Posted on 09/14/2013 4:48:33 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
Attorney General Eric Holder and IRS officials advised black ministers on how to engage in political activity during the 2012 election without violating their tax-exempt status.
Holder, then-IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman, and Peter Lorenzetti, a senior official in the scandal-plagued agency’s exempt organizations division, participated in a May 2012 training session for black ministers from the Conference of National Black Churches at the U.S. Capitol hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). Holder spoke at the event.
“We’re going to, first of all, equip them with the information they need to know about what they can say and what they cannot say in the church that would violate their 501(c)(3) status with the IRS,” said then-CBC chairman Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Missouri. “In fact, we’re going to have the IRS administrator there. We’re going to have Attorney General Eric Holder there…the ACLU.”
Cleaver’s session advised black ministers on “draconian laws” including voter ID laws. Cleaver was a sharp critic during the 2012 campaign of Republican Mitt Romney’s policies.
As The Daily Caller has extensively reported, the IRS harassed conservative and tea party groups during the 2012 election cycle with improper reviews of their 501(c)(3) tax-exempt applications.
“[The CBC] had the IRS members there specifically to advise them on how far to go campaigning without violating their tax-exempt status,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told The Daily Caller.
“I viewed the meeting as highly problematic. Eric Holder heads the agency that prosecutes organizations who give false information to the government. The Justice Department coordinates with the IRS on actions taken against not-for-profits. These ministries are given not-for-profit status on the basis that they are not engaging in any political activities. Here, the Obama administration was clearly encouraging them to maximize their efforts by showing them where the lines were drawn in federal case law,” Turley said.
“It is a fundamental precept that cabinet members should not engage in political activities. The most important of those cabinet members would be the attorney general of the United States. To have the attorney general actively advising political allies of the president showed remarkably poor judgment on his part,” Turley told TheDC. “I believe this session undermined the integrity of the justice department, signaled to other Justice Department officials that the attorney general wants to support these black ministries as much as possible,” Turley said.
Obama won 93 percent of the black vote in 2012, according to exit polling.
“This event was open to all faiths, denominations, colors, creeds, and political affiliations,” Rep. Cleaver told TheDC in a statement. “We were pleased to have leaders from our government provide information on compliance with the law and participation in our electoral system.”
The IRS and DOJ did not return requests for comment.
Isnt´this a conflict of interest....?
OMG...there ARE 2 AMericas!! The “Just Us” Dept. strikes again.
black churches have been politicking forever but no one has ever challenged them. You get called names - like “racist.”
The politicized negro churches are not Christian churches at all, rather they’re an arm of the evil Obama regime conspiracy!
Violating IRS rules has never bothered Democrat churches. They know they are protected. The IRS was just trying to get them to tone it down a little so it wasn’t so obvious.
It would have been interesting to see the organizers’ reaction if a bunch of white Catholic priests and minsters had shown up for that govt-sponsored “training”
Panic comes to mind...
Isnt´this a conflict of interest....?
..........................................................
It depends on whose interest you mean it is conflicting with.
It certainly does not conflict with the interests of the Congressional Black Caucus,, Eric Holder, or Barrack Obama.
They are there to push their racist views, tht is their interest.
They cry, and piss and moan about voters being disenfranchised, while all at the same time they are working to disenfranchise the Conservatives.
The IRS under Obama has become a part of the DNC and you aint seen nothing yet. Wait until you see how the IRS runs Obamacare.
Totally corrupt administration. Criminals.
It is the lefties' favorite tactic; accuse their enemies of the what in fact they are doing or going to do.
Sorry, but I think government officials explaining what the law does and does not allow is entirely reasonable and appropriate. Certainly more so than leaving it intentionally vague and then playing gotcha with those who violate the law in good faith.
Their motives were certainly corrupt, but the actions themselves were not necessarily so.
This might be compared to GW requesting a study by Justice Dept. attorneys to define the point where rigorous interrogation crosses over into torture. Which of course liberals thought was awful.
Socialists coaching their collectives. Unaccountable bureaucrats are socialists. BIG GOVERNMENT IS CRONY SOCIALISM. “Socialism Is Legal Plunder” - Bastiat
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
http://www.usa.gov/directory/federal/
—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
FUDOJ
FUBC
FUBO
FUCONgress
FUUSSC
FUFED
FUIRS
FUNSA
DEPOPULATE socialists/totalitarians from the body politic. DEFUND their collectives, foreign and domestic.
live - free - republic
bh0’s IRS and DOJ at work.
Any black “Christian” church that endorses democrat politicians including pro-infantacide Obama is demonic in nature.
Just business as usual...the law means whatever the negro loving left “deems” it to mean.
Is that right?
soooo,, do all attorney generals render election assistance to one side only?
novel idea.. maybe they can hand out pre-filled voter registration cards too?
Oh wait, that was acorn’s job, huh?
I guess holder was just picking up the slack.. seeing as how the DoJ so vigorously prosecuted vote suppressors with Tea Party in their grouip title.
Just keeping the black folks on the plantation.
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