Posted on 05/06/2014 10:38:57 AM PDT by smoothsailing
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., concluded that there was no politically-motivated targeting of conservatives, according to a new report issued by Democrats on the oversight panel, even though Tea Party groups came had so many applications flagged for review.
"[T]he overwhelming evidence before the committee reveals no political motivation or White House involvement in the screening of tax-exempt applications," says the report from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Democrats.
Cummings cites the testimony of a "self-identified 'conservative Republican'" who worked as a manager in the office where much of the errant scrutiny took place as evidence of political impartiality.
"[T]he Manager denied that he or anyone on his team was directed by the White House to take these actions or that they were politically motivated," the Cummings report says. "Instead, he explained that the first case at issue in this investigation was initially flagged by one of his own screeners in 2010. He explained that he initiated the first effort to gather similar cases in order to ensure their consistent treatment, and that he took this action on his own, without any direction from his superiors. He also confirmed that one of his screeners developed terms subsequently identified by the Inspector General as 'inappropriate,' such as 'Patriot' and '9/12 project,' but that he did not become aware that his screener was using these terms until more than a year later."
The subordinate who developed those terms "has no political affiliation" and denied any White House influence.
Oversight Democrats quoted another Republican IRS employee who blamed the flagging of Tea Party groups on a lack of guidance provided to IRS employees in Cincinnati, Ohio.
"This is purely cases that, unfortunately, Cincinnati didn't have enough guidance on," the tax law specialist in Washington said. "That (c)(4) area is a very, very difficult area, and there's not much guidance. And so the lingering length of time, unfortunately, was just trying to apply the law to the specific facts of each case.”
ABC News reported last May that "Cincinnati was far from the only IRS office where agents put conservative groups seeking tax exempt status under heightened scrutiny," noting that IRS agents in Washington also questioned Tea Party groups.
And a report released by Oversight Republicans quotes another IRS employees complaining that Cincinnati staffers were being wrongly blamed.
"I still hear people saying we were low level employees, so we were lower than dirt, according to people in D.C. So, take it for what it is," the employee testified. "They were basically throwing us underneath the bus."
We already got Lerner’s email, bro.
“...Elijah Cummings, D-Md., concluded...”
I would never have thought that a brain consisting of only two operational cells could conclude anything.
STFU, Cummings, you are an idiot. But then again, you are a dim-bulb-crat.
Democrap MSM on full spin cycle....
That smell is dem desperation. Cummings is the keeper of the stench.
And what's his name? Puddin N Tame
So what if it’s true?
The whole department needs investigation.
Cummings?
You’re going to take Cummings word for it?
He’s the one who asked the IRS to target Tea Party groups in the first place!
Elijah stoops ever lower to make this go away but it’s not going away.
Didn’t catch the name of the “self-described ‘conservative Republican’ “ in the article. Sounds like another of the democrats’s invisible friends who speak to dolts like Pelosi, Reid, Gephardt and so many other delusionals.
Watch Bob Beckel pick up this spin on the 5 later today. Wanna bet??
I recall something about this...Didn’t they already try blaming this person a year or so ago?
Sorry, Cummings, I can’t take the word of a co-conspirator.
Tune in to The Five and watch Beckel go psycho again. lol
Mr. Cummings,
Aside from one of yours thinking that Guam might tip over, giving your entire faction a less than stellar intellectual reputation, if this were true, you would be all for the investigation.
These people will do ANYTHING to protect their sorry asses.
Eliar Cummings strikes again!
But if what Eliar said was actually true, then why did Lois Lerner take the fifth?
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
"Hi, Rush, I've been a lifelong conservative Republican, but here is why I'm supporting Hillary in 2016 . . ."
PING!
The Stoop & Fetchit of the Democrat Plantation.
(With apologies to Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry)
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