The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

IRS Scandal: Smoking Gun?

Posted on | April 17, 2014 | 19 Comments

Using the tax agency to criminalize conservatives?

Judicial Watch today released a new batch of internal IRS documents revealing that former IRS official Lois Lerner communicated with the Department of Justice (DOJ) about whether it was possible to criminally prosecute certain tax-exempt entities. The documents were obtained as a result of an October 2013 Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after the agency refused to respond to four FOIA requests dating back to May 2013.
The newly released IRS documents contain an email exchange between Lerner and Nikole C. Flax, then-Chief of Staff to then-Acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller discussing plans to work with the DOJ  to prosecute nonprofit groups that “lied” (Lerner’s quotation marks) about political activities.

The thing that jumps off the page at me is that Lerner said Richard Pilger, director of the Election Crimes division at the Justice Department official was acting on a suggestion by Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. There are other important revelations, as Peter Roff at U.S. News observes:

In a rash of documents provided under the Freedom of Information Act to Judicial Watch, a non-partisan public interest law group, is an April 2013 email written by David Fish, acting manager of IRS Exempt Organizations Technical Guidance and Quality Assurance and sent to, among others, former IRS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner. It was part of a thread discussing a recent U.S. Senate hearing on the potential for the abuse of the 501(c)(4) tax status by organizations intervening inappropriately or improperly in candidate elections. . . .
Fish responds, “Tell Ruth she needs to get on the stick and that the next election cycle is around the corner. This is obviously a wonderful idea (that’s why we suggested it). I think you told Greg all you can tell him, unless you want to tell him that we’re taking guidance plan suggestions.”
The email is dated April 15, 2013 — well after initial allegations that the IRS had “slow-walked” the applications of conservative groups had been made and, by the agency, denied.
The “Ruth” mentioned in the message refers to Ruth Madrigal, an official at the U.S. Treasury Department. The “Greg” mentioned in Fish’s message is apparently a San Francisco-based attorney named Gregory Colvin, who started this chain with an e-mail to Lerner and Madrigal letting them know he has just testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism on the issue of whether officers of (c)(4) organizations who made false statements under penalty of perjury on tax returns “could be criminally prosecuted.”
The particular mention by Fish of the idea that “the next election cycle is around the corner” seems to any reasonable person to confirm or at least suggest higher-ups at the IRS including Lerner knew exactly what they were doing, had used their positions for partisan political purposes, and were continuing to do so even though the word about what they were doing had leaked out.
“The David Fish email proves the IRS originated and fed to Senate Democrats the idea of threatening conservatives with criminal prosecution for engaging in political speech — specifically with an eye towards the 2014 cycle. It’s the strongest proof yet that there should indeed be criminal prosecutions, not of conservatives but of the IRS bureaucrats who conspired to suppress them,” said Phil Kerpen, the president of American Commitment and one who has followed this issue closely since it first become public knowledge.

Read the whole thing. The point is that the IRS scandal isn’t over — it’s barely begun, because the real scandal is the cover-up.

There are so many subpoenaed documents that have yet to be produced, and the clearly evident pattern of stonewalling by administration officials cannot possibly be coincidental. The IRS, the Treasury Department and the Justice Department were all clearly acting at the behest of Democrats, including Sheldon Whitehouse and Elijah Cumming, to target conservative groups. And then, when that pattern of targeting became apparent, all of these officials started conspiring to conceal evidence of their wrongdoing.

 

Category: Scandal, Taxes

Comments

19 Responses to “IRS Scandal: Smoking Gun?”

  1. M. Thompson
    April 17th, 2014 @ 10:01 am

    Good. Throw the bums out!

  2. M. Thompson
    April 17th, 2014 @ 10:01 am

    Good. Throw the bums out!

  3. Cal Quelus
    April 17th, 2014 @ 10:11 am

    If today’s liberals will callously murder the unborn, they certainly won’t have any qualms about aggressively attacking anyone else.

    Know your adversary.

  4. Cal Quelus
    April 17th, 2014 @ 10:11 am

    If today’s liberals will callously murder the unborn, they certainly won’t have any qualms about aggressively attacking anyone else.

    Know your adversary.

  5. richard mcenroe
    April 17th, 2014 @ 10:49 am

    Won’t happen. Holder won’t act and if you think McConnell and Boehner are going to defend conservatives in Congress…

  6. IRS Scandal: What did President Obama know and when did he know it? | Batshit Crazy News
    April 17th, 2014 @ 11:29 am

    […] TOM: IRS Scandal Smoking Gun? […]

  7. DaveO
    April 17th, 2014 @ 1:53 pm

    No need for Lerner to testify anymore. Since DOJ is not longer in the law-keeping business, file criminal charges against her in friendly Red States.

  8. David Addams
    April 17th, 2014 @ 3:31 pm

    “The point is that the IRS scandal isn’t over — it’s barely begun, because the real scandal is the cover-up.”

    Have to correct this. The cover-up is an additional scandal. The IRS targeting is a scandal, in and of itself.

    The cover-up just increases the number of people implicated, including Eric Holder. He lied to Congress about there being no conflict of interest when it came to the DOJ investigating the original scandal.

  9. Art Deco
    April 17th, 2014 @ 4:29 pm

    The general public will react to this with cud-chewing indifference, the Administration will successfully stonewall, the media will offer only perfunctory coverage, and they’ll just stuff the ballot boxes in 2016 with ‘early votes’ cast by people who moved away in 2007.

  10. Art Deco
    April 17th, 2014 @ 4:31 pm

    Oh, and Marc Crisipin Miller will write another book about how the lawless Republicans are stealing elections.

  11. Bob Belvedere
    April 17th, 2014 @ 8:53 pm

    Hello, Putin lover.

  12. Cal Quelus
    April 17th, 2014 @ 9:49 pm

    Mr. Putin’s willingness to defend the Russian people, defend the family, and defend Christianity are a welcome breath of fresh air within the putrid halls of liberalism.

    With 20 million disease-addled mestizos wreaking havoc and mayhem upon the people sans consequence, perhaps we should begin to wonder if democracies are even capable of defending themselves from foreign invasion.

  13. Bob Belvedere
    April 17th, 2014 @ 11:25 pm

    So, Putinphile, what say you about this USA Today report:

    World leaders and Jewish groups condemned a leaflet handed out in the
    eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk in which Jews were told to “register”
    with the pro-Russian militants who have taken over a government office
    in an attempt to make Ukraine part of Russia, according to Ukrainian and
    Israeli media.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/04/17/jews-ordered-to-register-in-east-ukraine/7816951/

  14. News and opinions on Friday | Walla Walla TEA Party Patriots
    April 18th, 2014 @ 4:45 am

    […] IRS Scandal: Smoking Gun? […]

  15. Cal Quelus
    April 18th, 2014 @ 8:41 am

    Well, if Gyorgy Schwartz, Cass Sunstein, Sandra Korn, Ezekiel Emanuel, Lev Bronstein, Saul Alinsky, and Paul Krugman are any indication, it seems like a good idea.

    Karl Marx’s grandfathers were both rabbis, you know.

  16. Is Sodomy Still Sodomy, If the Victim Gets the Part? | Regular Right Guy
    April 18th, 2014 @ 4:00 pm

    […] IRS Scandal: Smoking Gun? […]

  17. Bob Belvedere
    April 18th, 2014 @ 7:29 pm

    The Anti-Semite took the bait.

  18. Zohydro
    April 18th, 2014 @ 9:03 pm

    That was pure genius, Belvedere!

  19. Bob Belvedere
    April 18th, 2014 @ 11:18 pm

    Thank you, but they’re so FUCKIN’ STUPID – pardon my French – that it was easy to do.