Free Republic

One might expect that the extra scrutiny applied to conservative political groups by the IRS would have ended after the practice got exposed three months ago. At least according to a recent deposition from the House Ways and Means Committee investigation into the scandal, IRS agents still are being directed to automatically apply extra scrutiny to applications mentioning the Tea Party, even if no other political activity is indicated in the application: Q: “If you saw – I am asking this currently, if today a Tea Party case, a group – a case from a Tea Party group came in...

In a remarkable admission that is likely to rock the Internal Revenue Service again, testimony released Thursday by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp reveals that an agent involved in reviewing tax exempt applications from conservative groups told a committee investigator that the agency is still targeting Tea Party groups, three months after the IRS scandal erupted..

So says a low-level IRS whistleblower who will testify on Capitol Hill tomorrow morning.  The Washington Post reports: The chief counsel’s office for the Internal Revenue Service, headed by a political appointee of President Obama, helped develop the agency’s problematic guidelines for reviewing “tea party” cases, according to a top IRS attorney. In interviews with congressional investigators, IRS lawyer Carter Hull said his superiors told him that the chief counsel’s office, led by William Wilkins, would need to review some of the first applications the agency screened for additional scrutiny because of potential political activity. Previous accounts from IRS employees had shown...

The chief counsel’s office for the Internal Revenue Service, headed by a political appointee of President Obama, helped develop the agency’s problematic guidelines for reviewing “tea party” cases, according to a top IRS attorney. In interviews with congressional investigators, IRS lawyer Carter Hull said his superiors told him that the chief counsel’s office, led by William Wilkins, would need to review applications that the agency had screened for additional scrutiny because of potential political activity. Previous accounts from IRS employees had shown that Washington IRS officials were involved in the controversy, but Hull’s comments represent the closest connection to the...

Top House committee chairmen said Wednesday that they have learned that the IRS sent some tea party groups’ applications for tax-exempt status through special scrutiny at the direction of agency officials in Washington, in a revelation that appears to confirm political targeting. The committee chairmen released partial excerpts of interviews with IRS employees that show they were prepared to rule on some of the tea party groups’ applications, but Lois Lerner, an official at the root of the investigation, overruled them and instead created the complex and intrusive inquiries that have become the center of a Washington scandal. Carter Hull,...

Twelve different groups within the IRS targeted conservative organizations applying for tax-exempt nonprofit status, according to the attorneys representing tea party plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against the IRS. The revelation disproves the suggestion by a top congressional Democrat that only one IRS group was responsible for scrutinizing tea party and conservative applications.

Refuting Democratic suggestions that progressive groups were also swept up in the IRS probe of the tax status of Tea Party organizations, the Treasury Department's inspector general has revealed that just six progressive groups were targeted compared to 292 conservative groups. In a letter to congressional Democrats, the inspector general also said that 100 percent of Tea Party groups seeking special tax status were put under IRS review, while only 30 percent of the progressive groups felt the same pressure. The Wednesday letter to the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee punched a huge hole in Democratic...

A U.S. Internal Revenue Service manager, who described himself as a conservative Republican, told congressional investigators that he and a local colleague decided to give conservative groups the extra scrutiny that has prompted weeks of political controversy. In an official interview transcript released on Sunday by Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings, the manager said he and an underling set aside "Tea Party" and "patriot" groups that had applied for tax-exempt status because the organizations appeared to pose a new precedent that could affect future IRS filings. Cummings, top Democrat on the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee conducting the...

I lived through a nightmare but am here to talk about it. I was one of those victims of the IRS scandal. As an outspoken critic of President Obama and his socialist anti-business agenda, the IRS targeted me for intimidation and persecution–not once, but twice. The first IRS attack started in January of 2011. After I won a victory in tax court in the summer of 2012, I was audited again 5 days later. FIVE DAYS. Tax experts have never heard of this happening- EVER. But my nightmare is over. Just yesterday, I won again. My tax attorney just received...

The Tea Party Patriots will organize a mass "Audit the IRS Rally" on June 19th in Washington, D.C. with local and national Tea Party groups to protest the IRS's targeting of conservative organizations. Jenny Beth Martin, the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, told Breitbart News that the targeted witnesses that testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday "showed the IRS discrimination and abuse had very real consequences on the local coordinators of the groups affected." "These were not faceless, amorphous 'groups' but real Americans who wanted to peacefully assemble," Martin said. "Those in the hearings this week...

CAPITOL POLICE SUDDENLY WANTS TO SEE TEA PARTY WEBSITES BEFORE PROTEST APPROVED. And they are taking weeks to grant the request.The Tea Party Patriots were planning a rally in Washington DC on Wednesday June 19th. But they ran into a wall. The Capitol Police want to see their websites first. Kevin Mooneyhan from the Tea Party Patriots described this latest assault on the Tea Party: Below is the timeline of events surrounding our June 19th rally at the Capitol. We haven’t done anything to publicize this event yet because we wanted to make sure we had the permit in hand....

THE TARGETING PAPER TRAIL BEGINS: Soon as they occupied the WH, Obama and the Chicago con artists (a) took control of the US Census; (b) Obama placed his COS Rahm Emanuel in control of the US Dept of the Treasury (the IRS). THE DOTS CONNECT Obama told voters "Tea Parties were a threat to democracy." His mouthpiece, Valerie Jarrett, said the O Team "would not forget" which Americans did not worship Obama. BACKSTORY WSJ REPORT--On Jan 20, 2009 Timothy Geithner was appointed Obama's Secy of the Treasury. But within three weeks, the obama White House tightened its grip on Treasury....

LIVE: Conservative Groups Testify to Lawmakers on IRS Scrutiny 10am EDT (7am PDT)

Did news coverage of a Tea Party group launching a 501(c)(4) in February 2010--including a story at NPR-- launch the two year scrutiny of Tea Party groups? It's impossible to tell for certain but the IG report does offer some clues that suggest this could be the case. Other news outlets have speculated about what might have prompted the scrutiny but no firm conclusion seems possible since the IG report redacts the event which initiated the scrutiny. However the report does offer clues. A detailed timeline included in the report indicates the whole affair began with a February 25, 2010...

Breaking: 4Liberty at Free Republic reported – I live in Los Angeles. Our San Fernando Tea Party coordinator will be testifying BEFORE CONGRESS along with 5 or 6 others at 10 AM Eastern to 1 PM Eastern on Tuesday June 4. CSPAN DOES NOT HAVE ANY SCHEDULE SHOWING THEY WILL BROADCAST THE HEARING. UPDATE: I plan on attending the hearing this week. UPDATE: I just received this information from the Tea Party Patriots. Random thoughts on the testimony: 1.) Some things are not being picked up by the mainstream media quickly so watching the hearings live on CSPAN helps get...

IRS employee in bombshell congressional interviews about tea party targeting: 'Washington, DC wanted some cases ... I sent seven' Interviews with IRS employees have established that the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service was engaged in targeting tea party groups and other conservative organizations for unfair levels of scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. Rep. Darrel lssa, chairman of powerful House Committee of Oversight and Government Reform, made that startling announcement on CNN Sunday morning. 'As late as last week,' he said, 'the [Obama] administration was still trying to say the [IRS targeting scandal] was from a...

With the scent of scandal encircling the White House, some Republicans are already licking their chops over the 2014 midterm elections, while some Democrats are pre-emptively licking their wounds. Not so fast, folks. Retract those tongues. While it is impossible to predict what might drive voter attitudes in an election 18 months away, there are quite a few signs that 2014 will be nothing like 2010, which produced tremendous success for Republicans. First, the electorate is less conservative. In May 2009, the Tea Party had just begun to flex its muscle and feel its power on a national level. Now,...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Why is the Obama administration using the IRS, OSHA, ATF, and FBI to harass tea party member Catherine Engelbrecht? Catherine Engelbrecht is a tea party member who lives in Richmond, Texas. She and her family own a small manufacturing business. As far as I’m aware, Ms. Engelbrecht and her family are law abiding citizens who work hard and pay their taxes.Ms. Engelbrecht founded a conservative organization called True the Vote. After she sent the group’s application for nonprofit status to the IRS, the IRS went three years without responding.But it’s much worse than that.During those three...

ARMED DHS GUARDS GREETED TEA PARTY PROTESTERS TODAY AT THE ST. LOUIS IRS RALLY– No sign of the Light-Armored Tanks yet… But there were DHS vehicles parked outside the IRS office just in case the Tea Party protesters got violent. Alex Cohen holds a Gadsden flag at the IRS building. It was his first Tea Party rally. Over 300 Tea Party protesters turned out for the rally against IRS harassment and intimidation. Tea Party protesters at the St. Louis-Town and Country IRS protest today wore targets on their backs. There were plenty of American and Gadsden flags at the rally....