Lois Lerner's Own Words -Emails undercut the official IRS story on political targetin

Lois Lerner's Own Words

Emails undercut the official IRS story on political targeting.

September 11, 2013,

Congress's investigation into the IRS targeting of conservatives has been continuing out of the Syria headlines, and it's turning up news. Emails unearthed by the House Ways and Means Committee between former Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner and her staff raise doubts about IRS claims that the targeting wasn't politically motivated and that low-level employees in Cincinnati masterminded the operation.

In a February 2011 email, Ms. Lerner advised her staff—including then Exempt Organizations Technical Manager Michael Seto and then Rulings and Agreements director Holly Paz—that a Tea Party matter is "very dangerous," and is something "Counsel and [Lerner adviser] Judy Kindell need to be in on." Ms. Lerner adds, "Cincy should probably NOT have these cases."

That's a different tune than the IRS sang in May when former IRS Commissioner Steven Miller said the agency's overzealous enforcement was the work of two "rogue" employees in Cincinnati.

When the story broke, Ms. Lerner suggested that her office had been unaware of the pattern of targeting until she read about it in the newspaper. "So it was pretty much we started seeing information in the press that raised questions for us, and we went back and took a look," she said in May.


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ReutersU.S. Director of Exempt Organizations for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Lois Lerner

Earlier this summer, IRS lawyer Carter Hull, who oversaw the review of many Tea Party cases and questionnaires, testified that his oversight began in April 2010. Tea party cases under review are "being supervised by Chip Hull at each step," Ms. Paz wrote to Ms. Lerner in a February 2011 email. "He reviews info from TPs, correspondence to TPs etc. No decisions are going out of Cincy until we go all the way through the process with the c3 and c4 cases here." TP stands for Tea Party, and she means 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.

The emails also put the targeting in the context of the media and Congressional drumbeat over the impact of conservative campaign spending on the 2012 elections. On July 10, 2012 then Lerner-adviser Sharon Light emailed Ms. Lerner a National Public Radio story on how outside money was making it hard for Democrats to hold their Senate majority.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had complained to the Federal Election Commission that conservative groups like Crossroads GPS and Americans for Prosperity should be treated as political committees, rather than 501(c)(4)s, which are tax-exempt social welfare groups that do not have to disclose their donors.

"Perhaps the FEC will save the day," Ms. Lerner wrote back later that morning.

That response suggests Ms. Lerner's political leanings, and it also raises questions about Ms. Lerner's intentions in a separate email exchange she had when an FEC investigator inquired about the status of the conservative group the American Future Fund. The FEC and IRS don't have the authority to share that information under section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code. But the bigger question is why did they want to? After the FEC inquiry, the American Future Fund also got a questionnaire from the IRS.

Ms. Lerner famously invoked her right against self-incrimination rather than testify under oath to Congress. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee reported this summer that its investigation had found Ms. Lerner had sent official IRS documents to her personal email account, and many questions remain unanswered. Democrats want to pretend the IRS scandal is over, but Ms. Lerner's role deserves much more exposure.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...192280866.html

NEW EMAILS RAISE SERIOUS QUESTIONS ABOUT DISGRACED IRS OFFICIAL: THE TEA PARTY ISSUE IS ‘VERY DANGEROUS’

Posted on 12 September, 2013 by sophia

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Via The Blaze
Newly-released emails between disgraced Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner and her staff may contradict earlier claims that the agency’s harsh treatment of conservative groups was not politically motivated.
One email shows Lerner, then the director of the tax-exempt organizations division, advising her staff in February 2011 that a Tea Party matter is “very dangerous,” and is something “Counsel and [Lerner adviser] Judy Kindell need to be in on.”
The February email, uncovered by the House Ways and Means Committee, adds: “Cincy should probably NOT have these cases.”
Lerner’s staff at the time included then-Exempt Organizations Technical Manager Michael Seto and then-Rulings and Agreements director Holly Paz, who was fired from the agency earlier this year.
IRS lawyer Carter Hull testified about his role in the agency’s targeting earlier this summer. His involvement in overseeing Tea Party cases began in 2010.
The cases are “being supervised by Chip Hull at each step,” Paz wrote to Lerner in a February 2011 email. “He reviews info from TPs, correspondence to TPs etc. No decisions are going out of Cincy until we go all the way through the process with the c3 and c4 cases here.”
The emails also reveal that IRS officials were starting to worry about the role outside money would play in elections.
In an email dated July 10, 2012, then-Lerner adviser Sharon Light sent Lerner an NPR story on how “outside money was making it hard for Democrats to hold their Senate majority,” The Wall Street Journal notes.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee complained that conservative groups such as Crossroads GPS should be treated as non-tax exempt political committees.
“Perhaps the FEC will save the day,” Lerner, herself a former FEC official, responded.
The emails raise serious questions about Lerner’s political motivations and what she knew about the political targeting.
Lerner herself claimed earlier this year that she was unaware of the targeting until she read about it in the news.
“So it was pretty much we started seeing information in the press that raised questions for us, and we went back and took a look,” she said in May.
The emails also raise questions about former IRS Commissioner Steven Miller’s claims that the targeting wasn’t politically motivated and that it was simply the result of a few overeager low-level employees in Cincinnati.
Lerner has since invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself.
Questions about what she knew, why she was using her personal email account to conduct official business and her eyebrow-raising correspondences with FEC officials remain unanswered.



http://gopthedailydose.com/2013/09/1...ery-dangerous/

She needs to be in jail, not on paid leave.