E-mails Suggest Collusion Between FEC, IRS to Target Conservative Groups

National Review ^ | 7/31/2013 | Eliana Johnson

[Servant of the Cross]

Embattled Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner and an attorney in the Federal Election Commission’s general counsel’s office appear to have twice colluded to influence the record before the FEC’s vote in the case of a conservative non-profit organization, according to e-mails unearthed by the House Ways and Means Committee and obtained exclusively by National Review Online. The correspondence suggests the discrimination of conservative groups extended beyond the IRS and into the FEC, where an attorney from the agency’s enforcement division in at least one case sought and received tax information about the status of a conservative group, the American Future Fund, before recommending that the commission prosecute it for violations of campaign-finance law. Lerner, the former head of the IRS’s exempt-organizations division, worked at the FEC from 1986 to 1995, and was known for aggressive investigation of conservative groups during her tenure there, too.

“Several months ago . . . I spoke with you about the American Future Fund, a 501(c)(4) organization that had submitted an exemption application the IRS [sic],” the FEC attorney wrote Lerner in February 2009. The FEC, which polices violations of campaign-finance laws, is not exempted under Rule 6103, which prohibits the IRS from sharing confidential taxpayer information, but the e-mail indicates Lerner provided that information nonetheless: “When we spoke last July, you had told us that the American Future Fund had not received an exemption letter from the IRS,” the FEC attorney wrote.

The timing of the correspondence between Lerner and the FEC suggests the FEC attorney sought information from the IRS in order to influence an upcoming vote by the six FEC commissioners. The FEC received a complaint in March 2008 from the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party alleging that the American Future Fund had violated campaign-finance law by engaging in political advocacy without registering as a political-action committee. The American Future Fund responded to that complaint in June 2008, telling the commission that it had applied for tax exemption in March of that year and was a “501(c)(4) social-welfare organization that was organized to provide Americans with a conservative and free-market viewpoint and mechanism to communicate and advocate on the issues that most interest and concern them.” According to the e-mail correspondence, a month after receiving the American Future Fund’s response, the FEC general counsel’s office — which is prohibited under law from conducting an investigation into an organization before the FEC’s six commissioners have voted to do so — contacted Lerner to investigate the agency’s tax-exempt status.

The FEC general counsel’s office, in its recommendation on the case, apparently didn’t tell the agency’s commissioners about how it had obtained the information about the group’s tax-exempt status. Recommending that the commissioners prosecute the American Future Fund, the general counsel’s office wrote, “According to its response, AFF submitted an application for tax-exempt status to the Internal Revenue Service . . . on March 18, 2008.” The footnote to that sentence reads, “The IRS has not yet issued a determination letter regarding AFF’s application for exempt status. Based on the information from the response and the IRS website, it is likely that the application is still under review.” In fact, an FEC lawyer knew that the organization had yet to obtain tax-exempt status because Lerner provided the confidential information.

The general counsel’s report was issued in September 2008, but it was over five months before the six FEC commissioners voted, in late-February 2009, on whether to prosecute the American Future Fund for violations of campaign-finance laws. (The typical lag time between the submission of a general counsel’s recommendation and a commission vote is about a month, according to a source familiar with the workings of the commission.) As the vote approached, on February 3, 2009, the FEC lawyer went back to Lerner for an update on the status of the American Future Fund’s application. “Could you please tell me whether the IRS has since issued an exemption letter to the American Future Fund? Also if the IRS has granted American Future Fund’s exemption, would it be possible for you to send me the publicly available information and documents related to American Future Fund?”

Despite the recommendations of the general counsel’s office, the six FEC commissioners split on whether to pursue the American Future Fund’s case and voted six-to-zero to close the case.

House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp and ranking member Charles Boustany are calling on the IRS, in the wake of these revelations, to provide all communications between the agency and the FEC between 2008 and 2012. “The American public is entitled to know whether the IRS is inappropriately sharing their confidential tax information with other agencies,” Camp and Boustany write in a letter they will send to acting IRS administrator Danny Werfel on Wednesday.

The FEC enforcement attorney also inquired about the tax-exempt status of another conservative organization, the American Issues Project. “I was also wondering if you could tell me whether the IRS had issued an exemption letter to a group called the American Issues Project? The group also appears to be the successor of two other organizations, Citizens for the Republic and Avenger, Inc.” Also sought were “any information and documents that would be publicly available in relation to the American Issues Project, Citizens for the Republic, or Avenger, Inc.”

[TArcher]

 

>>That seems like denying the power of God to change people.

 

Nope.  Just recognizing the  fallible and uninspired nature of those who assume dominion over the faith of others - usualy whilst perched upon the temple steps. 

"...who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time;

 

...

 

 that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them. "

 

"I HAVE SWORN UPON THE ALTAR OF GOD ETERNAL HOSTILITY TO EVERY FORM OF TYRANNY OVER THE MIND OF MAN"

--The Virginia Act For Establishing Religious Freedom
--Thomas Jefferson, 1786

http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/sacred/vaact.html

 

[TArcher]

http://www.google.com/search?q=Osiris+Christ

Egyptian mythology is what it is...

“I am the way the Truth and the life”

...and the rendering of that Truth belongs in the heart and free mind of the Individual — not within the purview of a flock of fallible and uninspired parrots selling their wares whilst nailed to the perch upon state-established temple steps.

[OneWingedShark]

Egyptian mythology is what it is...
“I am the way the Truth and the life”
...and the rendering of that Truth belongs in the heart and free mind of the Individual — not within the purview of a flock of fallible and uninspired parrots selling their wares whilst nailed to the perch upon state-established temple steps.

I think you completely missed my point. Consider this: Slavery is now officially/technically illegal in every country — Christianity did this, because Jesus is all about changing the heart of people. (This doesn't mean that slavery really is eradicated, or that there aren't people who wish to have slaves, but like Death the institution is defeated.)

[TArcher]

[Consider this: Slavery is now officially/technically illegal in every country ]

Who was changing the heart of the pre-civilwar xian South?

Or Serbia, or Saudi Arabia — or any of the other plethora of cultures where human trafficking is very much alive, despite their alleged adherence to whatever the religious doctrine dejure happens to be.

Furthermore, seems to me that man-made religious concoctions are among the “created things” the Creator furrows his brow enough over that, as per Romans 1:25+, “because of this, God gave them over”.

Seems maybe you’ve confused religion for the spirituality manifested between the Individual and their gracious Creator.

NO SALE

[OneWingedShark]

Who was changing the heart of the pre-civilwar xian South?

I'm sure there were people working on it. Or, do you maintain that the civil war was a must to abolish slavery?
Moreover, if you do, how do you explain the British eliminating slavery w/o civil war?

Or Serbia, or Saudi Arabia — or any of the other plethora of cultures where human trafficking is very much alive, despite their alleged adherence to whatever the religious doctrine dejure happens to be.

Yes, that's why I said technically illegal. And what you cite is much more indicative of a heart issue; I never said that God's kingdom had completely displaced things here, but it will: eventually.

Furthermore, seems to me that man-made religious concoctions are among the “created things” the Creator furrows his brow enough over that, as per Romans 1:25+, “because of this, God gave them over”.

Now, now God's revealed what real, acceptable religion is: Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (James 1:27)

Seems maybe you’ve confused religion for the spirituality manifested between the Individual and their gracious Creator.

No, I was pointing out that the result of God's influence in the world [through his church and spirit] is that slavery-as-an-institution is dead. Or would you care to show where, as an institution, it thrives in the open?

[BunnySlippers]

*

[TArcher]

>>I’m sure there were people working on it.

Gods and Generals - Lee and Grant both believed theirs was on their side.

FAIL

>>how do you explain the British eliminating slavery w/o civil war?

LOL. The same British with the thriving Opium trade — Those British?

Evidently the Kaisar/Ceasar/Tzar/King’s MYSTERYous cronies figured out it was cheaper and more profitable to just addict the slaves instead of owning them.

NO SALE

[OneWingedShark]

>>I’m sure there were people working on it.
> Gods and Generals - Lee and Grant both believed theirs was on their side.
> FAIL

What does two men's beliefs have to do with whether or not people were working, in the south, to end slavery? It doesn't.
Moreover, our belief doesn't change the fact: an atheist believes there is no god, a monotheist believes there is a God; and the fact of the mater is not altered one way or the other.
FAIL

>> how do you explain the British eliminating slavery w/o civil war?
> LOL. The same British with the thriving Opium trade — Those British?

Again, you're shifting the target; slavery is not legal in any country and it is because of the impact of Christianity in the world. Period.

Evidently the Kaisar/Ceasar/Tzar/King’s MYSTERYous cronies figured out it was cheaper and more profitable to just addict the slaves instead of owning them.

So, what are you addicted to?

[TArcher]

>>Again, you’re shifting the target

To reality-land:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/world/asia/afghanistan-opium-production-increases-for-3rd-year.html?_r=0

>>So, what are you addicted to?

FReedom

And it’s not for sale, trade, or pacification upon your fallible and uninspired temple steps.

[OneWingedShark]

>>So, what are you addicted to?
>FReedom
>And it’s not for sale, trade, or pacification upon your fallible and uninspired temple steps.

Who said anything about pacification? I think you are hearing things I have not said.

[TArcher]

There’s lots of things you haven’t said.

Parrots are like that.

NO SALE

[OneWingedShark]

There’s lots of things you haven’t said.

… you're the reason we have shirts that say Do not iron while wearing aren't you?

[TArcher]

Nope.

Never been nailed to the fallible and uninspired perch, either.

[OneWingedShark]

Nope.
Never been nailed to the fallible and uninspired perch, either.

Oh! So you're infallible and inspired? I had no idea I was talking to the pope.
[/sarc]

[TArcher]

Thomas Jefferson wasn’t the pope — but that didn’t prevent him from recognizing the self-evident fallible and uninspired nature of the religious facade, and those who prop it up and parrot it.

[OneWingedShark]

Who’s parroting? I’ve given you one good, solid example of Christianity’s influence changing the world.

[TArcher]

You’re delusional. The “church” of England’s royal inbreds figured out that it was more profitable to enslave people by other means than having them as livestock.

The demise of the overt human livestock trade was brought about by industrial economics, not by some religious epiphany.

[OneWingedShark]

So then, why aren’t you enslaved by these other means?
If it was more cost-effective, that includes the amount of people not subjugated to it.

[TArcher]

Because I have a free mind and I use it.

[OneWingedShark]

Because I have a free mind and I use it.

No, you do not.
You have a knee-jerk reaction that lets you see none of the good that Christianity has done, this blindness indicates a mind that is far from free.

Now, I will grant you that the Church here in America does have problems [read the Book of James], but that is beside the point.