Posted on 05/14/2014 9:51:27 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Newly released internal Internal Revenue Service emails obtained by the group Judicial Watch document active direction by the federal tax agency's headquarters in targeting Tea Party and conservative nonprofit applicants during the 2010 and 2012 campaigns.
In a July 2012 email, Holly Paz, who was then director of the IRS Rulings and Agreements division, asked IRS lawyer Steven Grodnitzky “to let Cindy and Sharon know how we have been handling Tea Party applications in the last few months.”
Cindy Thomas is the former director of the IRS Exempt Organizations office in Cincinnati, and Sharon Camarillo was a senior manager in its Los Angeles office.
The email conflicts with claims by Obama administration officials that the targeting effort was done exclusively by the government workers in the Cincinnati IRS office.
In a February 2010 memo, Thomas directed a colleague to "let 'Washington' know about this potentially politically embarrassing case involving a 'Tea Party' organization.
In the April 2013 email, Lerner describes the broad criteria for including a nonprofit applicant among those targeted as being linked to the Tea Party under the BOLO -- "Be On The Lookout" for -- designation:
Such applicants included "organizations meeting any of the following criteria as falling within the BOLO's reference to "tea party" organizations: 1. 'Tea Party', 'Patriots' or '9/12 Project' is referenced in the case file. 2. Issues include government spending, government debt and taxes. 3. Educate the public through advocacy/legislative activities to make America a better place to live. 4. Statements in the case file that are critical of the how the country is being run."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Adriana Cohen: Time to give IRS a taste of its own medicine
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
The IRS prefers asking questions to answering them, but that needs to change.
Despite evidence of serious malfeasance, the nation’s tax-collecting agency has so far escaped an audit. A year after the scandal broke over IRS harassment of conservative groups, this Goliath government agency that has spiraled out of control under the Obama administration has yet to give a full accounting of its actions.
This is not just about the gross abuse of government power. It’s also about money, and the IRS penchant for spending yours.
Here is a timeline of corruption, incompetence and mind-blowing wasteful spending:
•The IRS blew nearly $100 million on furniture from 2010 to 2014, The Washington Free Beacon reports. Locally, the agency’s Lowell office spent $5.04 million on showcases, partitions and shelving. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on chairs for the IRS office in Haverhill.
• In 2012, according to the left-leaning Daily Kos, “The Internal Revenue Service issued $4 billion in fraudulent tax refunds in 2012 to people using stolen identities, with some of the money going to addresses in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Ireland, according to a Treasury report released in 2013.” Your hard-earned dollars ... off to Bulgaria!
• From 2010 to 2013: The Washington Post reports the IRS blew $49 million on 220 conferences.
• In 2012, the IRS sent 2,000 tax refunds, totalling $3.3 million, to the same address in Lansing, Mich.
Which brings us to the IRS targeting of conservatives. Former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman visited the White House 118 times in 2010 and 2011, while his agents were targeting conservatives. Coincidence?
More...
I want to see a whole lot of prison time for these political functionaries, and I want to see a vote for impeachment of the President following that.
First Head to Roll? New Report Claims Top IRS Official Fired, Has ‘Dropped Off the Edge of the World’
Jun. 14, 2013 10:05am Becket Adams
http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/article-2340376-1A3EDC2E000005DC-19_308x395.jpg
An Internal Revenue Service official at the center of the agency’s political targeting scandal has reportedly been fired and has since “dropped off the edge of the world,” according to a new report from National Review Online.
Holly Paz, the director of the agency’s Rulings and Agreements office, was fired last Friday, according to the NRO report, and her agency-issued computer, phone, and Blackberry have shown no activity since.
“As of Thursday, the voice mail on Paz’s work phone remains active and callers are asked to leave a message for Paz, though nobody answered repeated calls placed to that number,” the report notes.
“Calls to the mobile phone number listed under Paz’s name in the IRS’s internal directory are sent straight to voice mail, and indicate her mailbox has not yet been set up,” it adds.
Steven Grodnitzky (aka weasel) is a tax attorney and a manager in the IRS Exempt Organizations office in Washington D.C.
On July 6, 2010, Holly Paz (the former Director of the IRS Rulings and Agreements Division and current Manager of Exempt Organizations Guidance) asks IRS lawyer Steven Grodnitzky "to let Cindy and Sharon know how we have been handling Tea Party applications in the last few months."
This
Now that’s a great gif, ^5.
PRESS RELEASE
SOURCE: Judicial Watch
Judicial Watch
May 14, 2014 13:25 ET
Judicial Watch: New Documents Show IRS HQ Control of Tea Party Targeting
Documents Also Reveal Unusual Pressure From Key Democrat Senator to Target Conservatives
WASHINGTON, DC—(Marketwired - May 14, 2014) - Judicial Watch today released a new batch of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) documents revealing that its handling of Tea Party applications was directed out of the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC. The documents also show extensive pressure on the IRS by Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) to shut down conservative-leaning tax-exempt organizations. The IRS’ emails by Lois Lerner detail her misleading explanations to investigators about the targeting of Tea Party organizations.
The documents came in response to an October 2013 Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed after the agency refused to respond to four FOIA requests dating back to May 2013 (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:13-cv-01559)).
One key email string from July 2012 confirms that IRS Tea Party scrutiny was directed from Washington, DC. On July 6, 2010, Holly Paz (the former Director of the IRS Rulings and Agreements Division and current Manager of Exempt Organizations Guidance) asks IRS lawyer Steven Grodnitzky “to let Cindy and Sharon know how we have been handling Tea Party applications in the last few months.” Cindy Thomas is the former director of the IRS Exempt Organizations office in Cincinnati and Sharon Camarillo was a Senior Manager in their Los Angeles office. Grodnitzky, a top lawyer in the Exempt Organization Technical unit (EOT) in Washington, DC, responds:
EOT is working the Tea party applications in coordination with Cincy. We are developing a few applications here in DC and providing copies of our development letters with the agent to use as examples in the development of their cases. Chip Hull [another lawyer in IRS headquarters] is working these cases in EOT and working with the agent in Cincy, so any communication should include him as well. Because the Tea party applications are the subject of an SCR [Sensitive Case Report], we cannot resolve any of the cases without coordinating with Rob.
The reference to Rob is believed to be Rob Choi, then-Director of Rulings and Agreements in IRS’s Washington, DC, headquarters.
Another email string from February - March 2010 includes a message from a California EO Determinations manager discussing a Tea Party application “currently being held in the Screening group.” The manager urges, “Please let ‘Washington’ know about this potentially embarrassing political case involving a ‘Tea Party’ organization. Recent media attention to this type of organization indicates to me that this is a ‘high profile’ case.” A co-worker responds: “I think sending it up here [DC] is a good idea given the potential for media interest.” As with Ben Rhodes’ Benghazi-related talking points email, Judicial Watch obtained a more complete version of this IRS email chain than was provided to a congressional committee.
The Judicial Watch documents also contain email correspondence to internal IRS investigators from Lerner, dated April 2, 2013, that tries to explain the “Be on the Lookout” (BOLO) criteria used to select organizations for screening and scrutiny:
Because the BOLO only contained a brief reference to “Organizations involved with the Tea Party movement applying for exemption under 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4)” in June 2011, the EO Determinations manager asked the manager of the screening group, John Shafer [IRS Cincinnati field office manager], what criteria were being used to label cases as “tea party “ cases. (”Do the applications specify/state ‘ tea party’? If not, how do we know applicant is involved with the tea party movement?”) The screening group manager asked his employees how they were applying the BOLO’s short-hand reference to “tea party.” His employees responded that they were including organizations meeting any of the following criteria as falling within the BOLO’s reference to “tea party” organizations: “1. ‘Tea Party’, ‘Patriots’ or ‘9/12 Project’ is referenced in the case file. 2. Issues include government spending, government debt and taxes. 3. Educate the public through advocacy/legislative activities to make America a better place to live. 4. Statements in the case file that are critical of the how the country is being run. . . “
So, we believe we have provided information that shows that no one in EO “developed” the criteria. Rather, staff used their own interpretations of the brief reference to “organizations involved with the Tea Party movement,” which was what was on the BOLO list.
Lerner omits that her office was “developing” the applications for all Tea Party groups.
The IRS documents also include a presentation entitled “Heightened Awareness Issues” with a red and orange “Alert” symbol identifying the “emerging issues” that trigger scrutiny for organizations seeking tax-exempt status. Page six of the presentation focuses on the Tea Party organizations due, in part, to the fact that these groups had become a “Relevant Subject in Today’s Media.”
A series of letters between Senator Levin (D-MI), chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations, and top IRS officials throughout 2012 discuss how to target conservative groups the senator claimed were “engaged in political activities.” In response to a Levin March 30 letter citing the “urgency of the issue,” then-Deputy Commissioner Steven Miller assured the senator that IRS regulations were flexible enough to allow IRS agents to “prepare individualized questions and requests” for select 501(c)(4) organizations.
The newly released IRS documents contain several letters and emails revealing an intense effort by Levin and IRS officials to determine what, if any, existing IRS policies could be used to revoke the nonprofit exemptions of active conservative groups and deny exemptions to new applicants. In a July 30, 2012, letter, Levin singles out 12 groups he wants investigated for “political activity.” Of the groups — which include the Club for Growth, Americans for Tax Reform, the 60 Plus Association, and the Susan B. Anthony List — only one, Priorities USA, is notably left-leaning.
As the 2012 presidential election drew nearer, Levin sent a series of letters to the IRS intensifying his campaign against predominantly conservative nonprofit groups:
•September 27, 2012: Levin asks for copies of the answers to IRS exemption application question 15 — a question about planned political expenditures — from four specific groups: Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, Priorities USA, Americans for Prosperity, and Patriot Majority USA.
•October 17, 2012: Miller informs Levin, “As discussed in our previous responses dated June 4, 2012, and August 24, 2012, the IRS cannot legally disclose whether the organizations on your list have applied for tax exemptions unless and until such application is approved.” Miller, however, then informs Levin that Americans for Prosperity and Patriot Majority have been approved, but the IRS has no records for Crossroads and Priorities USA.
•October 23, 2012: Levin writes to again express his dissatisfaction with the IRS handling of “social welfare” (501(c)(4) organizations insisting that IRS guidance “misinterprets the law” by allowing any political activity. He again demands an answer as to whether the four organizations he listed in his previous letter were primarily engaged in the promotion of social welfare. He also seeks copies of tax exempt revocation letters sent due to c4 political activities, as well as statistics on how many c4s have been notified that they may be in violation due to political activities.
In perhaps the most revealing letter from the IRS to Levin, Miller on June 4, 2012, takes 16 pages to explain to the senator what IRS regulations and policies may and may not be used to evaluate political groups and assures him that the agency has considerable leeway in picking and choosing which groups would be subject to additional scrutiny:
There is no standard questionnaire used to obtain information about political activities. Although there is a template development letter that describes the general information on the case development process, the letter does not specify the information to be requested from any particular organization. . .Consequently, revenue agents prepare individualized questions and requests for documents relevant to the application. . .
A May 14, 2013, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report revealed that the IRS had singled out groups with conservative-sounding terms such as “patriot” and “Tea Party” in their titles when applying for tax-exempt status. The TIGTA probe determined that “Early in Calendar Year 2010, the IRS began using inappropriate criteria to identify organizations applying for tax-exempt status (e.g., lists of past and future donors).” The illegal IRS reviews continued for more than 18 months and “delayed processing of targeted groups applications” preparing for the 2012 presidential election.
“These new documents show that officials in the IRS headquarters were responsible for the illegal delays of Tea Party applications,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “It is disturbing to see Lois Lerner mislead the IRS’ internal investigators about her office’s Tea Party targeting. These documents also confirm the unprecedented pressure from congressional Democrats to go after President Obama’s political opponents. The IRS scandal has now ensnared Congress.”
In mid-April, Judicial Watch released a batch of IRS documents (produced earlier in this litigation) revealing that Lerner had communicated with the Department of Justice about whether it was possible to criminally prosecute certain tax-exempt entities.
JUDICIAL WATCH
IRS HQ FOIA 1559 Full Production
Category:
Number of Pages:
1436
Date Created:
May 13, 2014
Date Uploaded to the Library:
May 13, 2014
http://www.judicialwatch.org/document-archive/irs-hq-foia-1559-full-production/
5.56mm
That’s because the GOP committees are ran by the GOPe, while Judicial Watch is ran by conservatives.
Old Cry Baby Bonehead doesn’t want to pursue any avenues that would preclude the GOPe from using the same tactics against the Tea Party groups as the Dems have been doing!
As another poster stated, I am pretty sure that these anti-Tea Party antics have bipartisan support between the GOPe and Dems!!
Yup, came to that conclusion myself by the way Boner Boehner is fighting not to investigate.
Would also guess he is now being blackmailed because of his collusion with the Rats and White Hut on this.
Steve Miller?
“He makes his living off of the peoples’ taxes.”
Is she going to be preventing cancer or spreading it?
Absolutely CORRECT, that Boo Hoo bonehead and no chin Mitch DO hate the Tea Party and they were delighted with that IRS targeting.
Same goes for Ted Cruz “shutting down” the government. Boo Hoo made comments on FOX one night that it was “unfortunate” that “some in our own party, shut down the government” as it was not “helpful” to the situation. SICK, sick, IMHO.
Why doesn’t someone please ask the question of just HOW did all those National Parks have the identical pre-printed signs to post all over the country? There are NO journalists left perhaps.
Boo Hoo and No Chin KNEW those signs were made already and ready to go. Shutting down the National Parks. How manly.
PLEASE DONATE to FR, everyone. My 2 cents.
7% of 11.29B = "roughly" $800 million. They should have allocated some of that increase to better calculators.
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