Posted on 05/24/2013 7:06:42 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A series of letters suggests that senior IRS official Lois Lerner was directly involved in the agency’s targeting of conservative groups as recently as April 2012, more than nine months after she first learned of the activity.
Lerner, the director of the IRS exempt organizations office in Washington, D.C., signed cover letters to 15 conservative organizations currently represented by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) between in March and April of 2012. The letters, such as this one sent to the Ohio Liberty Council on March 16, 2012, informed the groups applying for tax-exempt status that the IRS was “unable to make a final determination on your exempt status without additional information,” and included a list of detailed questions of the kind that a Treasury inspector general’s audit found to be inappropriate. Some of the groups to which Lerner sent letters are still awaiting approval.
Lerner has denied involvement in the targeting, which she has blamed on a few “front-line people” in the agency’s Cincinnati field office. “I have not done anything wrong,” she told members of the House oversight committee on Wednesday. However, she then refused to answer any questions, citing protection under the Fifth Amendment. She has since been placed on (paid) administrative leave, and the committee may call her to testify again.
“One thing is clear: this correspondence shows [Lerner’s] direct involvement in the scheme,” wrote Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the ACLJ. “Further, sending a letter from the top person in the IRS Exempt Organization division to a small Tea Party group also underscores the intimidation used in this targeting ploy.”
The letters coincide with former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman’s March 2012 testimony before Congress, in which he said there was “absolutely no targeting” of conservative groups at the agency. Months later, an internal IRS investigation concluded that the agency had engaged in such targeting. Obama-administration officials have insisted the targeting stopped in May 2012, although a number of ACLJ clients have received similar requests for information from the IRS within the past year, according to chief counsel Jay Sekulow.
I want to know who actually wrote the questions that the non-profits were required to answer.
Oh Oh this can’t be true....But now we have to connect the dot’s back to the White House. I wonder if this person BOB BAUER— White House General Counsel that was written about in yesterday’s WSJ by Has anything to do with the IRS Scandal.
Bob Bauer, the Obama campaign (and later White House) general counsel, wrote letters to the Department of Justice in August 2008 attacking a conservative 501(c)4 called the American Issues Project for running an ad that highlighted Obama’s connection to former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers. Bauer did not stop there; he also contacted the Federal Election Commission. That same month, a left-wing activist created a 501(c)4 called Accountable America that was designed to intimidate GOP donors.
What are the names of the “Area Managers” and “Managers.” I want all the links in the chain to be identified.
Dont forget Sarah Hall Ingram. She was Commissioner of TEGE during the corruption. I notice the House Oversight skipped her going down the chain of command in calling witnesses.
She is the one the White House wants to protect. She is now in charge of Obamacare at the IRS.
Here’s how I have learned to think with my legal training. The presumption is that the g’mint is neutral and doing it’s job without bias towards any group. The burden is then on the citizen to show how he/she has been discriminated against. Once that showing has been made, the burden shifts to the g’mint to prove that no discrimination took place. In this case, the burden is on the IRS to show that it treated the applicants in a balanced way. Of course they say that they were just swamped and it was low level bureaucrats who blinked on Friday afternoon after a long hard week but they, who are masters of statistics, have to do better than that. Hopefully Lois is socking away that money. I hope she loses it all to the victims. Anyone know whether she has immunity? Anyone know if it is even possible to fire a civil servant anymore? At least she isn’t black so they can’t play the race card but I about exploded when she got weepy. Shame on her for playing the girl card.
As I understand it, Sekulow is the lead attorney for a group of Tea Party organizations who are suing the IRS. In that position he has access to the correspondence between these organizations and the IRS.
But there are a lot of Tea Party groups that are not part of this lawsuit so we really don't have the big picture of what was really going on. The IRS is not going to supply it so the info is going to have to come from the injured parties.
Seems to me that someone within the greater Tea Party Universe should take it upon themselves to build the database of info that would contain Application Date, Completions Date, Withdrawal Date, Correspondence, Questions Asked etc.
Until that is done we really won't have a decent picture of what really went on and a way of judging the changes, if any, in the behavior of the IRS at the points in time where the management learned of the targeting practice.
I'm betting that there were no significant changes at all but there is no way at this point to prove it.
To dream.
Bob Bauer in his own words
http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2010/bob-bauer-his-own-words/
By Bill Allison Aug 10 201012:36 p.m.
Robert F. Bauer, who will take on part of the responsibilities of Norm Eisen, the departing Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform, has a long and storied career in Washington. He has represented the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Kerry and Obama presidential campaigns, and 527 organizations like Vote Now and America Coming Together. He’s defended Democratic politicians who ran into ethics trouble, including former Rep. Tony Coelho and former Sen. Robert Torricelli—both of whom were forced to give up their offices as ethics charges mounted against them. He’s filed ethics complaints against Republican and Republican-leaning organizations, most spectacularly when he prepared a complaint alleging racketeering on the part of former Republican Majority Leader Rep. Tom DeLay for extortion (for his aggressive fundraising), money laundering and illegally coordinating with section 527 groups to evade campaign finance laws. The suit was later dropped.
Thanks mostly to Lexis-Nexis and his own blog, here are a few choice quotes from Robert Bauer over the years. In reverse chronological order:
… “My understanding is the new acting IRS commissioner asked for Ms. Lerner’s resignation,and she refused to resign. She was then put on administrative leave instead,” Grassley said in a statement. “The IRS owes it to taxpayers to resolve her situation quickly. The agency needs to move on to fixthe conditions that led to the targeting debacle."
Exclusive: IRS Org Chart Puts Ingram, Lerner at Center of Power
They knew how she made her bones, and promoted her.
Having expressed my support for the Bill of Rights—she can’t have it both ways.
She can’t give an opening statement and then ‘clam up.’ Unless her name is ‘Michael Corleone.’
Raising the question, did Bam-bam ever say, “I don’t want my attack dog coming out that hearing with only her **** in her hand.”?
Gangsters.
He’s also married to Anita Mao Dunn.
You are right. But it doesn't look like we will get a website with the data from his efforts. Somebody needs to set up a registration website and administer it.
Any Freeper up to challenge? You would need to start contacting Tea Party and Christian groups. Big job. Too much for me.
Greg Abbott calls on Texas tea party groups to tell him if targeted by the IRS
"Jeez!...I think my ass is going to be hung out to dry..."
Great find. We needed that Org Chart.
Somebody post this. It even has a “customer service” number that implies it is for publication to the public?
http://i.imgur.com/pvF87bM.jpg
From here:
When is Issa going to subpoena:
Letorneau... a very little fish, an executive assistant. This is where you start. Somebody who has much to gain, paid very little and immunity provides tremendous value to her. She is the admin. to Lerner. She has to be very tense by now.
Never forget:
Ingrahm
Hall
Paz
Good job. The littlest people on this organigram is where you start with the interrogations. They are the cheapest to provide immunity to and immunity has the most value to them.
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