Posted on 06/27/2014 6:33:30 AM PDT by safetysign
By the time Lois Lerner suggested auditing Sen. Chuck Grassley in a Dec. 4, 2012, email, the Iowa Republican had spent five years scrutinizing Lerner's IRS division.
Grassley, during his tenure as top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, zeroed in on abuses by charities and other nonprofit groups improperly claiming tax-exempt status under Lerner, and he spearheaded a 2006 change in federal law making it harder for organizations to improperly claim the credit.
Grassley and Lerner were no strangers to each other, and it’s one of the reasons Republicans fear Lerner’s push to audit Grassley might have been politically motivated.
“If she was interested in political payback, it would be absurd,” Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, a member of the Senate Finance panel, told the Washington Examiner. “What Senator Grassley was trying to do all of those years was to make sure that people who had tax-exempt status deserved it. He was working with the IRS in a way, not against them.”
Congressional staff who worked under Grassley during his 2001-10 tenure as top Republican on the Senate Finance panel say he conducted vigorous oversight of the IRS Tax Exempt division, which Lerner was appointed to run in 2005.
“This isn't random,” said Dean Zerbe, a tax lawyer who helped Grassley investigate tax-exempt groups and reform the law governing them. “This is going after the senator most active in conducting serious reviews of charitable organizations as well as the IRS work in this area."
Grassley conducted several hearings examining tax-exempt organizations, and he led the push in 2006 to reform the way some nonprofits are granted tax-exempt status. The resulting law has required the IRS, under Lerner, to revoke the tax-exempt status of dozens of illegitimate charities.
Grassley was also one of a dozen senators who sent a letter to the IRS in March 2012 questioning whether Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status were being unfairly scrutinized.
In December 2012, Lerner mistakenly received an invitation to an event that was meant for Grassley. The event officials offered to pay for the senator's wife to attend the event.
Lerner asked a co-worker, “Looks like they were inappropriately offering to pay for his wife. Should we refer to Exam?”
Both Lerner and Grassley were invited to speak at the event, which was redacted from an email chain made public by Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee. Lerner said in another email that she was not eager “to be on stage with Grassley” at the particular event, which was not described in the email.
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said he suspected Lerner's motives to refer Grassley for an audit were political.
"I think clearly we have problems with the IRS' role in politicizing that agency when a Republican senator, simply because they received an invite, is referred for a tax audit,” Camp said.
The Senate Finance Committee is investigating the matter, along with allegations that the IRS improperly targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. Lerner was placed on administrative leave by the IRS last year.
Grassley, who still serves on Senate Finance, told the Examiner he can’t comment on Lerner’s suggestion that the IRS audit him.
He held up a piece of paper to reporters, outlining several points on the matter, among them,”It’s pretty alarming how a clerical mix-up might lead to extra IRS scrutiny for a taxpayer, no matter who it is. It just fuels real concern about the political targeting by senior IRS officials. There needs to be accountability. Not just for me.”
If it were up to me, she’d spend the rest of her unnatural life in prison. Theft of the basic freedoms of Americans is the most basic and vile of crimes. She’d rot there left up to me.
Someone on Twitter pointed out the absurdity of that statement. Yes, every now and then I get a magazine or utility bill that should have gone into my neighbor's mailbox. But Lerner getting Grassley's mail? That doesn't begin to pass the smell test.
UT-OH Grassley put out a statement that he does not have Lerner's invite.
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As FReeper Fair Paul insightfully posted: How would Lerner receive an invitation that was meant to go to Senator Grassley? Is she intercepting his mail/email?
Lerner "accidentally" receiving....and opening ....US mail addressed to Sen Grassley is a federal offense----in legal terms: tampering with US mail. Mail tampering refers to the willful theft, destruction or opening of the mail of another person without their consent.
The moral equivalent of the Watergate break-in.
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REFERENCE----mail tampering is a crime punishable by incarceration, fines, or a term of probation. Within these individual United States, tampering with the mail may be a crime under state laws; however, mail fraud is a federal crime. The exact definition will vary by jurisdiction, but "tampering" generally includes opening, destroying, damaging, or interfering with mail intended for another person.
Under most states laws within the United States, mail is considered private property. As such, an individual has an expectation of privacy attached to his or her mail. When another person breaches that expectation of privacy, he or she may be guilty of mail tampering.
State laws differ, but in most cases, no one is allowed to open mail intended for another person. In many cases, even members of the same household cannot open mail addressed to another person in the same house. State statutes do frequently make an exception for United States Postal workers or other carriers if they are acting in good faith when opening the mail as part of their job.
Destroying, damaging, or interfering with the mail are also often considered mail tampering. For instance, removing mail from someone's mailbox or throwing mail away that is intended for another person may amount to a crime. Under most state statutes, tampering with the mail is a misdemeanor and is punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to a year or two.
Consider that the vindictive lawless WH occupier went on jihad against Grassley for one reason. Sen Grassley was interfering w/ vote-crazed Oabma's plans to inundate America w/ illegal Democrat voters.
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American Patriot Grassley tried to protect Americans w/ his amendment to the Senate amnesty bill: "Congress should not thumb its nose at the millions of Americans who are victims of identity theft, often perpetrated by an undocumented person who steals Social Security numbers to get jobs, govt benefits, driver's licenses and more.
"This amendment would simply require the person applying for RPI status to disclose any previously used Social Security numbers," said Grassley. "It's the first step to helping clean up the mess that's been created for the victim of identity theft. The amendment also authorizes certain federal agencies, upon receipt of this information, to notify individuals who were the victims."
IS SEN SCHUMER COMPLICIT IN THE IRS/OBAMA CONSPIRACY AGAINST SEN GRASSLEY?: Dismissing Sen Grassley's proposal to protect Americans, Sen Schumer (Dem-NY) said: "When people are living in undocumented status, there are times, I suppose, when they've made up identities, made up Social Security numbers. How are they going to remember all that? (The) purpose of this bill is to bring people out of the shadows. We all know when they lived in the shadows, they had to forge documents, forge Social Security numbers, et cetera. I just don't see how, when you've lived here 10 years, and you've had many different identities, many different numbers, you're going to remember them all," said Schumer.
(I)llegal
(R)ogue
(S)limeballs
‘zackly.
Ten years in Leavenworth ought to do it.
He may have been “working with the IRS” in some regard, but that didn’t stop Lerner from suggesting IRS harassment when she had the chance, and that tendency is the real story with her.
She was probably getting email forwarded from some DC snoop organization.
The above is the only sentence in this piece that matters... How did it happen? Why did Lois Lerner open mail addressed to someone else.... Opening someone else's mail is a federal crime - and besides, none of this passes the sniff test..
In all likelihood, the envelope was addressed to her...but it contained Grassley's invitation.
Well then I’d like to know who opened the invitation in order to send it to her.
A crime has been committed here...
I agree. If it was mail addressed go another person, that’s a Federal offense. And emails don’t just randomly go places they shouldn’t. Occasionally yes. But I don’t buy it on something like this
This scandal and corruption should be sufficient reason to put the IRS out of our misery. Flat or fair or no income tax whatever works, I’m for it.
Meanwhile put the slime buckets in jail.
But that scenario does not make a good rant possible.
If I get snail mail or email addressed to me, I'm opening it. Her crime is targeting the Senator for political motives if the mail was addressed to her. It's a whole different matter if the mail was addressed to the Senator.
Lois acts within a culture of punishing dissenters. She is rewarded by her superiors for this behavior.
I ‘d like to see the invitation. DId it have Grassley’s name on it? I doubt it. YOu mean the printer put the individual names on the invitation? No one does that. The invitations are the same, the names are put on the envelope.
On the other hand was this a letter to Grassley?
The whole thing stinks. I think we are seeing the Jekyl and Hyde character of this woman.
If this is true and Grassley was after Lerner for 5 years to make sure groups were properly allowed the exemption, this is great for Obama.
He can blame the republicans!!!
I’m thinking the same thing.
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