IRS admits to targeting Conservative groups

[CagleMtnVol]

Judicial Watch Smoking Gun Busts Open IRS Scandal, Again

Judicial Watch Smoking Gun Busts Open IRS Scandal, Again

The news just keeps going from bad to worse for President Obama and disgraced former IRS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner, thanks in large part to Judicial Watch’s investigative work.

JW has been instrumental in uncovering evidence of Lerner’s role in the IRS “Tea Party” scandal, obtaining records even Congress could not get – documents proving the nation’s tax collecting agency attempted to silence conservative organizations through abusive practices.

And these discoveries led the Congress to push for more accountability.

On Wednesday, May 7, 2014, the House of Representatives voted 231-187 to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about the agency’s targeting of Tea Party groups. Moments after the contempt vote – and arguably more importantly – the House passed a separate resolution asking the Department of Justice (DOJ) to appoint a special counsel to probe the IRS over the scandal by a vote of 250-168, with 26 Democrats joining Republicans.

And previously, on April 9, 2014, the House Ways and Means Committee voted to refer Lerner to the DOJ for criminal prosecution for alleged actions relating to the IRS’s targeting scandal.

And now this, as reported by Townhall.com’s Katie Pavlich:

Back in April, Judicial Watch released documents showing IRS officials, including former head of tax exempt groups Lois Lerner, discussing the possibility of bringing criminal charges against tea party groups for engaging in “political activity.” In fact, the documents showed Lerner wanted to make an example out of someone with charges in order to chill all of the groups in the tea party movement…

Now according to a release from House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, Lerner had a database of tax exempt organizations sent to the FBI just before the 2010 midterm elections. That database included legally protected taxpayer information. Emails show Lerner and DOJ Election Crimes Branch official Richard Pilger discussing what format the FBI prefers when it comes to receiving information for their investigation.

“Thanks Lois – FBI says Raw format is best because they can put it into their systems like excel,” Pilger wrote in an October 6, 2010 email to Lerner.

So the Obama IRS worked with the FBI to advance a scheme to criminally prosecute conservative organizations in the final weeks of the campaign season!

While at first the DOJ said the 1.1 million pages of records included only publicly available tax information, Justice officials ultimately reversed course, admitting that some confidential information was released as well.

According to Reps. Darrell Issa and Jim Jordan in a letter to IRS commissioner John Koskinen: “This revelation that the IRS sent 1.1 million pages of nonprofit tax-return data — including confidential taxpayer information — to the FBI confirms suspicions that the IRS worked with the Justice Department to facilitate the potential investigation of nonprofit groups engaged in lawful political speech.”

“[T]his revelation likely means that the IRS — including possibly Lois Lerner — violated federal tax law by transmitting this information to the Justice Department in 2010."

From the very beginning of the IRS scandal, Judicial Watch has been unearthing the truth about Lerner’s efforts to harass and hamstring conservative organizations.

JW’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and lawsuits resulted in revelations of Lerner’s collusion with the DOJ and the Federal Election Commission, as well as her spearheading efforts within the IRS to delay or block applications from Tea Party groups for 501(c)(4) tax exempt status.

Judicial Watch’s leadership led Congress to uncover that the FBI is now part of the IRS abuse scandal. Where will it end? And when will someone be held criminally accountable? Eric Holder’s DOJ and the FBI are now supposed to be investigating themselves? This is untenable.

In addition to Judicial Watch’s independent investigation, we need a special counsel – who isn’t a stooge of Obama or of Eric Holder – to investigate this administration, an idea with which even twenty-six House Democrats already agree.

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[lawgator1]

Unless they plead the 5th....

And if they could recover the others, not involved in this case it would prove her emails were intentionally wiped.

That would be pretty bad as they are not accused of anything. Lerner got threatened over and over again by Issa precisely so she would take the 5th. This would not lend itself to that as there is no criminality associated with not backing up a server.

 

[lawgator1]

Judicial Watch Smoking Gun Busts Open IRS Scandal, Again




.

Now according to a release from House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, Lerner had a database of tax exempt organizations sent to the FBI just before the 2010 midterm elections. That database included legally protected taxpayer information. Emails show Lerner and DOJ Election Crimes Branch official Richard Pilger discussing what format the FBI prefers when it comes to receiving information for their investigation.

“Thanks Lois – FBI says Raw format is best because they can put it into their systems like excel,” Pilger wrote in an October 6, 2010 email to Lerner.

So the Obama IRS worked with the FBI to advance a scheme to criminally prosecute conservative organizations in the final weeks of the campaign season!



Oh for crying out loud. Because they asked for excel spreadsheets they are in on a conspiracy? Crikes.

 

[hog88]

That would be pretty bad as they are not accused of anything. Lerner got threatened over and over again by Issa precisely so she would take the 5th. This would not lend itself to that as there is no criminality associated with not backing up a server.

"Threatened"? How specifically was she threatened prior to her first visit to the committee? Does Issa have indictment powers we don't know about?

 

[Vol737]

I pray that you are not really this naive....

Better stop praying now...he is. There's no waaaay anyone loses this many e-mails LG unless they want them gone. You don't think the IRS IT follks don't have the ability to erase them from databases, servers, etc..?? OH holy crap-o-moly...I wish I could live on planet Fantasy Land with LG.

 

[hog88]

Now according to a release from House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, Lerner had a database of tax exempt organizations sent to the FBI just before the 2010 midterm elections. That database included legally protected taxpayer information. Emails show Lerner and DOJ Election Crimes Branch official Richard Pilger discussing what format the FBI prefers when it comes to receiving information for their investigation.

“Thanks Lois – FBI says Raw format is best because they can put it into their systems like excel,” Pilger wrote in an October 6, 2010 email to Lerner.

So the Obama IRS worked with the FBI to advance a scheme to criminally prosecute conservative organizations in the final weeks of the campaign season!



Oh for crying out loud. Because they asked for excel spreadsheets they are in on a conspiracy? Crikes.

Kinda depends on what the spreadsheets contained now doesn't it? But of course since the emails are lost.......

 

[W.TN.Orange Blood]

I'd like to be on when she's on:

:rock: She's on "the Five" right now & you're missing her.

 

[FLVOL69]

I'd like to be on when she's on:

Beckel has a better shot at her than you do.

 

[ajvol01]

LG spin: "IRS are buffoons, but not criminal."

Serious question: if the IRS uses LG's spin story - Does the IRS "buffoonery" encompass criminal negligence?

 

[Herman Hickman]

Of course its a scandal....

What I find pathetic and hilarious is how desperately you cling both to the lie that this was restricted to one local office in Cincinnati and the absolute whopper that the same enhanced/delayed adjudication for conservative 501c3 organizations applied equally to liberal groups.

Since those falsehoods were first used by your beloved White House, we've seen Lois Lerner take the 5th to avoid self-incrimination. It has been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that Washington DC gave the orders for offices in Cincinnati and elsewhere to focus their efforts against political enemies of the President. It is also now quite clear that Lois Lerner illegally handed tax information to the DoJ/FBI.

Yet in spite of all you now know, you cling to the old and discredited excuses.

The post above says more about you and your choice to remain obtuse regarding this Administration than anything it can currently say about the IRS and its actions. It is not to your credit to issue a response you now know to be fraudulent.

 

[Sandvol]

What I find pathetic and hilarious is how desperately you cling both to the lie that this was restricted to one local office in Cincinnati and the absolute whopper that the same enhanced/delayed adjudication for conservative 501c3 organizations applied equally to liberal groups.

Since those falsehoods were first used by your beloved White House, we've seen Lois Lerner take the 5th to avoid self-incrimination. It has been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that Washington DC gave the orders for offices in Cincinnati and elsewhere to focus their efforts against political enemies of the President. It is also now quite clear that Lois Lerner illegally handed tax information to the DoJ/FBI.

Yet in spite of all you now know, you cling to the old and discredited excuses.

The post above says more about you and your choice to remain obtuse regarding this Administration than anything it can currently say about the IRS and its actions. It is not to your credit to issue a response you now know to be fraudulent.

Do you really expect LG to show any ounce of integrity regarding this issue? He is a shrill and an operative. Why even pay attention to any thing he says? Statists are about disassembling the Republic piece by piece. Attorney General Holder is not the chief law enforcement officer in the land-the President is. And, when the chief law enforcement officer has no respect for the law, this country or its institutions, then our Republic is shaken to its core. For a free republic to thrive it requires that its leaders be above partisanship and to honor and respect their offices. But, statists do not desire a free republic-their ultimate goal is its destruction. They are the elite masterminds who should be in charge.

 

[AirVol]

LG, I have a major issue with anyone who blindly supports Obama and refuses to accept reality.

To that end, if anyone truly believes these 6 IRS employees' emails simply vanished and are impossible to produce then you, sir, fit squarely in the latter category.

 

[hog88]

LG, I have a major issue with anyone who blindly supports the government and refuses to accept reality.

To that end, if anyone truly believes these 6 IRS employees' emails simply vanished and are impossible to produce then you, sir, fit squarely in the latter category.

fify

 

[lawgator1]

LG, I have a major issue with anyone who blindly supports Obama and refuses to accept reality.

To that end, if anyone truly believes these 6 IRS employees' emails simply vanished and are impossible to produce then you, sir, fit squarely in the latter category.

I'm saying that the article he posted said there was six. The only one it identified by name was a secretary, not alleged to have been involved other than relaying messages. My suggestion was that if that is the most startling revelation from these six, then I am not inclined to scream outrage, and am instead rather inclined to think its just more partisan
crap.

I haven't checked today, so I don't know if something more significant has come up.

 

[Grand Vol]

I'm saying that the article he posted said there was six. The only one it identified by name was a secretary, not alleged to have been involved other than relaying messages. My suggestion was that if that is the most startling revelation from these six, then I am not inclined to scream outrage, and am instead rather inclined to think its just more partisan
crap.

I haven't checked today, so I don't know if something more significant has come up.

It's hard to keep track of since the top story keeps getting bumped by illegals crossing the border, the mess in Iraq, the Ukraine, the VA Scandal, Benghazi, trading five terrorists for a single deserter.

Not easy keeping up with this stuff, I know.

 

[hog88]

It's hard to keep track of since the top story keeps getting bumped by illegals crossing the border, the mess in Iraq, the Ukraine, the VA Scandal, Benghazi, trading five terrorists for a single deserter.

Not easy keeping up with this stuff, I know.

He must be getting a different set of talking points every couple of hours.

 

[Herman Hickman]

 

[lawgator1]

Ah, yes. What this has always been about. Over compensation for the GOP's collective shame from 40 years ago.

 

[ajvol01]

Ah, yes. What this has always been about. Over compensation for the GOP's collective shame from 40 years ago.

You're such a simpleton.

 

[Ernest T. Vol]

It's hard to keep track of since the top story keeps getting bumped by illegals crossing the border, the mess in Iraq, the Ukraine, the VA Scandal, Benghazi, trading five terrorists for a single deserter.

Not easy keeping up with this stuff, I know.

Mass conflagration.

 

[Herman Hickman]

Ah, yes. What this has always been about. Over compensation for the GOP's collective shame from 40 years ago.

I'm sure Howard Baker, Everett Dirksen, and others had some shame over the Nixon years. They pursued the Nixon Administration for their abuses of power.

The Democrats? Well...it is hard to demonstrate ethical behavior when it has been proven none exists. Witness Elijah Cummings, a man sitting in judgement of the same IRS he colluded with to deny the political freedoms of groups he decided were enemies.

Witness yourself, a man who believes the ends justify the means regardless of the implications of those means upon the freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.

Where is your shame? Stuck in the same tailbone your lips have been firmly attached to since January 20, 2009.

 

[davethevol]

And today it has been announced that the actual hard drives have been destroyed. When will the legal citizens of this country do something about this?

 

[W.TN.Orange Blood]

And today it has been announced that the actual hard drives have been destroyed. When will the legal citizens of this country do something about this?

So the IRS wants us to believe that Lerner's emails were only stored on her personal hard drive? And not on a backup server somewhere? Come on y'all, give us peeps out here a break Mr.IRS dudes!! We aren't that stupid!!

 

[lawgator1]

I'm sure Howard Baker, Everett Dirksen, and others had some shame over the Nixon years. They pursued the Nixon Administration for their abuses of power.

The Democrats? Well...it is hard to demonstrate ethical behavior when it has been proven none exists. Witness Elijah Cummings, a man sitting in judgement of the same IRS he colluded with to deny the political freedoms of groups he decided were enemies.

Witness yourself, a man who believes the ends justify the means regardless of the implications of those means upon the freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.

Where is your shame? Stuck in the same tailbone your lips have been firmly attached to since January 20, 2009.

That's absurd. Like everyone, I believe its a question of balancing security and liberty. Invariably, the party on the outside shrieks that the party in power has gone too far one way or the other.

In the current state of affairs, the GOP has gotten to the point that, no matter the incident, they screech that Obama has gone too far, even if it means whining that he went too far in one direction one day, and too far in the other later that same day.

 

[lawgator1]

Here's a good article explaining some of these issues about how they back up emails, what the process is, etc. Those of you trying to make something of this should read it before you jump to too many conclusions.

Sources: Lois Lerner