no charges in IRS investigation?

[DC Tom]

When ‘No’ Means ‘No’ :Lois Lerner willfully and knowingly exposed herself to a contempt vote.

by C. Boyden Gray

 

Some people can’t take “no” for an answer. Often that’s an admirable quality. But when you are a witness at the center of a congressional investigation, and the “no” reflects the House Oversight Committee’s decision not to accept your refusal to testify, then it’s not quite so simple. And that is where Lois Lerner, the former Internal Revenue Service official at the center of the IRS scandal, now finds herself.

 

Lerner’s case is by now well known. From 2006 to 2013, she was the IRS’s Director of Exempt Organizations, vested with power to decide which nonprofit organizations receive tax-exempt status, which ones do not, and which ones find themselves subjected to painful trials in the process.

 

That is no small matter. As Chief Justice John Marshall warned, “the power to tax” is “the power to destroy.” All the more so for nonprofit organizations, for which tax-exempt status truly is the difference between life and death.

 

And tax-exempt status benefits more than just a particular organization, its donors, and its direct beneficiaries. The federal government exempts these organizations from taxes precisely because of the benefits that accrue to society at large. As Justice Brennan once wrote, each of these groups “contributes to the diversity of association, viewpoint, and enterprise essential to a vigorous, pluralistic society.” And thus, as Justice Powell wrote, “the provision of tax exemptions to nonprofit groups is one indispensable means of limiting the influence of governmental orthodoxy on important areas of community life.” (I might add that this is what President George H. W. Bush alluded to when he praised America’s “thousands and tens of thousands of ethnic, religious, social, business, labor-union, neighborhood, regional, and other organizations, all of them varied, voluntary, and unique,” which “spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.”)

 

{snip}

 

Having served as White House counsel, I recognize as well as anyone the fundamental constitutional and practical stakes at issue when Congress investigates an administration, or when an administration defies Congress’s investigation. Such matters must always be handled with care by all parties to the process. The rights protected by the Fifth Amendment, and the obligation to comply with congressional subpoenas, must never be taken lightly.

 

But it is the very gravity of those stakes that requires all parties to this controversy to take seriously the legal standards governing these proceedings, and to interpret and apply them in good faith. The Supreme Court and the lower courts do not require a committee to utter certain “magic words” in rejecting a witness’s refusal to testify, nor do they require the committee to guarantee the witness’s future prosecution (by uncontrolled third parties) before voting to recommend the witness be held in contempt. The House Counsel was right to reject such erroneous arguments.

 

.

 

Personally, I'd wear a contempt of Congress vote as a badge of pride, given how contemptuous they in fact are.

[B-Man]

Motive, method and very curious behavior.

 

 

The IRS Scandal Comes Into Focus

Wall Street Journal, by Kimberley A. Strassel

 

Original Article

 

FTA:

In 2012, both the IRS and Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings were targeting the group True the Vote. We now have email showing contact between a Cummings staffer and the IRS over that organization. How much more contact was there? It's one thing to write a public letter calling on a regulator to act. It's another to haul the regulator in front of your committee, or have your staff correspond with or pressure said regulator, with regard to ongoing actions. That's a no-no.

 

The final merit of Mr. Camp's letter is that he's called out Justice and Democrats. Mr. Camp was careful in laying out the ways Ms. Lerner may have broken the law, with powerful details. Democrats can't refute the facts, so instead they are howling about all manner of trivia—the release of names, the "secret" vote to release taxpayer information. But it remains that they are putting themselves on record in support of IRS officials who target groups, circumvent rules, and potentially break the law. That ought to go down well with voters.

 

 

 

 

Contempt and the IRS : Evidence of Lois Lerner’s corruption grows.

 

 

 

.

Edited April 11, 2014 by B-Man

[3rdnlng]

http://www.conservative-daily.com/2014/04/17/bombshell-eric-holders-doj-participated-in-irs-scandal/

 

The IRS targeting scandal goes much deeper than anyone imagined!

Last week, it was revealed that Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Government Oversight Committee, was instrumental in urging Lois Lerner to target conservative non-profit groups. This explains a lot, considering how Elijah Cummings was doing everything in his power to stop the investigation!

Remember all of his grandstanding and accusations that Republicans were on a “witch hunt?” Well, it turns out that his bombastic objections to the House Government Oversight Committee’s investigation stem from his own involvement in the scandal! He instructed the IRS to go after one of the most prominent Tea Party groups, True the Vote, and was trying to do everything in his power to stop his involvement from coming to light!

The top Democrat on the House Committee charged with investigating the IRS was actually participating in the scandal! Talk about a conflict of interest…

Well, the next shoe has dropped. Recently released emails obtained by Judicial Watch now prove that not only was Lois Lerner coordinating with Democrat lawmakers, but she was also in talks with Eric Holder’s Department of Justice over how to prosecute these Tea Party groups for exercising their First Amendment rights!

This is another bombshell that is going to blow the whole IRS scandal wide open!

Emails show that just two days before the IRS scandal went public and Ms. Lerner was forced to apologize for targeting conservative groups, she was actively coordinating with the DOJ to bring federal charges against these tea party organizations!

[Koko78]

http://www.conservat...in-irs-scandal/

 

 

The IRS targeting scandal goes much deeper than anyone imagined!

Last week, it was revealed that Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Government Oversight Committee, was instrumental in urging Lois Lerner to target conservative non-profit groups. This explains a lot, considering how Elijah Cummings was doing everything in his power to stop the investigation!

Remember all of his grandstanding and accusations that Republicans were on a “witch hunt?” Well, it turns out that his bombastic objections to the House Government Oversight Committee’s investigation stem from his own involvement in the scandal! He instructed the IRS to go after one of the most prominent Tea Party groups, True the Vote, and was trying to do everything in his power to stop his involvement from coming to light!

The top Democrat on the House Committee charged with investigating the IRS was actually participating in the scandal! Talk about a conflict of interest…

Well, the next shoe has dropped. Recently released emails obtained by Judicial Watch now prove that not only was Lois Lerner coordinating with Democrat lawmakers, but she was also in talks with Eric Holder’s Department of Justice over how to prosecute these Tea Party groups for exercising their First Amendment rights!

This is another bombshell that is going to blow the whole IRS scandal wide open!

Emails show that just two days before the IRS scandal went public and Ms. Lerner was forced to apologize for targeting conservative groups, she was actively coordinating with the DOJ to bring federal charges against these tea party organizations!

 

Romney has a horse, you !@#$ing racist.

[OCinBuffalo]

I'll say it again:

 

Look at the difference between Benghazigate(a Hillary Operation)

and

IRSgate(an Obama Operation)

 

In the former, you have a guy who is already out of way, paid off, and has nothing to lose by falling on his sword, which is actually a pen knife, because he has been coached, and manipulated the story expertly. He may not be done, but Hillary is free and clear.

In the latter, you have a lady who is at some point going to be counseled by a lawyer, who doesn't represent the Democratic party, but only her, who is going to tell her to take the deal. Obama remains on the hook for this, and there's no way he should be, after all this time.

 

All hell is going to break loose on the day Lerner takes the deal. All Obama had to do was get Lerner a job, she cops to the crime, names the Justice people and the Treasury people, and the FBI, ATF, and other IRS people she got to send people to this one lady's home/business, and this is over. Everybody gets slaps, Lerner does a little time, and walks out a rich person/sells her story to Hollywood/publishers.

 

Instead? I'm really starting to believe that the only reason such an obvious damage control approach was not taken, is because there's some higher up people who are demanding that this be stonewalled, because they know they are completely screwed no matter what, if the real story gets out.

 

At this point, what makes the most sense? Are you really telling me that the DNC hasn't been able to get Lerner to play ball? Come on. This whole thing should have been done with months ago. But...here we still are....

[Nanker]

If a Republican gets elected President next, this will never be examined because the press will suddenly awake to find that unemployment, the economy, homelessness, racial tension, rising food prices, inflation, and US foreign policy are serious issues.

[Azalin]

If a Republican gets elected President next, this will never be examined because the press will suddenly awake to find that unemployment, the economy, homelessness, racial tension, rising food prices, inflation, and US foreign policy are serious issues.

and don't forget that the rich will be getting richer off the backs of the poor.

[IDBillzFan]

If a Republican gets elected President next, this will never be examined because the press will suddenly awake to find that unemployment, the economy, homelessness, racial tension, rising food prices, inflation, and US foreign policy are serious issues.

 

And you can only imagine the media uproar if two weeks into their first term the Republican president says something like "Well, I inherited these issues."

[OCinBuffalo]

And you can only imagine the media uproar if two weeks into their first term the Republican president says something like "Well, I inherited these issues."

If I was advising the next R president, that's precisely what I'd tell him to do. Toung in cheek of course, but still: you know, the Jon Stewart, "I'm kidding but not kidding" way. Not in the first speech out of the gate, which is supposed to be uplifting, etc. But, about 5-6 weeks, in the first press conference with reporters in the briefing room, you go on offense.

 

I'd set them up by promising the Washington Post, New York Times, and LA Times the first 3 questions, and tell them they had to be either on the economy, foreign policy, or Obamacare.

 

"Well, as we know, I inherited the mess that is Obamacare, and since you here in the press decided to give my predecssor a consistent pass on "inheritance", I clearly deserve the same consideration". Or something like that. Walk them right into it. It innoculates that R admin right away, and completely hamstrings the MSM initial efforts to define the R presidency as "troubled"....which is what they did with Bush.

 

You chop their legs out right at the starting line. And, come on, if you are the next R president, you are going to war with these people no matter what. If war is inevitable, just like when a fight is inevitable, the guy who lands the first real punch almost always wins.

[DC Tom]

If I was advising the next R president, that's precisely what I'd tell him to do. Toung in cheek of course, but still: you know, the Jon Stewart, "I'm kidding but not kidding" way. Not in the first speech out of the gate, which is supposed to be uplifting, etc. But, about 5-6 weeks, in the first press conference with reporters in the briefing room, you go on offense.

 

I'd set them up by promising the Washington Post, New York Times, and LA Times the first 3 questions, and tell them they had to be either on the economy, foreign policy, or Obamacare.

 

"Well, as we know, I inherited the mess that is Obamacare, and since you here in the press decided to give my predecssor a consistent pass on "inheritance", I clearly deserve the same consideration". Or something like that. Walk them right into it. It innoculates that R admin right away, and completely hamstrings the MSM initial efforts to define the R presidency as "troubled"....which is what they did with Bush.

 

You chop their legs out right at the starting line. And, come on, if you are the next R president, you are going to war with these people no matter what. If war is inevitable, just like when a fight is inevitable, the guy who lands the first real punch almost always wins.

 

Even if the next R president doesn't go to war with the Democrats, they'll go to war with him.

[B-Man]

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: IRS revokes group’s tax exemption over anti-Clinton statements.

 

Perhaps, somebody should round up statements from OFA and Media Matters and send them to the IRS. . . . . . see if they pass that "political speech" test

[Tiberius]

If a Republican gets elected President next, this will never be examined because the press will suddenly awake to find that unemployment, the economy, homelessness, racial tension, rising food prices, inflation, and US foreign policy are serious issues.

 

Darn media! It's so unfair, you guys are so oppressed

[OCinBuffalo]

Darn media! It's so unfair, you guys are so oppressed

Yeah, actually, if you use the definition of the word oppresssed properly, that is precisely what the media does to R politicians.

 

Go look it up.

[Tiberius]

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304734304579518113024317536

 

What do they think here? This isn't Wall Street and these guys are not bankers!

[B-Man]

Taxes are for little people:

 

IRS agents who didn’t pay their taxes get $1 million in bonuses.

 

 

.

[B-Man]

The withheld documents keep coming................

 

 

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE:

 

Judicial Watch: New Documents Show IRS HQ Control of Tea Party Targeting; Documents also Reveal Unusual Pressure from Key Democrat Senator to Target Conservatives.

 

Interesting, isn’t it, that Levin decided not to run for re-election after the IRS scandal got out.

 

 

 

UPDATE: Judicial Watch Obtains New Documents Showing IRS Targeting Came Directly From Washington D.C.

[OCinBuffalo]

The withheld documents keep coming................

 

 

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE:

 

Judicial Watch: New Documents Show IRS HQ Control of Tea Party Targeting; Documents also Reveal Unusual Pressure from Key Democrat Senator to Target Conservatives.

 

Interesting, isn’t it, that Levin decided not to run for re-election after the IRS scandal got out.

 

 

 

UPDATE: Judicial Watch Obtains New Documents Showing IRS Targeting Came Directly From Washington D.C.

That last one seals the deal:

 

Jay Carney went out and flat out lied about Cinncinnati.

 

There's no other reasonable explanation than that.

 

The other thing? Why even have a Congressional process....when you can just FOIA your way into getting all the documents, post them on the Internet, and have B-Man provide handy links to them?

 

Hell, at this rate, all we need to do is provide our own popcorn, sit back and watch re-runs of the daily Jay Carney press conferences. Beats the F out of regular TV.

[B-Man]

WALL ST. JOURNAL:

 

Congress Abetted the IRS Targeting of Conservatives: We’ve filed a Senate ethics complaint against nine Senators who prodded the agency to silence opponents.

 

“There is ample evidence that these efforts affected IRS policy, but the senators’ behavior is improper even if it did not. Senate rules require that the Ethics Committee take action. And we as citizens must make sure that the IRS is not abused by Democrats or Republicans for partisan electoral gain.”

 

The Senators named in the ethics complaint are Charles Schumer, Dick Durbin, Carl Levin, Michael Bennet, Sheldon Whitehouse, Al Franken, Jeanne Shaheen, Jeff Merkley and Tom Udall.

 

.

[GG]

Nothing to see here, move along. This is truly outrageous. For all the noise about Wikileaks and NSA collecting metadata, here's a case where real personal data was illegally shared across government agencies. But nary a peep.

 

I guess I should be shocked that this story keeps getting buried, but maybe there's still hope that there's somebody in the major news outlets (outside the WSJ) wakes up to remember why they got into the field in the first place.

[Magox]

Nothing to see here, move along. This is truly outrageous. For all the noise about Wikileaks and NSA collecting metadata, here's a case where real personal data was illegally shared across government agencies. But nary a peep.

 

I guess I should be shocked that this story keeps getting buried, but maybe there's still hope that there's somebody in the major news outlets (outside the WSJ) wakes up to remember why they got into the field in the first place.

 

There is a reason why Lois Lerner pleaded the 5th.

 

Also, there are so many fires/scandals and stories it's a bit overwhelming. Right now, the IRS scandal is at the bottom of the totem pole. But something like this is worth further investigation, and I'm guessing it will reappear back into the public eye, unless of course the Obama administration flubs yet again, and at this rate, it's just a matter of time, we're talking probably days.