Secret Service Breach Of Civil Rights In Nashville. If This Is The Way The Service Works, It Should Be Dissolved.

VIDEO: Secret Service Agents Try to Enter a Man’s House with a FAKE Search Warrant

October 16, 2014 By Greg Campbell

There is a legal method by which law enforcement can barge into our homes; it is called a search warrant. We, as Americans, do not have an absolute right to privacy in all instances; law enforcement officers must go to a judge and demonstrate probable cause in order to intrude upon a private citizen’s life and home. When that burden has been met, police may proceed.

 

It’s a simple concept with many nuances. However, what police aren’t allowed to do is enter a premises without permission from the occupant or the judicial branch. And they sure as heck aren’t allowed to fake a search warrant.

However, that is, reportedly, exactly what the Secret Service sought to do in Nashville, Tennessee.

According to Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson, Secret Service agents were recently thwarted in an attempt to enter the house of a man suspected of making inappropriate comments online about President Obama. When the man knew his rights and refused the agents entry, they turned to the police chief and asked him to fake a search warrant.

When Secret Service agents working out of the Nashville office asked to enter the premises of a man accused of making inappropriate comments online about Barack Obama, the man refused and slammed the door in his face. The agents then called local law enforcement for back-up. The Nashville Police arrived and informed the agents that the man inside, who may or may not have been armed, is a registered gun owner, had not broken any laws, and that they would need a search warrant to investigate inside the house.

According to Chief Anderson in a scathing letter to the House Committee on Oversight, “one of the agents then asked a [Nashville police] sergeant to ‘wave a piece of paper’ in an apparent effort to dupe the resident into thinking that they indeed had a warrant.”

Apparently, Nashville’s finest takes their oaths seriously and plainly refused to do anything of the sort.

However, Chief Anderson demanded accountability. He contacted then-Secret Service Director Julia Pierson and Assistant Director A.T. Smith in order to get answers. Pierson never got back to him and Smith offered a snide tone and told Anderson to, essentially, mind his own business.

Chief Anderson then went to the Secret Service office and demanded answers. In his letter to the House Committee, Anderson writes, 

“Certainly, nothing was resolved in our meeting. The supervisor made it clear that my complaint was not well received. Seeing that was not going to receive any assurance that similar conduct would not occur again in the future, I asked the following questions:

Do you think it is appropriate to wave a piece of paper in the air and tell him you have a warrant when you do not have a warrant?

Answer: ‘Don’t know. l’m not a lawyer.’

If it is a good idea to wave the paper in the air and tell him it is a warrant, why didn’t your agent do it instead of directing a Metropolitan Nashville police officer to wave the paper?

Answer: ‘Wasn’t there. You will have to ask him.’” 

These reports are simply outrageous and indicative of the kind of attitude that has become commonplace within the federal law enforcement environment.

As the NSA, the IRS and the CIA continue to tap, bug, investigate and harass any citizens they want for a wide variety of obscene reasons, it seems clear why trust in the federal government has plunged so low.

If there is to be any silver lining in this story, it is that it serves as a refreshing reminder that while so many police officers and federal agents feel that it is acceptable to betray their oaths to protect and serve, there remains dedicated officers to whom their oaths are a bond.

No Wonder Dems Want To Shut Down IRS Investigation!

IRS EMPLOYEES 'DONATING TO DEMOCRATS' PROBING SCANDAL

Tea party lawyer spotlights motivation for hindering investigation

Published: 13 hours ago

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Cleta Mitchell

The lead attorney representing tea-party groups accusing the IRS of politically motivated discrimination claims Democrats on the Republican-led committee investigating the scandal, who are trying to shut down the probe, have received campaign donations from IRS employees.

Cleta Mitchell, who testified Wednesday to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, pointed out to Fox News Channel’s Bill Hemmer that IRS employees belong to the National Treasury Employees Union, which has directed 94 percent of its contributions to Democrats this election cycle.

The union, she said, has given to 11 of the 18 Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

“And, every time there is a hearing on any aspect of this investigation about the IRS targeting,” Mitchell said, “the Democrats come in one by one and say the same thing over and over again. ‘Let’s shut this down. Let’s shut this down.’”

Mitchell said the Democrats need to be held accountable for obstructing the investigation.

“They were involved in starting this, and now they are trying to stop the investigation,” she said.

Mitchell said new information confirms the former head of the tax-exempt organizations division, Lois Lerner, who has refused to testify to Congress, was working with Democrats “to go after and silence these groups.”

As WND reported, Mitchell testified Wednesday to the House panel that the only solution to the IRS abuses against conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status is to repeal the 16th Amendment, end the income tax and close down the IRS.

“The IRS is such a corrupt, rotten and broken agency that it cannot be repaired,” she said.

Mitchell told the panel she is convinced the IRS has used Federal Election Commission filings of political contributions to go after individuals who contributed to Gov. Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.

“The IRS is lying when IRS officials testify there is no targeting going on to the disadvantage of conservative politicians and conservative groups,” she told members of Congress.

Under questioning by the members of the committee, Mitchell explained that in her decades representing organizations seeking tax-favored status, it was only recently, under the Obama administration, that her applications for conservative groups began being delayed for months and submitted to heavy scrutiny.

“Tea-party groups under the Obama administration were quarantined to an IRS office in Cincinnati where they were scrutinized for a period of years, and some have yet to get a determination,” she explained.

She contended the IRS achieved its desired “chilling effect” by harassing conservative groups applying for tax-favored status while giving a quick green light to progressive groups making similar applications.

“The IRS was looking to target any group that had ‘tea party’ mentioned in its name. The word ‘progressive’ was mentioned in some IRS targeting reports, but what IRS agents were instructed to do when ‘tea party’ was seen or when ‘progressive’ was seen involved two very different standards of scrutiny,” said Mitchell.

She was asked if a pattern of IRS stonewalling and lying to Congress justified the appointment of a special prosecutor.

“I don’t think there is any question there should be a special prosecutor,” Mitchell answered. “The problem is that the longer Congress waits, the harder will be the investigation, in part because of the spoilage of evidence over time.”

The Democratic members of the committee pressed the theme that the IRS also targeted progressive groups, though little support for that argument was received from the witnesses.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the Oversight Committee, in his opening statement noted the committee had asked Democrats to suggest witnesses to testify in Wednesday’s hearing but no names had been forthcoming.

Sounds To Us That Lerner Was A Loose Cannon That Could Not Be Counted On To Toe The IRS Line! We Definitely Need To Hear Her Story.

IRS Emails: Lerner Too 'Unpredictable' to Testify in Probe

Tuesday, 11 Mar 2014 06:51 AM

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Lois Lerner, who oversaw the U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s scrutiny of tea party groups, was looking for someone from every branch of government to help resolve the issue that eventually cost her job.
In emails being released today by a congressional committee, Lerner wondered why Congress wasn’t getting more criticism, hoped that the Federal Election Commission would "save the day" and wrote that political nonprofit groups "itching for a constitutional challenge" might file a court case that leads the IRS to accelerate the release of specific information about groups denied tax-exempt status.

The emails are part of a 141-page report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The panel is building a case designed to lead to a vote to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer the committee’s questions and for providing false and misleading information in prior questioning.
"She led efforts to scrutinize conservative groups while working to maintain a veneer of objective enforcement," the report said of Lerner. "Her unwillingness to testify deprives Congress the opportunity to have her explain her conduct, hear her response to personal criticisms levied by her IRS co-workers, and provide vital context regarding the actions of other IRS officials."
Lerner has refused to answer lawmakers’ questions, twice invoking her constitutional right not to testify.
Microphones Cut
When she did that March 5, Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, a California Republican, adjourned the hearing and cut off the microphones before Democrats could speak. Issa later apologized.
"As we have said, the majority has no interest in the facts," William Taylor, Lerner’s attorney, said in an email Monday night. "The facts interfere with keeping the conspiracy theory alive through the election cycle."
Lerner was the IRS’s director of exempt organizations until last year, overseeing the enforcement of rules that limit political involvement by nonprofits that seek tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code. In response to a question last May at a tax conference, she said the IRS had singled out groups for extra scrutiny based solely on their names, including those related to the anti-tax tea party.
That disclosure led to multiple congressional investigations, which are still continuing, along with a Justice Department criminal probe.
President Barack Obama forced out the acting IRS commissioner, Steven Miller. Several other senior officials, including Lerner, left the tax agency.
Politically Motivated
Republicans contend that Lerner’s actions were part of a pattern of politically motivated steps.
Democrats counter that some groups supporting their party were also scrutinized and that Republicans haven’t produced evidence of political motivation.
The report includes some previously unreleased information, including emails showing that Lerner was trying to figure out her eligibility for retirement benefits in January 2013, more than three months before she disclosed the agency’s actions.
The emails show that Lerner was considering retiring effective Oct. 1, 2013. Her retirement, which followed a suspension, was effective Sept. 23.
The report also quotes a senior IRS official, Nikole Flax, telling congressional investigators that Lerner was too "emotional" and "unpredictable" to be an effective witness at a July 2012 congressional hearing on tax-exempt groups. Flax was chief of staff to Miller, the acting commissioner.
Contempt Case
The committee is attempting to build a case for contempt of Congress by showing that Lerner provided what the committee called false or misleading information. Such actions could also be grounds for criminal charges.
For example, on Feb. 24, 2012, she told committee staff members that the criteria for evaluating applications hadn’t changed. She also told the committee in May 2012 that questions the groups had received were ordinary, a contention the IRS rejected in 2013 when it said some questions were inappropriate.
The report also mentions her use of a personal email address in apparent violation of IRS policy and accuses her of disclosing confidential taxpayer information.
The report portrays Lerner as having an agenda in line with Democrats and concentrating enforcement on Republican-leaning groups.
Email Chain
It highlights a September 2010 email chain — after the first tea party groups had been selected for extra scrutiny — in which Lerner wrote that the IRS should focus on 501(c)(4) groups because of concerns aired in news articles that groups were being set up to engage in politics.
"We need to have a plan," she wrote. "We need to be cautious so it isn’t a per se political project. More of a c4 project that will look at levels of lobbying and pol. activity along with exempt activity."
The report shows her staff circulating news stories about their work, including a Politico article in October 2012 that was critical of the IRS’s enforcement of rules governing political nonprofits.
Lerner responded in an email: "I never understand why they don’t go after Congress to change the law!"
Lerner’s "save the day" reference, which had been previously disclosed, was her response to a National Public Radio story in 2012 about Senate Democrats’ complaint to the FEC that politically oriented nonprofits were violating election law.
Clumsy Enforcement
Officials from the IRS and the Obama administration have said their actions weren’t politically motivated.
Instead, they said, the agency was clumsily enforcing the law. Groups organized under section 501(c)(4) must be operated "exclusively" for promoting social welfare. The IRS has interpreted that to mean that groups can’t be primarily political.
Because 501(c)(4) groups don’t have to disclose their donors, that status is an attractive vehicle for anonymous involvement in politics by donors to groups such as Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, coordinated by Karl Rove, a former political aide to President George W. Bush.
The IRS is considering rules that would broaden the definition of political activity and disqualify social welfare groups from being tax-exempt.

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