Thread: BREAKING: Ethics Charges Filed for Multiple Democrat Senators for Corruption

BREAKING: Ethics Charges Filed for Multiple Democrat Senators for Corruption

Thanks to some intrepid journalism and numerous Freedom of Information Act requests, we have learned a great deal about the IRS targeting of conservative groups.
One thing in particular that has been learned is that the IRS targeting occurred at the behest of several Democrat Senators, and that the IRS broke the law by providing tax information to these Senators and their allies in order to help the Democrat Party mitigate their losses in the 2010 and 2012 elections.
It all stems from President Obama and the Democrats frustration over the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for conservative and libertarian political groups to get more involved in the political process.

But the pressure that Democrats exerted on the IRS to go after and target conservative and Tea Party groups has now resulted in charges of corruption and ethics violations against several top Democrat Senators, according to The Blaze.

The Center for Competitive Politics, which opposes campaign finance restrictions and other limits on political speech, filed a complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics against nine Democratic senators, most notably Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin of Illinois and Carl Levin of Michigan, for repeated lobbying of the IRS to probe conservative groups.
It also specifically cites Charles Schumer of New York, who was the lead author of letters to the IRS signed by Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire; Tom Udall of New Mexico; Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island; Al Franken of Minnesota; Michael Bennet of Colorado; and Jeff Merkley of Oregon.

David Keating, President of the organization, made note of the IRS abuses that occurred under President Nixon, and the laws passed after Watergate, by Democrats, that would purportedly prevent such abuse from occurring again, especially from the White House.

“If someone in the White House was connected it would make it a real criminal violation and a very sensational thing,” Keating told TheBlaze. “I doubt that happened. But there was huge heat coming from the Senate.”
“I don’t think it’s ever appropriate for Congress to ask a law enforcement agency to go investigate this group, go audit that group,” he added. “Congress is not the FBI. It is not the Justice Department.”

A staffer for the Senate Ethics Committee refused to confirm whether the matter would be investigated, but said that all charges are taken seriously.

The complaint says the senators interfered with executive branch agency proceeding, misused official resources for campaign purposes, gave at least the appearance of impropriety, and engaged in conduct that might reflect poorly on the Senate.
“All of these actions appear to have been undertaken for electoral, rather than official purposes – Sens. Durbin and Schumer, in particular, have openly stated as much,” the complaint says. “Additionally, Sen. Levin’s repeated requests for information, after being explicitly informed that the information could not lawfully be disclosed, violate Paragraph 2 of the Code of Ethics for U.S. Government Service. We request that the Committee, in accordance with its mandate, investigate each violation accordingly and impose appropriate sanctions.”

The complaint also notes that the targeting began almost immediately after Obama called out the Supreme Court and disparaged their Citizens United decision during one of his State of the Union addresses, inferring that all conservative groups were only posing as non-profits, and taking advantage of loopholes to conduct partisan political business.

“Within days, a member of the United States Senate abused his office to advance his political party’s midterm election campaign efforts by using official resources to pressure the Internal Revenue Service to investigate certain conservative organizations that Democrats had not been able to silence with legislation,” the complaint says, referring to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana), who became the U.S. ambassador to China earlier this year.
Levin, the chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, had 14 correspondence to and from IRS officials from March 2012 to March 2013, where he urged the IRS to probe the nonprofit groups. In one he called for the IRS to send “a message…to Section 501(c)(4) entities on an urgent basis.” He also asked the agency to provide tax information about the political activity of the groups, to which IRS officials told him they could not legally provide him.
The complaint says the action by the senators may have triggered audits, citing a May 12, 2011 article in the New York Times that reported the IRS is sent letters to donors of 501(c)(4) groups “informing [the donors] that their contributions may be subject to gift taxes depending on whether the donations exceeded limits under the tax laws.”
The Times said “[t]he timing of the agency’s moves, as the 2012 election cycle gets under way, is prompting some tax law and campaign finance experts to question whether the I.R.S. could be sending a signal in an effort to curtail big donations.”

This could very well be the smoking gun behind the IRS attacks on conservative and Tea Party groups. The IRS would likely not have gone after these groups the way that they did if they hadn’t been pressured to do so by Democrats in Congress.
The Citizens United decision, which leveled the playing field and allowed regular conservative citizens to compete in the political arena against the established leftist groups and unions, has proven to be a thorn in the side of Democrats. They hate that decision because it lessened the advantage they had built up through the unions and Democrat machinery.
There is likely still more to be learned about the IRS targeting scandal, and it is now more apparent than ever that there must be special prosecutors appointed who can conduct outside investigations and determine the involvement of the numerous Senators implicated, along with the Justice Department and the White House.

Please share this on Facebook and Twitter if you are glad Democrats are getting hit with ethics charges for their role in the IRS scandal, and think they ought to lose their seats in Congress as well.

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Ethics Charges Have Been Filed Against 9 Democratic Senators

By Steven Ahle on June 4, 2014 in Crime, Democrats, IRS, Obama, Obama Scandals, Politics

Nine US Democratic senators have had ethics charges filed against them for their participation in the IRS targeting of conservative groups. The Center for Competitive Politics who filed the charges with the Senate Ethics Committee, singled out Dick Durbin and Carl Levine as the main culprits. The other senators include Chuck Schumer, Al Franken, Michael Bennet, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeff Merkley, Jeanne Shaheen, and Tom Udall.
The last 7 named were responsible for a letter to the IRS that threatened congressional action if the IRS failed to rein in the spending by conservative groups. It is fairly dripping with irony, since it was the Democratic party that pushed passing the laws forbidding the government from using the IRS as a tool of vengeance, after Nixon used the IRS to go after his enemies. And remember that every woman that came forward against Bill Clinton was audited at least once.
David Keating, the president of The Center for Competitive Politics, said he believes the abuse of the IRS came from the Senate and not the White House, (Although he didn’t rule the possibility out:

“If someone in the White House was connected it would make it a real criminal violation and a very sensational thing. I doubt that happened. But there was huge heat coming from the Senate.”
“I don’t think it’s every appropriate for Congress to ask a law enforcement agency to go investigate this group, go audit that group. Congress is not the FBI. It is not the Justice Department.”

A staffer on the ethics committee could not confirm that the committee would investigate the charges but did say they take the charges seriously.
The complaint includes the following paragraph:

“All of these actions appear to have been undertaken for electoral, rather than official purposes – Sens. Durbin and Schumer, in particular, have openly stated as much. Additionally, Sen. Levin’s repeated requests for information, after being explicitly informed that the information could not lawfully be disclosed, violate Paragraph 2 of the Code of Ethics for U.S. Government Service. We request that the Committee, in accordance with its mandate, investigate each violation accordingly and impose appropriate sanctions.”

Former Sen Max Bauchus, who is now the ambassador to China, was also singled out for abusing the system:

“Within days, a member of the United States Senate abused his office to advance his political party’s midterm election campaign efforts by using official resources to pressure the Internal Revenue Service to investigate certain conservative organizations that Democrats had not been able to silence with legislation.”

Bauchus was not included in the complaint, since he is no longer in the senate.
Carl Levin corresponded with the IRS 14 times, either to or from ,between March of 2012 and March of 2013. In one missive, he told the IRS to send a message to these tax exempt groups. He also requested confidential tax information about these groups, which the IRS refused to turn over as the transfer is illegal.
Steven Miller, who was at the time, the acting IRS commissioner, testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, that Levin’s letters made their mark on the IRS :

“So I’m not sure there was a problem, right? I mean, I think we were—we had, you know, Mr. Levin complaining bitterly to us about—Senator Levin complaining bitterly about our regulation that was older than me, where we had read ‘exclusively’ to mean ‘primarily’ in the 501(c)(4) context. And, you know, we were being asked to take a look at that. And so we were thinking about what things could be done.”

In the run up to the 2012 elections, Dick Durbin requested in a letter that the IRS investigate Crossroads CPS . That is Karl Rove’s group.
Several of the groups that were targeted by the senators were subjected to audits and their donors were sent warning letters. They were told that contributions to certain groups could result in a 20% gift tax. That could prohibit them from making large contributions to conservative groups.
The Senate Senate Select Committee on Ethics is headed by Barbara Boxer, but is comprised of three Democrats and three Republicans, which means the Democrats do not have the votes to kill the complaint, but a three to three vote could table it. A refusal to investigate the charges could cause people to believe there is a cover up.

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BREAKING: Multiple Ethics Charges Filed Against Harry Reid

Sen. Harry Reid is one of the most disliked political figures in America, and there are plenty of reasons to choose from which justify the level of criticism he receives on a daily basis.
One such example would be his desire to alter the Constitution to give the government more control over how one let’s their voice be heard politically through campaign contributions, therefore limiting a person’s freedom of speech.
Reid is also notorious for race baiting, attempting to stir up strife among ethically diverse people groups where none exists, like his call for the Washington Redskins to change their name, which the team politely declined.

It seems as if all of the bullying Reid has become famous for has finally caught up with him, as the American people are about to bring the hammer down on the Nevada senator.
Formal ethics complaints have been filed against Sen. Reid for using the power of his office to intimidate citizens.
via WND:

A formal ethics complaint filed with the U.S. Senate charges Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., with abusing his political power to intimidate private citizens.
The accusation stems from Reid’s repeated verbal assaults on Republican donors, particularly David and Charles Koch, according to a statement released Monday by Tea Party Patriots.
Reid’s attacks have not been made through a political campaign but on the floor of the U.S. Senate, where the interests of the republic are supposed to be at the forefront, Tea Party Patriots charged.
“This is nothing more than a continuation of the thuggish intimidation campaign mounted by the Obama administration to target and silence people and organizations Democrats disagree with. It has to stop,” said Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots.
“We have filed this complaint so that the ethics committee can do a proper investigation,” she said.
The solution could be a censure from the Senate floor or a referral to the U.S. Department of Justice, she said.

It’s far past time for Harry Reid to reap what he has sown, which is why these complaints being filed is such good news. With all of the corruption revealed in the White House and with Reid in particular, people have simply had enough. They are no longer intimidated by powerful politicians, as they take steps like this to remind the establishment who truly holds the power in this country.
Hopefully Reid will be investigated and the pressure put on him through the process will help dissuade him from continuing his efforts to destroy freedom of speech in America.
Please share this article on Facebook and Twitter if you agree that it’s time for Sen. Harry Reid to be held accountable for his bullying tactics.

http://conservativetribune.com/ethic...or-harry-reid/