Too Bad It Did Not Include Jail Sentences!

BREAKING: Tea Party Gets Big Win Over IRS Years Later

• 08/10/2018 
• Source: AAN 
• by: AAN Staff

6 4 0  17

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By US House of Representatives Committee of Oversight & Government Reform [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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A federal judge has vindicated the plight of Tea Party groups persecuted by the IRS with the preliminary approval of a $3.5 million settlement. (U.S. News & World Report)

U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett set a July 10 hearing in Cincinnati on making the settlement final, and scheduled deadlines for claims and objections.

The Justice Department had announced last year that the case had been settled, pending approval of terms.

The lead plaintiff was the California-based Norcal Tea Party Patriots. The case swelled into a class-action suit by hundreds of groups. The court will decide how much each gets after legal costs.

The 2013 lawsuit during the Barack Obama administration was over treatment of conservative groups who said they were singled out for extra IRS scrutiny on tax-exempt status applications.

The case hounded the Obama administration for years, with many Republicans discouraged that stronger action wasn't taken.

Read more at http://americanactionnews.com/articles/breaking-tea-party-gets-big-win-over-irs-years-later#BhXpCH0PcOqgYXXV.99

We Smell A Rat! Another Coverup By The Administration Gets FBI Backing! This Country Really IS LOST!

IRS Off the Hook: No Criminal Charges Over Tea Party Targeting

Monday, 13 Jan 2014 08:17 PM

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The FBI is not planning to file criminal charges involving the Internal Revenue Service's extra scrutiny of the Tea Party and other conservative groups, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing law enforcement officials.
The newspaper quoted officials as saying that investigators probing the IRS actions, which unleashed a political furor in Washington, did not uncover the type of political bias or "enemy hunting" that would constitute a criminal violation. The evidence showed a mismanaged agency enforcing rules it did not understand on applications for tax exemptions, the Journal reported.
The case is still under investigation, but criminal charges were unlikely unless unexpected evidence emerged, officials familiar with the probe told the paper.
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment when queried by Reuters.

If there are no criminal charges as expected, the FBI is likely to see a backlash from already skeptical conservative groups which had raised the idea that the administration would not police itself.

House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa last week questioned whether a prosecutor handling the case for the Justice Department could remain impartial when he donated to the Obama campaign.

And just last week, The Washington Times reported that some conservative groups were only just being contacted  by the IRS, raising the question of just how thorough an investigation the FBI conducted.

Cleta Mitchell, another attorney representing some of the targeted groups, said last week her clients have not heard from investigators.

"Normally, don't you first interview the victims?" Mitchell said. "I mean, I've watched enough cop shows over the years. You interview the victims. You don't interview the perp."

FBI Director James Comey told reporters last week when asked about the IRS probe, "It's an investigation that we're still working, and that's an important one for us." He declined to comment on whether the FBI believed a crime had been committed.
In May, a senior IRS executive made an unexpected public apology at a legal conference for what she described as improper scrutiny by the agency of conservative political groups.
The apology set off weeks of investigation and controversy, culminating in findings that Tea Party-linked political groups applying for tax-exempt status had been subjected to extra review and delay by employees at an IRS Cincinnati field office.
Republican lawmakers attacked President Barack Obama's administration over the issue, accusing the agency of political bias.
Obama asked then-acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller to resign in the days after the disclosure, and the FBI opened an investigation.



© 2014 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

IRS Scandal May Have Other Effects

IRS Scandal Seen Having a Chilling Effect on Audits

Friday, 24 May 2013 09:43 AM

By John Morgan

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The blossoming IRS scandal may be welcomed by Americans who hope to avoid the unblinking eye of the national tax agency, as the last time the IRS was in such a public mess, tax audits fell by 50 percent, according to MarketWatch.

After 1998, when Congressional hearings led to criticism and a reorganization of the IRS, audits subsequently fell to 620,000 in 2000, and the share of taxpayers audited dropped to 0.5 percent from 1 percent.

During that time of reform, IRS employees were wary of being reprimanded for taking enforcement actions, MarketWatch reported.


"People felt constrained and probably let a lot of things go they shouldn't have," said Floyd Williams, a former legislative affairs director at the IRS.

This time around, Congressional scrutiny is compounded by unrelated pay freezes, partial hiring freezes and furloughs brought about by budget cuts and the sequester. The agency told MarketWatch it started 2013 with 7,000 fewer full-time employees than in 2010 and that key enforcement positions have declined 6 percent in the past year.

In testimony before a Congressional panel investigating the agency's treatment of conservative groups Wednesday, Lois Lerner, the IRS official responsible for tax exemptions, pleaded her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Lerner would not answer questions about how the IRS developed its list of Tea Party groups to be on the lookout for, what steps she took when she discovered it and why she failed to tell Congress about it when asked directly, USA Today reported.

Lerner said she was following the advice of her attorney, and claimed she had not broken any laws.

However, in written testimony, she said the IRS had targeted not only Tea Party groups, but also "political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform/movement."

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Should There Be A Special Prosecutor In Rosen Case

Graham calls for special prosecutor to investigate IRS, Fox News cases

By Bernie Becker - 05/26/13 09:24 AM ET

  

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday called for a special prosecutor to investigate both the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups and the Justice Department’s investigations of reporters.

Graham, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” said that the IRS scandal illustrated a culture of revenge that permeates President Obama’s administration.

The Justice Department’s push to obtain emails from James Rosen, a Fox News reporter, was “clearly an overreach,” Graham said.

“James Rosen is a lot of things, but a criminal co-conspirator he is not,” Graham added. “We’re beginning to criminalize journalism, and I think that should worry us all.”

The Justice Department went after Rosen’s e-mails because of his contact with a State Department official thought to have leaked information about North Korea. Republicans have raised questions about Obama putting Attorney General Eric Holder in charge of that investigation, since it would be looking into his own department.

On the IRS matter, Graham said there was clearly “an organized effort within the IRS” to target Obama’s opponents, and that the White House played a role in developing the culture that allowed that to happen.

Republicans, though, have been wary of calling for a special counsel in that case, at least in part because Holder would be able to appoint that prosecutor.

“My belief about the IRS scandal is that this culture of going after Tea Party groups that were on the president’s case about ObamaCare did just not accidentally happen,” the South Carolina Republican said. “I think it comes from the top in terms of tone.”

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), appearing with Graham, wasn’t ready to call for a special counsel in either case.

“I’d like to know if Holder has any conflict in here beyond what we’ve heard, when it comes to the Fox case,” Durbin said.

The Illinois Democrat also said that the government had to be careful in dealing with the balance between protecting the country and preserving constitutional rights.

“It is a constant tension between the government and our freedoms under the Bill of Rights that we see playing out,” Durbin said.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/301999-lindsey-graham-special-prosecutor-needed-in-irs-fox-news-case#ixzz2UQ5Dq2Yn 
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Lois Lerner Might Be In Big Legal Trouble

It couldn't happen to a nicer person! That is our feeling toward Lois Lerner, the lady in charge of denying tax-exempt status to conservative, Tea Party and patriot groups while green lighting progressive and Obama supporting groups. If she is held in contempt, could that exact enough pressure on her to make her flip? Can she be the reason for Obama's downfall? Does she know where her instructions came from? Will the Republicans push hard enough to make this happen?

These are all great questions, unfortunately we cannot predict things in Washington. We would hope that she could be turned into an informant and that she would spill the beans and name names.  If so, maybe we can find out who gave the instructions.

Can the Republicans be depended upon to make the tough decision to go after her or will they wimp out? You tell us what you think.

Conservative Tom

Alan Dershowitz: IRS Chief Lerner 'Can Be Held in Contempt'

Wednesday, 22 May 2013 06:40 PM

By Bill Hoffmann

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Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service’s embattled director of Exempt Organizations, could be held in contempt of court and jailed for refusing to testify before Congress, civil-rights lawyer Alan Dershowitz says.

 

"She's in trouble. She can be held in contempt," Dershowitz told "the Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

"Congress . . . can actually hold you in contempt and put you in the Congressional jail."Lerner, grilled Wednesday on the IRS' targeting of conservative organizations, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination — but not before insisting "I have done nothing wrong." Her brief statement of innocence has opened a legal Pandora's Box, according to Dershowitz.

"You can't simply make statements about a subject and then plead the Fifth in response to questions about the very same subject," the renowned Harvard Law professor said.

"Once you open the door to an area of inquiry, you have waived your Fifth Amendment right . . . you've waived your self-incrimination right on that subject matter."

He said the fact that Lerner went ahead with her proclamation of could be considered malpractice on the part of her attorney — although it's possible she overruled the advice she received.

"It should never have been allowed. She should have been told by her attorney that the law is clear, that once you open up an area of inquiry for interrogation, you have to respond," he said.

"Now she may have made a political decision that it's worth it to take the risk . . . That's just not the way the law works. It may be the way politics works . . . but she can't invoke the Fifth."

He said the issue goes back to the "bad old days" of McCarthyism, during hearings in which suspected Communists were grilled by the House on American Activities Committee and Senate committees.

"[They] tried to trap people by saying, look, you're a Fifth Amendment communist, you won't answer any questions," he said.


"And the people would say we'd love to answer your questions but we can't because if we do, we waive [our rights] and then you'll ask us who our friends are and who else was a member of the Communist Party . . .

"The law is as clear as could be, that once you open up an area of inquiry, you can't shut off the spigot – that's the metaphor that the Supreme Court has used."
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

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IRS Gives Exemptions To Libs

IRS Stalled Conservatives While Giving Liberals a Pass on Tax Exemptions

Wednesday, 15 May 2013 10:50 AM

By Sandy Fitzgerald

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Evidence is mounting that the Internal Revenue Service gave far better treatment to left-wing groups than those on the right, with data showing the agency approved dozens of liberal and progressive organizations as tax-exempt while leaving conservative groups hanging.

No tea party applications were approved in a 27-month period beginning February 2010. But numerous applications from liberal and progressive groups were given tax-exempt status during the same period, USA Today reported.

Some of those approved:

• Bus for Progress, New Jersey nonprofit organization whose mission is to support "progressive politicians with the courage to serve the people's interests and make tough choices." The group, which uses a red, white and blue bus to "drive the progressive change," was approved as a social-welfare group in April 2011.
• Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, approved in September 2011. The group says it fights against corporate welfare and toward increasing the minimum wage.
• Progress Florida, which lobbies the Sunshine State's legislature to expand Medicaid under the provisions of Obamacare, and was approved in January 2011.

The groups, like the tea party organizations, sought tax reductions as social-welfare groups.

The details come at the same time that it was revealed that the IRS expedited tax-exempt status for a charity run by President Barack Obama's half brother, despite numerous questions about how it is run. The application from the Barack H. Obama Foundation was even backdated, The Daily Caller reports.
Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, said the IRS actions show how the Obama administration puts politics ahead of anything else. Last year, Flores filed a complaint after the IRS asked the Waco Tea Party for information that he said was "overreaching and impossible to comply with."

The IRS wanted transcripts of radio interviews, copies of social-media posts, and details on "close relationships" with political candidates as part of the process, claimed Flores, who says that when he asked questions, the agency failed to answer adequately.

"They did more than sidestep the issue," Flores said. "They flipped me the finger."

Lois Lerner, the IRS official responsible for granting tax-exemption status, has admitted the agency was mistaken to subject tea party groups to additional scrutiny and has apologized. But she denies rejecting groups based on ideology, and said some progressive groups also were selected for further scrutiny.

One such group is Action for a Progressive Future, which took 18 months to get approval,USA Today reported. Co-founder Jeff Cohen said he didn't mind answering intrusive questions, so long as they were fair.

"From my perspective, if the IRS can hold up legitimate tea-party applications today and get away with it, then who knows if progressive groups will be held up and specially scrutinized in a few years. It's utterly unacceptable, if that's what happened," he said.

IRS records, obtained by The Daily Caller, show Lerner signed papers granting tax-exempt status to the foundation run by Obama's half brother Abongo "Roy" Malik Obama.

She signed off on the organization's tax status in June 2011 -- right in the middle of the 27-month hiatus for tea-party groups -- and granted it retroactive status within a month of filing.

Action for a Progressive Future has faced legal issues over the past few years.

In the month before the foundation was granted tax-exempt status, the National Legal and Policy Center filed a complaint with the IRS, asking why the group was allowed to solicit tax-deductible contributions when it had not applied for a determination.

That's when Lerner gave it the retroactive exemption back to December 2008.

"The Obama Foundation raised money on its web page by falsely claiming to be tax
deductible. This bogus charity run by Malik had not even applied and yet subsequently got retroactive tax-deductible status," complained Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center. He called the attempt to raise money "common law fraud and potentially even federal mail fraud."

The Obama Foundation was set up ostensibly to help poor children in Kenya, where Roy Obama lives.

However, the Caller says, it has not registered in Virginia, where it is said to be based.

Lerner, a registered Democrat, has been slammed for the IRS handling of conservative
groups, but her colleagues defend her, saying she acts "apolitically."

Larry Noble, FEC general counsel from 1987 to 2000, told The Daily Beast that Lerner "is really one of the more apolitical people I’ve met."

"That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have political views, but she really focuses on the job and what the rules are. She doesn’t have an agenda."


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