IRS unfairly targeting Conservatives (Tea Party groups)

[American Patriot]

IRS agrees to $50,000 settlement in leaking of conservative group's donor records

Published June 24, 2014FoxNews.com


1.3K





April 13, 2014: The headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in Washington.AP





The IRS has admitted wrongdoing and agreed to pay a $50,000 settlement to a conservative group after confidential information from the group’s tax returns about its donors was published on the website of a political opponent.


A federal court ordered the U.S. government to pay the settlement to the National Organization for Marriage, a group that opposes same-sex marriage. The group sued the IRS last year after tax information from a 2008 form was leaked and ended up being published in 2012 by the Human Rights Campaign, which supports gay rights.


The group’s chairman John Eastman said in a statement Tuesday that he is thankful that the IRS is being held accountable after a “long and arduous” process.


“Thanks to a lot of hard work, we’ve forced the IRS to admit that they in fact were the ones to break the law and wrongfully released this confidential information,” he said.
IRS spokesman Bruce Friedland said privacy law prevents his agency from commenting. The agency was represented by the DOJ in the lawsuit.


After the settlement was announced, House Ways and Means Chairman David Camp, R-Mich., blasted the DOJ for declining to pursue the case, adding it was clear the DOJ could not be trusted to adequately investigate the IRS targeting scandal, either.


“While the administration prefers to sweep this under the rug, it is time that the American people have a special prosecutor into this matter so the full truth can come out,” he said in a statement.

[American Patriot]

E-mails: Ex-IRS official Lois Lerner queried Sen. Chuck Grassley invitation

By CNN Staff
updated 11:59 AM EDT, Thu June 26, 2014


Lois Lerner is sworn in before testifying to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee May 22, in Washington, DC.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Ex-IRS official Lois Lerner received a seminar invitation for Sen. Chuck Grassley
• She questions possible travel expense for his wife; asks if there should be an audit
• Lerner's query was "shocking," Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp says
• Lerner acted appropriately, her lawyer says, adding how the invitation got to her is a mystery

(CNN) -- A former IRS official at the center of a congressional probe of the agency's targeting of conservative political groups asked while still on the job 2012 whether the tax agency should investigate an issue involving Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, internal e-mails show.
The disclosure of the e-mail exchanges on Wednesday by the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee further inflamed GOP sentiment against Lois Lerner, who has refused to testify before lawmakers investigating the IRS targeting scandal.
"We have seen a lot of unbelievable things in this investigation, but the fact that Lois Lerner attempted to initiate an apparently baseless IRS examination against a sitting Republican United States senator is shocking," said Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp.
"At every turn, Lerner was using the IRS as a tool for political purposes in defiance of taxpayer rights," he said in a statement.
The e-mails centered on an invitation from an unnamed group to Grassley to attend a seminar. What prompted Lerner's interest in December 2012 was whether travel expenses for Grassley's wife were included and whether that would violate income tax rules.
However, it was not clear from the e-mails whether Lerner, who reached out to a coworker, was inquiring about a potential audit of Grassley or whether she thought the IRS should look at the group. Her lawyer said she acted appropriately.
The twist is the latest in a saga that in recent days has included ferocious hearings over how the IRS lost thousands of Lerner's e-mails that lawmakers want to review as part of their investigation into the targeting scandal that dates more than two years.
It's not clear if the Grassley e-mails were included in that bunch, some of which have been recovered by the IRS.
Mistakenly received
According to the handful of e-mails about Grassley released by Camp, Lerner apparently mistakenly received the invitation to the Iowa lawmaker to speak at the event. The name of the organization involved was redacted. Grassley sits on the Finance Committee, which deals with tax matters.
"Looked like they were inappropriately offering to pay for his wife. Perhaps we should refer to exam?" Lerner wrote to another IRS official, Matthew Giuliano, about possibly opening an agency audit.
"Not sure we should send to exam," Giuliano responded, noting that the offer to pay for Grassley's wife may not be prohibited "on its face."
The IRS, at that point, didn't know whether Grassley even planned to attend the event -- he did not -- which was not described any further, and there were other factors that likely did not warrant further review.
A congressional aide had no further context on the e-mails and did not have a copy of the seminar invitation. However, the aide characterized the group that sponsored the event as "non-controversial" and believes it was a charitable organization.
She had a question
Lerner's attorney, William Taylor III, defended her as doing the right thing in the Grassley situation, insisting she received the invitation by mistake, had a question about it and asked a colleague to see if it should be looked into.
He also rejected the idea that Grassley was targeted by Lerner and noted that the IRS returned the invitation to the group.
"The organization which Mr. Camp creatively redacted, so we can't see what it is, sends and invitation for Senator Grassley that somehow goes to Lois Lerner. We don't know why it went to Lois Lerner. I don't think that's Lois's fault. (The IRS) get it and send it back," Taylor said.
"What is she supposed to do? She saw a possible issue with regard to an organization that had invited a U.S. senator to speak and offered to pay for his wife's travel. What is (Lerner) supposed to do? Forget about it because he is a U.S. senator?" Taylor asked.
Grassley said in a statement that "this kind of thing fuels the deep concerns many people have about political targeting by the IRS and by officials at the highest levels."
Camp has told the IRS he's interested in more information.
The IRS said in a statement that it could not comment on any specific situation due to taxpayer confidentiality provisions.
"As a general matter, the IRS has checks and balances in place to ensure the fairness and integrity of the audit process. Audits cannot be initiated solely by personal requests or suggestions by any one individual inside the IRS," the statement said.
The targeting saga
Lerner, who ran the division that executed the IRS targeting of groups claiming tax-exempt status, resigned last year after the Treasury Department's inspector general found those working under her used "inappropriate" criteria to scrutinize certain groups.
Since then, she has refused to testify at hearings, invoking her constitutional right not to do so.
That decision and the lost e-mails have frustrated Republicans, but also amplified their rhetoric and invigorated their push to find any documents related to Lerner and her time in government.
Lawmakers are now reaching back to her career before the IRS.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa has subpoenaed the Federal Elections Commission for all communications involving her from 1986 to now.
Democrats have said House Republicans have politicized the investigation and that Democratic groups were also targeted by the IRS.

[American Patriot]

06.26.14
by darcprynce

House Oversight Chairman Issa Subpoenas 28 Years Of Lois Lerner’s Emails

Issa Expands Investigation; Subpoenas 28 Years Of Lois Lerner Emails – Gateway Pundit
Lois Lerner, the controversial director of the tax-exempt organizations division at the Internal Revenue Service, has a long sordid history of targeting conservatives.
Under the direction of Lois Lerner, the Federal Election Commission sued the Christian Coalition in the 1990s. She harassed the Christian Coalition for three election cycles. Eventually, she lost her case. At one point Lerner even asked a targeted conservative if Pat Robertson prayed over him. (Sound familiar?)
.

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In 1996, while at the FEC, Lois Lerner harassed Republican Senate candidate Al Salvi and made him this outrageous offer, “Promise me you will never run for office again, and we’ll drop this case.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
Today House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) turned up the heat on Lois Lerner and subpoenaed 28 years of Lerner’s emails from 1986 until the present day.
Political Ticker reported:

Expanding his IRS investigation by more than two decades, House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa, R-California, has sent a subpoena to the Federal Elections Commission for all communications involving former IRS administrator Lois Lerner from January 1, 1986 to the present day.
This new search is the broadest-yet for records in a year-long investigation by Issa and congressional Republicans, who are trying to assess why the agency targeted tea party and other political groups for extra scrutiny.
Issa issued the subpoena to Lee Goodman, head of the Federal Election Commission, on Tuesday for communications involving Lerner, who is seen as a central figure in the controversy because she ran the division that executed the targeting.

She resigned last year after the Treasury Department’s inspector general found those working under her used “inappropriate” criteria to scrutinize certain groups. Since then, Lerner has refused to testify before Congress, invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. This has added to the Republican push to find any documents related to Lerner and her time in government.
In the on-going, determined GOP effort, Republicans are now reaching back to her career before the IRS.
Lerner joined the FEC in 1981, first working in the general counsel’s office. Issa subpoena focuses on her work after 1986, when Lerner became the head of the FEC’s enforcement division.

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Related article:
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Revealed: The Lois Lerner Emails That Weren’t Lost – The Blaze
House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said Wednesday that former IRS official Lois Lerner suggested investigating Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) before she was forced to leave her position due to the IRS targeting scandal.
According to documents unearthed by Camp, Lerner received an invitation to speak at an event that was intended for Grassley.
Lerner informed the group of the mistake, but then wrote to a colleague: “Looked like they were inappropriately offering to pay for his wife. Perhaps we should refer to Exam?”
That questioned prompted another IRS official to respond that paying for Grassley’s wife to attend is income for Grassley, and is “not prohibited on its face.” The followup email said the proper procedure would be to see if the group files a 1099 form to report the “income” Grassley earned, and see if Grassley reported that income in his annual tax filing.
Lerner replied by saying “thanks,” and added, “Don’t think I want to be on stage with Grassley on this issue.” The emails are redacted and don’t make it clear at what event they both might have spoken.
Camp said it is “shocking” that Lerner would use the email mix-up as a way to attack Grassley.
“At every turn, Lerner was using the IRS as a tool for political purposes in defiance of taxpayer rights,” he said. “We may never know the full extent of the abuse since the IRS conveniently lost two years of Lerner emails, not to mention those of other key figures in this scandal.
“The fact that DOJ refuses to investigate the IRS’s abuses or appoint a special counsel demonstrates, yet again, this administration’s unwillingness to uphold the rule of law.”
Read the Lerner emails here:
Grassley Lerner

[vector7]

Psst, Lois Lerner Sent Email To Her Blackberry…



John Ekdahl @JohnEkdahl
Follow

Pssst!
3:53 PM - 25 Jun 2014


Now the email above is from December 2012 and the period of missing emails is 2009-2011. However, are we to believe that she didn’t have her email going to her Blackberry and that the other 6 people in the IRS also failed to send it either to their phones or their laptops?

[American Patriot]

If she had it going to her BB then it's on the servers.

[American Patriot]

Meet The Seven IRS Employees Whose Computers ‘Crashed’

Image | Posted on June 26, 2014 by tomfernandez28

Patrick Howley
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is currently claiming that seven different IRS officials experienced computer crashes that erased their emails and made it impossible for the IRS to cooperate with congressional investigations into the IRS targeting matter.
The wave of computer crashes apparently struck both Washington, D.C. — where Lois Lerner oversaw the agency’s Exempt Organizations division — and also Cincinnati, Ohio — where agents processed tax-exempt applications.
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.
Here are the seven IRS employees who could use a tutorial on hard drive-fixing:
Lois Lerner: Lerner was the Washington-based head of the IRS Exempt Organizations division until her recent resignation. Lerner originally apologized in May 2013 for targeting conservative groups, but later attested to her innocence and repeatedly pleaded the Fifth at House Oversight hearings. The House of Representatives voted in May to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress. New IRS commissioner John Koskinen testified that nobody at the IRS tried to extract any emails from a six-month backup disk after Lerner’s computer hard drive allegedly crashed in June 2011. Lerner’s hard drive was “recycled.” Lerner and her attorney husband Michael Miles live on a $2.4 million property in Bethesda, Maryland.
Nikole Flax, former chief of staff to IRS commissioner Steven Miller: Flax was a busy bureaucrat during her tenure at the IRS, where she worked for Lerner in the exempt organizations division among other roles. 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. Flax met twice in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building with Jeanne Lambrew, a top adviser to President Obama who exchanged confidential information on conservative groups with Lerner.
Flax previously worked at the Joint Committee on Taxation as a legislative counsel, but left about six years ago, sources told TheDC. Flax attended Louisiana State University. She is married to Ryan H. Flax, a litigation consultant at the Washington firm A2L Consulting and a former intellectual property lawyer at the major D.C. law firm Dickstein Shapiro. The couple live in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Reached by phone, Ryan Flax declined to comment for this report, telling TheDC that he is “not really a part of this [controversy].”
Michelle Eldridge, IRS national media relations chief: This 23-year IRS veteran was tasked with defending the IRS when it came under scrutiny in 2012 for whistleblower reprisal from its inspector general and from Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who Lerner tried to target, and when it was revealed in 2013 that the agency leaked confidential information on conservative groups to the liberal nonprofit ProPublica. Eldridge visited the White House on March 22, 2010, to meet with Vice President Joe Biden’s scheduling director Alex Hornbrook.
“Eldridge leads the IRS’ national media relations office to provide public information on key announcements and tax law changes, including new health care tax law implications and recovery act provisions,” according to a speaker bio. “As chief, national media relations, she manages the day-to-day issuance of news releases and guidance drops, handles national media inquiries, and implements communication and media strategies for key IRS initiatives, such as offshore tax compliance and the Return Preparer Initiative.”
Kimberly Kitchens, agent: Kitchens, who donated to President Obama’s 2012 campaign, worked in the IRS Exempt Organizations Rulings and Agreements office in Cincinnati in 2012, according to IRS documents. The IRS’ plague of computer crashes, therefore, was not merely confined to Washington, D.C., but also ensnared the Cincinnati office that Lerner oversaw and initially tried to blame the entire scandal on.
Nancy Heagney, agent: Another Cincinnati-based Exempt Organizations official that worked under Lerner.
Julie Chen, agent: Chen is another Exempt Organizations official, according to IRS documents.
Tyler Chumny, supervisory agent: After some confusion as to the identity of Tyler Chumney, a source informed us that he served as a Cincinnati-based contact person on at least one tax-exempt decision letter signed by Lerner.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/06/26/me...#ixzz35mSOpzw0

[vector7]

Smoking Gun Trail To White House – Possible IRS Bombshell Within Politico Interview Of Lois Lerner Attorney William Taylor III – When Questioned About Lerner Sending DOJ 501(c)(4) Info: “Justice requested the documents”…

Posted on June 28, 2014 by sundance


WOAH – BOMBSHELL !!

The plot thickens. We might just have found a biggie….

In a recent Politico interview (publish date 6/27/14) with the Lois Lerner’s attorney William Taylor III an interesting aspect is buried midway through page #2.

During part of the interview Politico author Rachel Bade inquires about the 1.1 million pages of documents Lerner sent to the Department of Justice that became an issue when discovered by the House Oversight Committee on June 9th 2014. BACKSTORY HERE.

The documents were sent from IRS to DOJ on a series of 4 discs (CD ROMS) and, according to the admission from the DOJ, “contained legally protected taxpayer information that should not have ever been sent to the FBI“.
Why the DOJ waited to inform congress, and why they only did so after Daryl Issa found out about their existence, was a matter congressional consternation but no-one made a big deal about it.

Indeed all prior details and media reports of the interaction have been framed around the substance of legality, and illegality, for the IRS to actually send the confidential taxpayer data. This is indeed a concerning aspect – but we think we’ve uncovered something considerably more alarming about both the timing, and the substance.

Inside the Politico article is an explosively revealing defensively framed answer from attorney Taylor. He is specifically and directly stating it was NOT Lerner who initiated the inquiry:

…” [...] Taylor said Lerner didn’t know [about the unlawful confidential aspect] and sent them because Justice requested the documents”…

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Politico [Page 2] Taylor also responded to Oversight GOP reports that Lerner and Justice officials met in the fall of 2010 when Justice was considering the possibility of prosecuting 501(c)(4)s that may have been breaking rules by overly engaging in political activities — details Republicans found in emails handed over by the Justice Department.

Again, he said she was just doing her job.

“We should hope the two are talking to each other,” he said, because Justice and the IRS both bring tax charges and should be on the same page, he said.

Emails summarizing the meeting also show that Lerner apparently expressed skepticism that the (c)(4) issues were a criminal, rather than a civil, matter.

Oversight GOP has also hit Lerner for giving 1.1 million pages of tax return data about 501(c)(4) organizations to the FBI just before the 2010 midterms — 33 tax returns that included unlawfully disclosed private taxpayer information.

Taylor said Lerner didn’t know and sent them because Justice requested the documents: “She [understood] the donor information on Schedule B had been removed. In some cases, we later learned, it may not have been.”

The IRS has acknowledged that the 33 returns were not scrubbed of taxpayer information as required by law. (cont.)

In all prior reporting -on the initial revelation of Lerner’s submission of the documents to the DOJ- the assumption included within the articles was that Lerner was the initiator of the inquiry.

Apparently she wasn’t.

This latest interview with her attorney would dispute that assumption, and indicate the DOJ was the group making the inquiry – not the IRS. The IRS was responding to the request from the DOJ.
{Pause – Repeat} The IRS (Lerner) was responding to the request for information from the DOJ !

Naturally this means there was a preceding email from DOJ to the IRS.

The IRS (Lerner) emails around this incident were found by the House Oversight Committee and are included in both this article , and the pdf below.

However, if what Lerner’s attorney is saying to Politico is truthful, there’s more.

Where is the originating email from the DOJ? ….And more importantly WHO SENT IT AND WHY ?

FIRSTLY – This becomes quite possibly the smoking gun trail from DOJ (Eric Holder – underlings) to the White House.

SECONDLY – At the very least this makes the DOJ investigation into the IRS illegality fraught with conflict of interest. A conflict because the “impetus” of the inquiry itself, from the DOJ to the IRS becomes the more unlawful part.

How can the DOJ conduct an investigation into unlawful aspects of the IRS targeting of specific 501(c)(4) groups, when the DOJ is the initiating body for the illegality they are seeking to investigate?

ANYONE ?

IRS to DOJ Communication

[American Patriot]

FEDERAL JUDGE THREATENS IRS EMAIL INVESTIGATION BY OUTSIDE EXPERT

Posted on July 2, 2014



W Examiner: “IRS attorneys will be even busier than normal next week, because another federal judge has told them to show up in court July 11 to defend the federal tax agency. They will have to explain to U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton why the IRS shouldn’t be required to let an outside expert evaluate whether emails on the computer hard drives of former IRS official Lois Lerner and six colleagues really are lost forever, as the agency recently told Congress.”

It’s our government, why don’t we have the right to look at the evidence? They do. If we cannot provide it we are guilty. Why aren’t they?


.


W Examiner: Another federal judge tells IRS to explain itself on lost emails

[American Patriot]

Another federal judge tells IRS to explain itself on lost emails

By Mark Tapscott | July 1, 2014 | 5:04 pm

Topics: Watchdog IRS Accountability Law Transparency Federal Courts Lois Lerner FOIA Email

(iStock)

IRS attorneys will be even busier than normal next week, because another federal judge has told them to show up in court July 11 to defend the federal tax agency.


They will have to explain to U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton why the IRS shouldn't be required to let an outside expert evaluate whether emails on the computer hard drives of former IRS official Lois Lerner and six colleagues really are lost forever, as the agency recently told Congress.


Responding to a motion filed Monday by True the Vote, a Houston-based conservative nonprofit at the center of IRS targeting during the 2010 and 2012 campaigns, Walton issued an order Tuesday to hear arguments next week.


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.


“It may well prove to be the case that a computer forensics expert could recover evidence that the IRS has been unable to retrieve.


"At the very least, such an expert could preserve whatever evidence has not already been wiped clean from the IRS’s computers along with whatever is stored on the Individual Defendants’ home computers, cell phones, and other PDAs.”


IRS attorneys will be in the federal District Court on July 10 to explain why the government failed to tell Judicial Watch about the lost emails for months despite their being evidence in the nonprofit's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.


Judicial Watch, a government watchdog nonprofit, filed its lawsuit last October after IRS officials failed to respond adequately to a May 2013 FOIA request for the Lerner emails.


The government asked Walton on Monday night to dismiss the motion for an outside digital forensics expert. But True the Vote argued that merely asking for the dismissal “does not give them carte blanche to destroy or permit the destruction of documents and discoverable information that are relevant to the IRS Targeting Scheme in general and the application of True the Vote for exempt status.


“If the IRS’s public statements about ‘recycling’ Ms. Lerner’s hard drive are true, that alone establishes spoliation of evidence that violates federal statutes and regulations, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and professional ethics and responsibility.


“These statements, coupled with the refusal of Defendants’ counsel, to provide any assurances about what has been and will be done to preserve evidence underscore the need for the relief that True the Vote seeks."


An IRS spokesman has been asked for comment on True the Vote's motion and the July 11 court date.


Editor's note: Judicial Watch is representing the Washington Examiner in the newspaper's federal lawsuit seeking access to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau records under FOIA.


Mark Tapscott is executive editor of the Washington Examiner. Web URL: http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2550394

[American Patriot]

Flight of The Carrier Smidgens

Posted on July 16, 2014 by sundance
(Kurt Schlichter) Liberals will tell you that the IRS scandal is a “phony scandal,” apparently because using the federal government as a tool of oppression against one’s political opponents is A-OK as long as the ones using it are liberals and the ones being oppressed are conservatives.

Remember, scratch a liberal and it’ll bleed fascist brown.
So why not start off your discussion with your liberal conversationalist pal by posing that basic question: Is it okay, or is it not okay, to use federal agencies to harass and persecute your political opponents?
Now to us, because we are decent people and real Americans, the answer is “No,” but most hardcore liberals truly believe that it’s absolutely acceptable for Barack Obama to oppress his political opponents using the federal agencies under his control. To them, the rules and rights that protect all Americans only protect all Americans that they agree with.
In my new book, Conservative Insurgency, one of the key factors that leads to the eventual victory of conservatism is the systematic bureaucratic abuse of Americans’ rights by the Obama and Hillary Clinton administrations. Yeah, Hillary Clinton – in my speculative history, things get a lot worse before they get better.
Now, of course, very few liberals will actually come out and say, “Why, yes, I think it’s a great idea to use federal agencies to oppress Obama’s political opponents.” Harry Reid would, but he also thinks the border is secure, that global warming is making the unicorn extinct, and that the Koch Brothers are behind his sexual dysfunction.
Mostly, your liberal pals will shimmy and shake trying to avoid making a clear and unequivocal statement of principle. Use that unwillingness to highlight to those listening to your conversation the most important point: liberals care only about power. To them, rules and rights are obstacles to their dominance and are therefore meaningless.
Pressure your opponent on that point. If people disagree with you, do you have a right to do anything you want to them?
They won’t want to say it, but the answer is “Yes.” Liberals really do think that anything they do is justified. This gets really unpleasant when liberals evolve to their natural collectivist endstate of either communism or fascism.
On the meat of the issue, you’ll always get the argument that, “There’s no scandal and you can’t prove anything and doing it was totally cool anyway.”
Well, the IRS’s own Inspector General found a problem. And back before Lois Lerner started hiding behind the Fifth Amendment – hey, the liberals finally found a right that they like that’s actually in the Constitution! – she personally apologized for targeting conservatives. Mention those little facts, along with how siccing the IRS on his enemies was one of the looming impeachment charges against Barack Milhous Nixon.
And there’s the little problem of the missing emails and other computer data. “Oh,” you’ll hear, “Emails get deleted all the time.” Leaving aside the inherent unlikelihood that the disposal of Lois Lerner and her co-conspirators’ data would be the one time in recorded history that government acted quickly and efficiently in the ordinary course of business, this is just stupid.
As someone who actually does trials and gathers evidence in high-stakes civil litigation in federal courts, this is what we lawyers call “crazy talk.” If you get warned, as the IRS did, that you’re going to be involved in a civil or criminal case and you mysteriously “lose” the relevant electronic data, it’s called “spoliation of evidence,” and it’s really, really bad. (read more)

[American Patriot]

‘Nonpartisan’! Lois Lerner email bemoans right-wing ‘crazies,’ ‘assholes’ [photo]

Posted at 11:57 am on July 30, 2014 by Twitchy Staff | View Comments

@Aaron_RS @DLoesch @BecketAdams @billmurphy is this where NOT a SMIDGEN comes into play?


—
Zep (@mightyones1968) July 30, 2014

The House Ways and Means Committee has posted “a newly discovered email exchange from Ms. Lerner’s official IRS email account”:

Camp sends MORE evidence of criminal wrongdoing to #DOJ, including emails from former #IRS director Lois Lerner 1.usa.gov/1k7trx8—
Ways and Means (@WaysandMeansGOP) July 30, 2014

And it’s rather insightful:

Well now. RT @billmurphy: Lois Lerner emails show she was not much of a fan of conservatives. http://t.co/keTKMXmnZB—
T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) July 30, 2014

Now, this sort of thing may not be shocking to anyone who’s been following Lerner’s exploits:

Breaking? RT @billmurphy: Lois Lerner emails show she was not much of a fan of conservatives. http://t.co/91VH1WFEK8—
Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 30, 2014

But it still doesn’t do Lerner any favors.

No bias…nope. Not. One. Bit. MT @lachlan Lerner: right-wingers are "assholes," "crazies that will take us down" https://t.co/2uJi35KYLV—
Matthew (@Matthops82) July 30, 2014

“Nonpartisan” “@billmurphy: Lois Lerner: conservatives are assholes.” http://t.co/2Z85MQRaev #IRS—
Sean Agnew (@seanagnew) July 30, 2014

Yeah, right.

According to Lois Lerner, you might just be a crazy, asshole domestic terrorist: http://t.co/cyqE7ktobJ—
Cuffé (@CuffyMeh) July 30, 2014

@billmurphy @allahpundit Well, part of the reason we feel "the US is through", Lois, is corrupt a–holes like you who abuse your power.—
(@LetItBurnUSA) July 30, 2014

@Aaron_RS @DLoesch @BecketAdams @billmurphy who looks like the a…hole now? #IRS #loislerner—
mass (@Zazusays) July 30, 2014

Take a bow, Lois.

I hope Lois Lerner winds up sentenced to 10 years of Conservative talk radio.
Vile, criminal, elitist.—
Michelle Ray (@GaltsGirl) July 30, 2014

***
Related:
Twitchy coverage of Lois Lerner

[American Patriot]

30 Jul
“Lost” IRS Emails Show They Tried to Throw Innocent People in Jail

Posted 30/07/2014 by sfcmac in Bill of Rights, Communism/Socialism, Leftist moonbats, Politics. 1 Comment
From the National Review.

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. Let’s take this exchange (previously uncovered byJudicial Watch) between Lois Lerner, the director of exempt organizations at the IRS, and Nikole Flax, then the IRS commissioner’s chief of staff. (To be clear, these are not “low level” employees.)


First, here’s Lerner on May 8, 2013, literally two days before last year’s fake apology for IRS tea-party targeting:


“I got a call today from Richard PilgerDirector Elections Crimes Branch at DOJ. I know him from contacts from my days there. He wanted to know who at IRS the DOJ folk s could talk to about [Rhode Island Democrat] Sen. Whitehouse idea at the hearing that DOJ could piece together false statement cases about applicants who “lied” on their 1024s –saying they weren’t planning on doing political activity, and then turning around and making large vis ible political expenditures. DOJ is feeling like it needs to respond, but want to talk to the right folks at IRS to see whether there are impediments from our side and what, if any damage this might do to IRS programs.


I told him that sounded like we might need several folks from IRS. I am out of town all next week, so wanted to reach out and see who you think would be right for such a meeting and also hand this off to Nan as contact person if things need to happen while I am gone –”


Translation: The Obama Justice Department was reaching out to the Obama IRS to see if it could “piece together” prosecutions of nonprofits even before any evidence of wrongdoing emerged.


And how did Nikole Flax respond? By suggesting that even more federal agencies get involved:


“I think we should do it – also need to include CI, which we can help coordinate. Also, we need to reach out to FEC. Does it make sense to consider including them in this or keep it separate?”


In other words, rather than asking the DOJ whether it possessed any evidence of wrongdoing by American citizens engaged in constitutionally protected activities, two senior officials in the Obama IRS (including one, Lois Lerner, who “joked” about wanting to work for Organizing For Action, also known as BarackObama.com) pushed forward the effort to launch a multi-agency criminal probe, involving even the FEC. Oh, and keep in mind that this e-mail exchange occurred literally years after the IRS claimed it had ended all tea-party targeting.



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. At the ACLJ, I’m one of the attorneys in our litigation — on behalf of 41 conservative groups in 22 states — against the IRS and key IRS officials.


As of today, we’re putting the DOJ, FEC, and even key Democratic senators on notice: They’re bound by law to preserve any communications with IRS officials that would be discoverable in our lawsuit.

Fuck the lawsuit. Lerner and her flying monkeys should be prosecuted.


A run down of IRS corruption:
According to 2012 emails obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, top Internal Revenue Service Obamacare official Sarah Hall Ingram discussed confidential taxpayer information with senior Obama White House officials.



Lois Lerner, then head of the IRS Tax Exempt Organizations division, also received an email alongside White House officials that contained confidential information. More emails uncover Lerner’s role in the conspiracy, including proof that she gave confidential taxpayer information to the FEC, violating federal law. She was also caught on tape,discussing the pressure being put on the IRS to do something about the money being spent by conservatives on the election as a result of Citizens United. Guess where the pressure came from.
IRS employees in Cincinnati were warned not to talk to the press “or risk losing our jobs.”
J. Christian Adams, the former DOJ attorney who blew the whistle on Holder’s refusal to prosecute the Black Panthers for voter intimidation, was himself targeted by the IRS for critical articles he published in Pajamas Media.
Obama met with top IRS official William Wilkins before the targeting began. As a matter of fact, a Cincinnati IRS employee testified that it was quite clear the orders came from D.C.
The IRS engaged in the deliberate suppression, harassment, and intimidation of patriotic and conservative groups, and those who focus on the Constitution and criticize government spending.
Documents reveal that the IRS targeted specific groups by name.
Under Obama’s direction, the IRS didn’t have any trouble defining his preference of sympathetic leftwing groups over Tea Party/GOP organizations. Any request from groups with “patriot”, Tea Party”, or “conservative” in their name was automatically placed at the bottom of the pile or discarded entirely. IRS employees testified to that fact, and much more.
So, what will the GOP do about it? As of now, no one in the entire Obama regime, including the Corruptocrat-in-Chief is being held accountable for their crimes. Instead, they’re paraded in front of Congressional hearings where hot air passes for real prosecution because the GOP lacks the balls to stop them.
All the lawsuits in the world won’t bring thee thugs to their knees. They should be in prison.

[American Patriot]

Rabid? Crazy? Assholes?

Ok, I can own that last one. But Learner is proving our point with her own words.

Lois Lerner Called Conservatives ‘Assholes,’ Fantasized About Working At Obama Group

Posted on July 30, 2014 by tomfernandez28

Chuck Ross
Reporter


New emails released by the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday provide more evidence that ex-IRS official Lois Lerner is not fond of conservatives.


“So we don’t need to worry about teRroists [sic]. It’s our own crazies that will take us down,” Lerner wrote in a Nov. 9, 2012 email exchange with an IRS colleague.


Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp revealed the emails in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.


Lerner’s disdain for the right is central to an investigation into whether she targeted conservative groups who were seeking tax-exempt status. Republicans have accused the former director of the IRS’s exempt organizations division of possible criminal wrongdoing in targeting the groups.


“This email shows that Ms. Lerner’s mistreatment of conservative groups was driven by her personal hostility toward conservatives,” Camp wrote.


“This new evidence clearly demonstrates why Ms. Lerner not only targeted conservatives, but denied such groups their rights to due process and equal protection under the law.”


Camp claims that the emails “build on ample evidence” that Lerner used her official position “to improperly influence agency action against only conservative organizations.”


The Michigan Republican pointed out that Lerner subjected the conservative Crossroads GPS to an audit and personally denied their application for tax-exempt status.


Lerner’s email mocking conservative “crazies” came at the end of an exchange with an unnamed colleague.


“Well, you should hear the whacko wing of the GOP. The US is through; too many foreigners sucking the teat; time to hunker down, buy ammo and food, and prepare for the end. The right wing radio shows are scary to listen to,” wrote Lerner’s correspondent.


“And I’m talking about the hosts of the shows,” the colleague wrote. “The callers are rabid.”


“Great. Maybe we are through if there are that many assholes,” replied Lerner in the email, though the pejorative was redacted in the email provided by Camp.


In his letter, Camp reminds Holder of other possible biases displayed by Lerner. In response to a news article about the pro-Obama non-profit Organizing for Action, Lerner wrote to another colleague, “Oh – maybe I can get the DC office job!”


Camp called on Holder to “aggressively investigate” Lerner’s actions. So far, Holder has resisted calls for a special prosecutor to look into the issue.


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/07/30/lo...#ixzz38yOa4yWd

[Ryan Ruck]

IRS Strikes Deal With Atheists to Target Religious Political Activity

July 29, 2014

The Internal Revenue Service has reached a so-called “secret agreement” with atheists to probe churches and religious groups’ political activity.

Shannon Bream joined Martha MacCallum on America’s Newsroom today and explained that this resulted from the Freedom From Religion Foundation's lawsuit against the IRS, which alleged the agency wasn’t doing its job to monitor that churches with tax-exempt status were not engaging in political activity.

Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said the IRS has promised to do more in this arena. According to Barker, churches and pastors have been getting away with too much for too long.

"People can start pouring money into churches for political reasons to mobilize the vote, and that’s just not what the non-profit IRS law was intended to do," Barker said.

The deal reportedly will allow the Freedom From Religion Foundation to resume its lawsuit against the IRS if it believes the agency isn't doing enough. What the IRS might actually do to enforce those rules against churches and the specific terms of this deal are unknown, as that information is not available to the public.

Lawyers with the Alliance Defending Freedom have filed a request to get that information, adding that the IRS has no business determining what can and can't be said from the pulpit, and individual churches should make that decision for themselves.

Video at the link above.

[vector7]

BREAKING: Judicial Watch Says DOJ Attorney Told Them Lerner Emails Do Exist…

Which would indicate a smidgeon of corruption (which Obama promised us doesn’t exist).



Update: But the DOJ won’t look for them because it is too hard.

A Justice Department official admitted that former IRS official Lois Lerner’s apparently missing emails 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 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’ Shannon Bream.

“But it would be too hard to go get lois lerner’s emails from that backup system,” Fitton continued, paraphrasing the DOJ official.

[Ryan Ruck]

I wonder if I can use that excuse if I'm ever audited.

"Yeah, I'd love to show you guys those records but, man, it'd be too hard to get them. Sorry! We square?"

[American Patriot]

I plan on it.


"Sorry dude. I live on a boat, on the hook. I don't have internet. I don't go into town often. When I do I buy beans and rice. Lots of that shit. And beer. Wanna beer? What did you need again?"

[MinutemanCO]

"Sorry dude. I live on a boat, on the hook. I don't have internet. I don't go into town often. When I do I buy beans and rice. Lots of that shit. And beer. Wanna beer? What did you need again?"

That's classic.

[American Patriot]

Anyone can play the "Stupid Card".

Son's phone rang the other night. Call was from "Cambodia". He answers the phone, then puts on speaker phone

"Hello is this XXXX XXXXX? This is Charley from Microsoft. We're calling to assist you with your internet problem..."

"Ah... yes? Ok? "

"Log into logmein123.com and let us assist you over the computer..."

"Sure, but.. umm... I don't actually have Internet. But I DO have a problem with an office document I'm trying to get formated in the APA format for my college course. Can you connect me to someone who can help me?"

Caller: "Hold on a moment Sir, I'll get my supervisor."

Answerer: "On hold.... watch this...."

Caller: "Hello. This is the supervisor... how can I...."

Answerer: "Hello, thank you for calling T-Mobile. My name is Riley, please give me your ten digit telephone number, area code first so that I can pull up your account...."

Caller: "My account? Isn't this XXXX XXXXX?"

Answerer: "No, you have reached T-Mobile. I need your 10 digit phone number to assist you please...."


The whole thing continued for 38 minutes of back and forth, complete and utter stupid confusion on the other end. The people sitting in the room were about to pee their pants.

Yes... my son.... I'm proud of him.

[American Patriot]

IRS ethics lawyer facing possible disbarment, accused of lying

Posted August 28, 2014
Filed under: "Intelligence", "Transparency", Buying Indulgences, Government, IRS |
And they’re just getting to this now?

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.
Ms. McGee, who recently gave a speech to the Florida bar titled “When your license to practice before the IRS is on the line,” acknowledged in a phone interview Tuesday that her own job is on the line as she fights disbarment proceedings.
“Does it keep me up worrying? Yes,” she said. “As it relates to my job, may I possibly lose it? Yes, I face that fact each and every day.”
The case could pose a credibility issue for the IRS, whose professional conduct office is the watchdog charged with ensuring all tax professionals “adhere to professional standards and follow the law.”
Despite that duty, the office has dispatched Ms. McGee to lecture professionals about the importance of maintaining high ethical standards.

Pot, meet kettle…