Thread: IRS Scandal Escalates

Judicial Watch
3/14/14

It well past time for a serious criminal investigation of the Obama IRS. The stonewalling and lies about IRS abuse helped force the resignation of President Nixon. President Obama and his minions ought to be at least subject to the same level of scrutiny as Nixon. Judicial Watch is committed to this scrutiny, which includes a federal lawsuit.

The question is where is the rest of Washington?

In January, Judicial Watch named former IRS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner as one of the “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians for 2013.” Now a new staff report from House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) entitled “Lois Lerner’s Involvement in the IRS Targeting of Tax-Exempt Organizations confirms that not only does Lerner belong on that list – she may belong in jail as well. And that is not an overstatement.

As we have reported to you in the past, when subpoenaed to testify before Congress in May 2013, Lerner scornfully refused to answer inquiries, demanding full immunity concerning her role in the targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups. Eventually, the IRS acknowledged that while she was in charge, IRS agents had improperly targeted such groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status from 2010-2012. Yet in September 2013, Lerner was allowed to retire from the IRS on September 23 with full benefits, even after an internal investigation found she was guilty of “neglect of duties” and was going to call for her firing, according to news reports.

You may recall that subsequent to Lerner’s lavish retirement, Judicial Watch, in October 2013, obtained and published email exchanges between her and enforcement attorneys at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) indicating that she colluded with the FEC in an apparent further attempt to harass and hamstring conservative groups. Under Lerner’s direction, the IRS provided detailed, confidential information concerning the tax exempt application status and returns of conservative groups to the FEC, seemingly in direct violation of federal law.

Now comes the House Oversight Committee report providing, in the words of Committee Chairman Issa:

Detailed evidence about steps she took to crack down on organizations that exercised their Constitutional rights to free political speech. “She involved herself in efforts to apply unprecedented scrutiny to new applicants, existing organizations, and to write new rules after President Obama and other prominent Democrats expressed outrage at the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Finally, the report presents evidence that Ms. Lerner misled Congress about targeting and her own conduct.

Among the findings of the Oversight Committee are the following:

• Lerner and her colleagues, after being under public pressure from President Obama and other Democrats, engaged in an e-mail exchange about how they could showcase their scrutiny of a Tea Party applicant for public disclosure, despite rules protecting the secrecy of unapproved applications.

• In one e-mail exchange that began with a discussion of an article noting, “organizations woven by the fabulously rich and hugely influential Koch brothers,” Lerner told colleagues, “we do need a c4 [non-profit] project next year.”

• Lerner believed the Executive Branch needed to take steps to undermine the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. A senior advisor to Lerner e-mailed her an article about allegations that unknown conservative donors were influencing U.S. Senate races. The article explained how outside money was making it increasingly difficult for Democrats to remain in the majority in the Senate. Lerner replied: “Perhaps the FEC will save the day.”

• Lerner personally directed that Tea Party cases go through a “multi-tier review.” An IRS employee testified that Lerner “sent [him an] e-mail saying that when these cases need to go through multi-tier review and they will eventually have to go to [Judy Kindell, Lerner’s senior technical advisor] and the Chief Counsel’s office.” A D.C. IRS employee said this level of scrutiny had no precedent.

• Head of the IRS Cincinnati office’s testimony refutes Lois Lerner and President Obama’s O’Reilly interview assertion that this was all about a “local office”: “[Y]es, there were mistakes made by folks in Cincinnati as well [as] D.C., but the D.C. office is the one who delayed the processing of the cases.”

These emails help expose the Obama administration’s lies on the scandal, including Obama’s recent whopper that there wasn’t a “smidgen” of corruption with his IRS’s targeting of his perceived adversaries. Adding to the aura of misconduct, Lerner once again invoked the Fifth Amendment in a circus of a hearing last week. She, once again made the trip to Capitol Hill long enough to repeat the following phrase: “On the advice of my counsel, I respectfully exercise my Fifth Amendment right and decline to answer that question.”

Now we’ve heard that before from Lerner. The last time, she took the opportunity to grandstand, and proclaim her innocence in a statement to Congress, just before refusing to answer any questions, which outraged a number of members of Congress.

This time, Lerner stuck to her simple proclamation. But there was no less outrage.

Per Fox News:

A House hearing on the IRS targeting scandal rapidly broke down into a heated and deeply personal argument between a top Democrat and Republican, moments after former IRS official Lois Lerner once again invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to testify.
Lerner, who last year refused to answer questions about her role in singling out Tea Party and other conservative groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status, was called back before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday. Though Republicans argue she waived her Fifth Amendment right by giving a statement during the last hearing, Lerner continued to invoke that right on Wednesday.
“On the advice of my counsel, I respectfully exercise my Fifth Amendment right and decline to answer that question,” she said in response to several questions.

You can watch Lerner “take the Fifth” again here, and the resulting scuffle, courtesy of the Washington Free Beacon. The two members who tangled were Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings (D-MD).

Lerner may have waived her Fifth Amendment privilege already, meaning she can’t legally invoke it to avoid giving testimony. She gave testimony both to the Committee and spoke to Justice Department investigators about the scandal, so she can’t clam up in follow up questions by invoking her Fifth Amendment privilege. (See pp. 13-14 of the House Reform Committee Report.)

It well past time for a serious criminal investigation of the Obama IRS. The stonewalling and lies about IRS abuse helped force the resignation of President Nixon. President Obama and his minions ought to be at least subject to the same level of scrutiny as Nixon. Judicial Watch is committed to this scrutiny, which includes a federal lawsuit. The question is where is the rest of Washington?

For viewing that will make you angry and motivated, you should take a look at a CPAC panel Judicial Watch participated in that was hosted by Tea Party Patriots. This video shows you that the rule of law is indeed being vindicated by a coalition of IRS victims, conservative groups, activists, committed lawyers, and everyday citizens. As George Washington said, “Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains taken to bring it to light.”


http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-r...dal-escalates/

Issa to Cummings: You’re wrong. We can hold Lois Lerner in contempt

PM 03/14/2014
Patrick Howley
Political Reporter

In a sternly-worded letter to Rep. Elijah Cummings — and obtained by The Daily Caller — Rep. Darrell Issa said that his House Oversight Committee is well within its rights to hold ex-IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt despite Cummings’ arguments to the contrary.

“On March 12, 2014, you sent a letter to Speaker Boehner arguing that the House of Representatives is barred ‘from successfully pursuing contempt proceedings against former IRS official Lois Lerner,’” Issa wrote. “Your position was based on an allegedly ‘independent legal analysis’ provided by your lawyer, Stanley M. Brand, and your ‘Legislative Consultant,’ Morton Rosenberg,” he wrote.

Brand and Rosenberg claimed that Lerner was not “made unequivocally certain that her failure to respond would result in criminal contempt prosecution.” But Issa strongly disagreed.

“You and your lawyers and consultants are wrong on the facts and the law,” Issa wrote. “The Facts: Lerner knew that the Committee had rejected her privilege objection and that, consequently, she risked contempt should she persist in refusing to answer the Committee’s questions.”

Though Oversight member Rep. Jim Jordan confirmed to TheDC that the committee is “moving” toward contempt for Lerner, Cummings’ recent letter to Boehner was widely reported on in the mainstream press to bolster the story that the committee is unable to compel Lerner to testify.

But Issa’s letter walks Cummings step-by-step through flaws in the Democrats’ argument.

“You and your lawyers and consultants also misunderstand the law. Contrary to your insistence, the courts do not require the invocation by the Committee of certain magic words; rather (and sensibly), the courts have required only that congressional committees provide witnesses with a ‘fair appraisal of the committee’s ruling on an objection,’ thereby leaving the witness with a choice: comply with the relevant committee’s demand for testimony, or risk contempt,” Issa wrote.

“You and your lawyers and consultants refer specifically to Quinn v. United States. In that case, however, the Supreme Court held only that, because ‘[a]t no time did the committee [at issue there] specifically overrule [the witness’s] objection based on the Fifth Amendment,’ the witness ‘was left to guess whether or not the committee had accepted his objection.’[2] Here, of course, the Committee expressly rejected Lerner’s objection, and specifically notified Lerner and her counsel of the same: She was left to guess at nothing,” Issa wrote.

“Second, Quinn expressly rejects your insistence on the talismanic incantation by the Committee of certain magic words: ‘[T]he committee is not required to resort to any fixed verbal formula to indicate its disposition of the objection. So long as the witness is not forced to guess the committee’s ruling, he has no cause to complain,’” Issa wrote.
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http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/14/is...r-in-contempt/

Cummings' marching order are NOT to protect Lois Lerner. She is chump change.

The real prize here is the POTUS.