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Friday, January 30, 2015

DENNIS PATRICK: CONTINUING IRS SCANDAL

Following the Christmas postal rush of cards and packages the Post Office is back on the job handling a flood of tax related information in preparation for the April 15 tax filing deadline.

For many Americans the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is one of the most feared agencies of the federal government. It is the political appointees and upper echelon bureaucrats rather than the GS-5 through GS-12 worker-bees that impose a reign of terror on the American people. The IRS has power and authority over people and organizations that far exceed any other federal agency.

The IRS works for President Barack Hussein Obama. Within the purview of the law, the IRS will do the bidding of Obama, or members of his staff in his name. But why should the White House abide by the law if it hinders their political objectives? Therein lays the root of the IRS scandal.

There is overwhelming evidence that the IRS, prior to the 2012 presidential election, targeted and retaliated against conservative organizations and individuals that posed a threat to the president’s re-election campaign. For more than two years prior to June 2012 not a single Tea Party-type organization received tax exempt status. Documents show that, of the IRS non-profit targets, 75% were conservative while only 5% were liberal. Judicial Watch played a lead role in obtaining evidence surrounding the IRS scandal through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. It has been a long, slow effort while the IRS delayed and obstructed the search for evidence. Ultimately, District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan for the District of Columbia issued orders to the IRS in July and August 2014 to honor the FOIA requests.

The IRS and Department of Justice (DOJ) colluded against conservative groups. IRS e-mails clearly show Lois Lerner, then Director of Exempt Organizations for the IRS, was tracking the increasing number of Tea Party groups. The e-mails list “Be-on-the-Lookout” criteria the IRS used to identify conservative groups for special scrutiny. Furthermore, the e-mails show that Lerner was being pressured by Obama’s Federal Elections Commission (FEC) to use the power of the IRS to prosecute conservative non-profit groups who disagreed with the Obama administration. The IRS e-mails reveal details about cooperation between the IRS and the DOJ to prosecute uncooperative non-profit groups. This idea was proposed by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

IRS collected conservative organizations’ donor lists and hid their illegal use in conducting “research.” E-mails reveal the IRS inappropriately obtained donor lists in response to IRS questionnaires requesting additional “information” from conservative non-profit applicants. Donor lists were then used in an IRS “secret research project.” Other e-mails indicate Lerner was nervous about allowing her assistant to talk to an investigator from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). She was concerned the IRS scandal would be exposed.

IRS headquarters in Washington, DC directed the targeting of the Tea Party organization. A letter from Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) came to light aggressively pushing for more targeting of conservative groups including such organizations as the Club for Growth and the 60 Plus Association. E-mails from a California IRS branch office updated the IRS Headquarters in Washington, DC about an active Tea Party case file. This ties the IRS Headquarters to Tea Party targeting.

Lois Lerner and the IRS conspired with attorneys of the FEC to thwart conservative organizations that opposed the Obama administration. Exchanges of e-mails show that enforcement attorneys from the FEC asked Lois Lerner for confidential tax information about conservative groups. Yet another set of e-mails confirms the FEC received detailed, confidential information concerning tax status and returns of conservative groups. This is a serious violation of federal law. It illustrates how the IRS and FEC were working together to cripple conservative opponents of the Obama administration.

Keep IRS abuse information in mind during this tax season. Also, remember the expanded enforcement authority given the IRS under Obamacare. Finally, observe carefully the legislation acted upon by our Senators and Congressmen regarding Obamacare.

As one attorney recently observed, “…any government big enough to take care of all of us is big enough to destroy any one of us.”

 

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

 

Click here to email your elected representatives.

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