should concern all Americans. Unbelievably, in his congressional testimony on Friday, the acting commissioner of the IRS, Steve Miller, repeatedly refused to admit that his agency "targeted" conservative groups. Yet "targeted" was precisely the term used by the Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration in both his congressional testimony and his report released this past Tuesday. The IRS itself admitted to intentionally targeting conservative groups and said it targeted them because they "criticize how the country is being run" -- because they are conservative.



May 16, 2013

 Update

Was the White House involved in the IRS's targeting of conservatives? No investigation needed to answer that one. Of course it was. President Obama and Co. are in full deniability mode, noting that the IRS is an "independent" agency and that they knew nothing about its abuse.

The media and Congress are sleuthing for some hint that Mr. Obama picked up the phone and sicced the tax dogs on his enemies. But that's not how things work in post-Watergate Washington. Mr. Obama didn't need to pick up the phone.

All he needed to do was exactly what he did do, in full view, for three years: Publicly suggest that conservative political groups were engaged in nefarious deeds; publicly call out by name political opponents whom he'd like to see harassed; and publicly have his party pressure the IRS to take action.

Strassel: The IRS Scandal Started at the Top

The bureaucrats at the Internal Revenue Service did exactly what the president said was the right and honorable thing to do.
May 15, 2013

There are still plenty of unanswered questions about how Internal Revenue Service agents in Cincinnati started targeting certain groups applying for tax-exempt status, like who first issued the directive to start looking for “tea party” groups. But testimony by outgoing acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller and IRS watchdog J. Russell George filled in some blanks.

Here’s a very rough outline of what we know at this point:

March 2010 – IRS officials in the Cincinnati tax-exempt unit start using the search terms “tea party,” “patriot” and “9/12” to filter certain applicants, according to the Inspector General’s report.

April 2010 – IRS officials in Cincinnati and Washington agree to start work on what’s called a “Sensitive Case Report” about these groups and whether they need to come up with special criteria for finding and reviewing applications that fall under the “tea party” umbrella, according to the IG report. More In IRS Politics Counts: Pre-Scandal Polls on IRS, Tea Party The Odd Case of the Planted IRS Question Top Moments From the IRS Hearing Live Blog: Lawmakers Hold IRS Hearing Meet Danny Werfel, New IRS Acting Chief

June 2010 – Managers in Cincinnati start training agents on emerging issues to look out for, including what’s referred to as “tea party cases” in the inspector general’s report.

July 2010 – Managers in Cincinnati tell their agents to “be on the lookout for tea party applications,” according to the IG report. Weeks later, an e-mail is circulated in Cincinnati telling agents to flag “local organizations in the Tea Party movement” applying for tax exempt status under 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) of the tax code. On August 12, that description is included on the division’s official watch list.

October 2010 to March 2011 – Agents in Cincinnati await formal guidance from a team in Washington about how to process these cases and repeatedly express their impatience as the process drags on, according to the IG report.

March 31, 2011 – A top manager in Cincinnati sends an e-mail saying agents need to keep working these “tea party cases,” even as they await more guidance from Washington, according to the IG report. This contradicts an earlier directive not to work on these applications until officials in Washington come to an agreement on how to process them.

June 29, 2011 – Lois Lerner, the head of the tax-exempt section, is briefed on the “tea party” searches and raises immediate concerns, according to the IG report. She immediately instructs her department to revise the criteria used for these searches.

July 5, 2011 – In a conference call, Lerner tells the head of the tax-exempt group in Cincinnati to look at “organizations involved with political, lobbying or advocacy.”

January 2012 – The IRS office in Cincinnati sends out its first batch of letter requesting additional information, according to the IG report.

January 25, 2012 – IRS officials in Cincinnati essentially reverse Lerner’s directive and resume searching for “political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform/movement,’ according to the IG report.

February 2012– Conservative groups start to complain to the media that they are being unfairly targeted. March 2012 – Top IRS officials in Washington discuss media reports about conservative groups being unfairly targeted, according to the IG report.

May 2012 – IRS officials in Washington essentially take over the process of reviewing these cases, according to multiple items in the IG report. A group flies to Cincinnati to train agents how to process these applications. Agents in Cincinnati and Washington start reviewing all the cases.

May 2012 – George said he alerted then-IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman about his investigation.

June 2012 — On June 4, George told the top lawyer at the Treasury Department and, shortly thereafter, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin. George briefed new Treasury Secretary Jack Lew about the investigation after Lew was appointed, George said. During the hearing, George later clarified that he only apprised the top Treasury officials that he was investigating questions about improper targeting of conservative groups, not his findings. The Treasury Department, in a statement, said officials were notified in June 2012 that an audit had begun. Treasury also said Wolin and Lew “learned about [inspector general’s] findings when they were reported publicly last week.”

May 9, 2013 — Lerner, the head of the tax-exempt section, calls Celia Roady, a member of an IRS advisory body, and asks her to ask a question to Ms. Lerner at an tax conference the next day, according to a statement issued by Ms. Roady. Ms. Roady said in the statement: “I agreed to do so, and she then gave me the question that I asked at the meeting the next day. We had no discussion thereafter on the topic of the question, nor had we spoken about any of this before I received her call. She did not tell me, and I did not know, how she would answer the question.”

May 10, 2013 –Lerner discloses IRS targeting of conservative groups in response to the planted question. Ahead of this disclosure, acting chief Miller said in testimony to the Ways and Means Committee on May 17, the IRS had “called to get on the calendar” to brief Ways and Means – a claim Republicans met with disbelief.

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