Posted on 07/17/2013 2:37:13 PM PDT by Kaslin
So says a low-level IRS whistleblower who will testify on Capitol Hill tomorrow morning. The Washington Post reports:
The chief counsel’s office for the Internal Revenue Service, headed by a political appointee of President Obama, helped develop the agency’s problematic guidelines for reviewing “tea party” cases, according to a top IRS attorney. In interviews with congressional investigators, IRS lawyer Carter Hull said his superiors told him that the chief counsel’s office, led by William Wilkins, would need to review some of the first applications the agency screened for additional scrutiny because of potential political activity. Previous accounts from IRS employees had shown that Washington IRS officials were involved in the controversy, but Hull’s comments represent the closest connection to the White House to date. According to a partial transcript released by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and House Ways and Means chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.), the chief counsel’s office also discussed using a template letter to ask questions about the groups’ activities, despite Hull’s warning that such a boilerplate approach would be impractical.
IRS inspector general Russell George released a report in May that said the agency had inappropriately targeted groups based on ideology rather than looking for politically neutral signs of campaign activity. He also found that the IRS went too far in its questioning of applicants, asking them for everything from resumes to names of donors or membership lists, which experts say the IRS cannot legally do. Democratic and Republican lawmakers in recent months have offered competing narratives about who was to blame for the IRS’s actions. GOP lawmakers have suggested that Washington IRS officials and even the White House had a hand in the controversy, while Democrats have said the issue started with mid-level employees in the agency’s tax-exemption office in Cincinnati. While talking about the controversy in May, White House press secretary Jay Carney referred to “the apparent conduct by our IRS officials in Cincinnati” and said “line IRS employees in Cincinnati improperly scrutinized 501 (C)(4) organizations by using words like ‘tea party,’ in quotes, and ‘patriot.’”
The problem with Democrats', er, "competing narrative" is that it's both false and transparently political -- which explains why they've resorted to attacking the independent investigator himself. Committee Democrats will spend much of their time tomorrow treating the Inspector General as a hostile witness; now Republicans have telegraphed where their line of inquiry is headed. Expect lots of questions for Mr. Hull regarding the IRS chief counsel's office, and mentions of Obama appointee William Wilkins. Agency higher-ups and their allies in Congress and at the White House have attempted to scapegoat lower-level "line employees" for conceiving of and executing the pattern wrongful abuse. Some of those employees will push back in public for the first time tomorrow morning, confirming what they've confided in private interviews: They were following orders, and DC was heavily involved in the process. Now we know that at least some of those orders emanated from the very top of the IRS food chain, including an influential office run by a man installed by President Obama.
Also recall former IRS commissioner Stephen Miller had been made aware of the targeting problem by (at least) last spring, but chose not to inform Congress -- even when asked about the specific issue under oath. Doug Schulman didn't bother to correct the record after making this blanket, inaccurate statement either. Lois Lerner similarly misled investigators on Capitol Hill. As the Post notes, the allegation from Hull drags the scandal closer to the administration's doorstep. At least a handful of Treasury officials found out about the targeting investigations months prior to the 2012 election, and the White House struggled for days to get its story straight about when the revelation first reached 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. A CBS News poll released last month showed that the public is almost evenly split on whether the Obama administration was directly involved in the IRS' program of harassment and discrimination against conservatives. The vast majority of Americans believe the targeting was motivated by politics. White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that the president is satisfied with senior IRS officials' responsiveness to Congressional inquiries -- which have ranged from refusing to testify to "not recalling" relevant details.
But this whole criminal scam was not Obama’s plan....
If he was caught doin’ a little boy on the white house lawn in broad daylight, the Senate would run out their terms discussing the term ‘buggery’
Doesn’t matter.
There is no justice.
There is just us.
Years ago the Democrats found that answering questions with “I don’t recall” or “I have no specific recollection about that” effectively shields them from charges of lying under oath, even if other witnesses come forward with testimony against them.
Hillary used the strategy in the Congressional inquires she went through on Whitewater and her conduct in the White House. I seem to remember she answered with those word (or with slight variations when she got bored) over 250 times.
This one leads right to Hussein. Nixon was driven from office for far less.
“a low-level IRS whistleblower who will testify on Capitol Hill tomorrow morning.”
Who will get destroyed by lunatic Democrats acting as defense council for Obama and cowardly Republicans will act like cowards and let them get away with it!
I have seen this show before and it is disgusting that no one holds these lying jerks accountable for lying to congress UNDER OATH!
In June 1996, the committee published its report, describing Thomases, Williams, Nussbaum and Hubbell as “not candid” and concluding that they had “provided inaccurate and incomplete testimony to the committee in order to conceal Mrs. Clinton’s pivotal role in the decisions surrounding the handling of Mr. Foster’s documents following his death.”
Thomases had answered “I don’t recall” 184 times during the course of the hearings. Independent counsel Kenneth Starr rejected the committee’s criminal referral against Thomases for possible perjury.
NUMBER OF TIMES that Hillary Clinton, providing testimony to Congress, said that she didn’t remember, didn’t know, or something similar: 250
*********
“She’s the most unbelievable actress I have ever met,” said a woman who worked on Hillary’s Senate campaign. “I remember one time at a Women’s Leadership Forum event in New York, thirty of us sat around Hillary, talking about politics. And she said, ‘You know, I love this organization, not just because we sit around and talk about politics, but because of the bonds of friendship forming around us.’ The way she said it, people were riveted by her performance. But I had gotten to know her, and I could tell she didn’t mean it. She has this unbelievable ability to be a liar. She is soulless.”
EDWARD KLEIN
THE TRUTH ABOUT HILLARY
I wish. But you can never discount the leftist dog-whistle mindset - they are all on the same page, and explicit orders from the higher-ups are not always necessary.
do I really have to say it???
Democrats being democrats...
“I seem to remember she answered with those word (or with slight variations when she got bored) over 250 times.”
And just look what kind of a career boost having a conveniently ‘sucky memory’ gets you... if you happen to be a Democrat. From the wife of an adulterer to being the 1st Lady, to a Senator, then to Secretary of State, and perhaps on to even becoming the President. Yes. I’d have to say we have a major double standard in this country.
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