The IRS scandal just keeps growing. Current stories on Drudge:
NEW ‘ENEMIES LIST’…
IRS Began Targeting Conservatives in March 2010…
Revealed: The 55-questions IRS sent tea party group — demands for donor lists, names of all volunteers…
BOOK: IRS retaliates against outspoken business leaders…
Tea Party groups threaten to sue…
Kentucky activist to IRS: ‘Apology not accepted’…
Probe Expands To Groups Opposed To Gov’t, Teaching Constitution…
Scrutiny Deeper Than Thought…
McConnell: ‘Just The Beginning’…
Agency accused of leaking confidential tax documents during election…
Scandal politics sweep Capitol Hill…
FLASHBACK: Senior White House official briefed reporters on Koch brothers taxes…
Predictably, Obama’s defenders jumped to his aid:
The IRS’ Friday admission that it disproportionately scrutinized groups with the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status has led some politicians to lay the blame on the Obama administration. However, a report in the Wall Street Journal Sunday said that a forthcoming Treasury Department inspector general report would show that no one outside IRS developed the criteria.
“On Sunday, a government official said the report will note that IRS officials told investigators that no one outside the IRS was involved in developing the criteria the agency now acknowledges were flawed,” the WSJ reported. The report bolsters what Lois Lerner, the IRS director of exempt organizations, said Friday — that the practice was “absolutely not” influenced by the administration.
This has been going on since 2010.
The Associated Press reported on Saturday that based on a draft of the IG report, knowledge of the practice seemed not to be confined just to low-level employees, as initially claimed. Lerner was informed of the targeting practice on June 29, 2011, the IG report says, according to the AP. The IG report notes that Lerner wanted the criteria immediately changed. The AP also reported that according to the portion of the IG investigation released to the news outlet, it is unclear whether IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman or anyone outside the IRS knew about the changes.
Yet it did not stop.
“Low level employees.” That rings a bell. It was another “low level employee” who sent out an inappropriate apology from the Cairo embassy.
And there were some other low level employees who conducted a third rate burglary.
So no one in the White House knew about the IRS abuse of conservatives? As George Will put it–
‘How stupid do they think we are?’
It appears that not only is this regime targeting right wing groups, it also appears to be leaking IRS information:
A little over a year ago, I reported that, ”It is likely that someone at the Internal Revenue Service illegally leaked confidential donor information showing a contribution from Mitt Romney’s political action committee to the National Organization for Marriage, says the group.”
Now — on the heels of news the IRS’s apology for having targeted conservative groups — NOM is renewing their demand that the Internal Revenue Service reveal the identity of the people responsible.
“There is little question that one or more employees at the IRS stole our confidential tax return and leaked it to our political enemies, in violation of federal law,” said NOM’s president Brian Brow, in a prepared statement. “The only questions are who did it, and whether there was any knowledge or coordination between people in the White House, the Obama reelection campaign and the Human Rights Campaign. We and the American people deserve answers.”
Mitch McConnell also noted the practice:
In a 2012 speech, Sen. Mitch McConnell noted, “The head of one national advocacy group has released documents which show that his group’s confidential IRS information found its way into the hands of a staunch critic on the Left who also happens to be a co-chairman of President Obama’s re-election committee. The only way this information could have been made public is if someone leaked it from inside the IRS.”
At one time Barack Obama thought abuse of the IRS was pretty funny:
At his Arizona State University commencement speech last Wednesday, Mr. Obama noted that ASU had refused to grant him an honorary degree, citing his lack of experience, and the controversy this had caused. He then demonstrated ASU’s point by remarking, “I really thought this was much ado about nothing, but I do think we all learned an important lesson. I learned never again to pick another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA brackets. . . . President [Michael] Crowe and the Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS.”
It’s not funny any more.
But arguably the most damning piece of evidence is this:
Koch Industries Lawyer to White House: How Did You Get Our Tax Information?
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Chris Van Hollen said in a September 10 TV appearance that “Americans for Prosperity which are the Koch Industries … did well under the Bush administration economic policies,” which is why AFP is opposing the Democrats. In a September 16 speech, President Obama again singled out Americans for Prosperity. Even Jimmy Carter took a whack at the Kochs last week.
While the attention is unwanted for the Kochs, if somewhat expected, 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. According to Mark Holden, senior vice president and general counsel of Koch Industries, a senior Obama administration official told reporters at an August 27 on-the-record background briefing on corporate taxes:
So in this country we have partnerships, we have S corps, we have LLCs, we have a series of entities that do not pay corporate income tax. Some of which are really giant firms, you know Koch Industries is a multibillion dollar businesses. So that creates a narrower base because we’ve literally got something like 50 percent of the business income in the U.S. is going to businesses that don’t pay any corporate income tax. They point out [in the report] you could review the boundary between corporate and non-corporate taxation as a way to broaden the base.
Holden tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that this quotation from a senior administration official “came to our attention from different avenues. We are very concerned about why this would be said about us, particularly in this setting. We are concerned where this information would have been obtained from. We also are concerned in light of recent events that we have been singled out by the government and others as a campaign against us because of our political views.”
How did they get this information?
Drudge flashed back to an Ann Coulter column:
Mitt Romney presents one enormous problem for Barack Obama’s campaign: No divorce records. That’s why the media are so hot to get their hands on Romney’s tax records for the past 25 years. They need something to “pick through, distort and lie about” — as the Republican candidate says.
Obama’s usual campaign method, used in 100 percent of his races, has been to pry into the private records of his opponents.
I most certainly agree, having twice opined on this very subject prior to Coulter’s post.
Won’t you go home, Bill Daley, won’t you go home?
People forget that this is the same Barack Obama whose people somehow managed to come into possession of Jack Ryan’s sealed divorce records and then had his operatives email supporters about it. The Chicago Tribune then piled on, suing to have Ryan’s sealed records made public. Then, inexplicably, Berkeley-educated and Grey Davis-appointed judge Robert Schnider decided that Ryan’s divorce records should be made public and Ryan’s campaign was doomed.
and
I have seen Obama’s KGB do this in the past. Obama KGB Commissar David Axelrod has been able to magically come into possession of the sealed divorce records of both former Obama opponents Blair Hull and Jack Ryan. The Chicago Tribune (where Axelrod used to work) then began publishing accusations based on information contained in those sealed records- first on Obama primary opponent Hull and then GOP opponent Jack Ryan.
Unsealing private records is a hallmark of Barack Obama. It is his modus operandi.
And so is using the IRS to intimidate Romney donors:
Mr. VanderSloot has since been learning what it means to be on a presidential enemies list. Just 12 days after the attack, the Idahoan found an investigator digging to unearth his divorce records. This bloodhound—a recent employee of Senate Democrats—worked for a for-hire opposition research firm.
Now Mr. VanderSloot has been targeted by the federal government. In a letter dated June 21, he was informed that his tax records had been “selected for examination” by the Internal Revenue Service. The audit also encompasses Mr. VanderSloot’s wife, and not one, but two years of past filings (2008 and 2009).
So now they tell me Obama had nothing to do with the IRS actions?
Bullsh*t. Absolute BULLSH*T.
Douglas Shulman, head of the IRS until last November, claims ignorance:
“IRS senior leadership was not aware of this level of specific details at the time of the March 2012 hearing,” the statement said. “The timeline does not contradict the commissioner’s testimony. While exempt organizations officials knew of the situation earlier, the timeline reflects that IRS senior leadership did not have this level of detail.”
And I believe him.
What better way to fly under the radar than to leave in charge of an agency you intend to abuse the director appointed by the previous administration and then have your dirty work conducted by “lower level employees”? If it all hit the fan, you could…..wait for it……wait for it……
JAY CARNEY: Two things need to be noted; which is the IRS is an independent enforcement agency. Which I believe, as I understand it contains only two political appointees within it. The individual who was running the IRS at the time was actually an appointee from the previous administration.
These “low level employees” need to be identified, forced to testify, have their phone records, emails and bank accounts scrutinized and get slammed with the appropriate charges.
As soon as possible.
And it is imperative that either Obamacare be repealed entirely or at the very least cut the IRS out of it completely. It cannot be trusted with medical records. Or much else.
Obama can’t be trusted. Period.
In case you think this a bit of a stretch, cut me some slack. It’s not as though I’m claiming that Obama would secretly get hold of Associated Press phone records or alter the talking points of an attack on an American embassy.
UPDATE
It’s not just low level employees and it’s not just Cincinnati.
Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved in the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.