Tea Party groups that were targeted by IRS are called to testify

[Valin]

The Hill:

 

 

Bernie Becker

05/29/13

 

The House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday will hear testimony from some of the conservative groups that received extra scrutiny from the IRS.

 

The hearing is the first scheduled with Tea Party groups, and the fifth in general focusing on the IRSs targeting of groups seeking tax-exempt status. Ways and Means held the first hearing on the issue on May 17 and is now scheduled to be the first to hold multiple hearings on the matter.

 

Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.), in the announcement on the hearing, made clear that lawmakers still have plenty of questions about how and why the targeting happened, and who authorized it.

[Valin]

Comments

 

 

WeToldYouSo 4 hours ago

 

I can't wait to hear these numbskulls 'splainin' how they were seeking tax-exempt status for political-action organizations in violation of the IRS's rules. This oughta be fun. Bring it on.

 

 

Dick Fox WeToldYouSo 4 hours ago

 

They will and you won't find it so funny when Precious is nailed.

 

 

Cathy WeToldYouSo 3 hours ago

 

You don't get it do you? This time the IRS was targeting conservative groups, that's already been admitted to, but the targeting itself is what is so alarming. The IRS is the largest most powerful agency in our nation with its hands into every citizen's daily life, when such an agency decides to choose targets they cease to serve the people and become very dangerous.

 

You no doubt would have a cow if the groups being targeted were the liberals.

 

"This oughta be fun"? Seriously? While we on the right should be dancing in the streets that the administration is finally being shown to be every bit as inept and corrupt as we tried to tell everyone it was instead we're focusing on the absolute illegal acts emanating from the administration right now and stopping the damage from getting any worse.

 

You on the left should be scared, we might just follow the trails of all the current scandals all the way to the White House.

 

PS- The EPA is next on the list of obama scandals. Watch for it.

[NCTexan]

Did they have a DHS armed squad around these dangerous Tea Party types while they were allowed into the Capitol?

 

I would hope so... They are prone to violent behavior as demonstrated by their past actions.

[Valin]

http://youtu.be/wzuEOr2D8wo

[Valin]

House questioning IRS staffers in Ohio

Bernie Becker

05/30/13

 

House lawmakers are intensifying their investigation into the IRSs targeting of conservative groups, congressional sources said.

Investigators from the House Ways and Means and Oversight committees were interviewing two staffers from the IRSs Cincinnati office this week as the panels seek information about how and why the targeting began, according to an aide.

 

(Snip)

 

The two panels have already interviewed Holly Paz, a Washington official in the IRSs exempt organizations division. Along with Paz, House Oversight requested two weeks ago that four staffers in Cincinnati Joseph Herr, Liz Hofacre, Gary Muthert and John Shafer also be made available.

 

(Snip)

 

At least two of the interviews will happen before Ways and Means holds its second hearing on the matter on Tuesday potentially giving committee members added information ahead of the testimony from conservative groups who faced the extra scrutiny from the IRS.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Former IRS chief Shulman reportedly visited White House at least 157 times

5/30/13

 

The former head of the IRS visited the White House more times than any Cabinet member, according to an analysis by The Daily Caller, raising questions about the nature of those visits -- particularly around the time the agency was targeting conservative groups.

 

The Caller analysis of White House visitor logs showed former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman visited the White House at least 157 times under the Obama administration.

 

Even Attorney General Eric Holder, one of Obama's closest allies, visited only 62 times according to the records.

 

(Snip)

 

 

I guess Eric is not a fan of Easter Egg Rolls.

[Draggingtree]

Troubling stories about IRS continue to mount

The Oklahoman Editorial | Published: May 30, 2013

 

THE story of Catherine Englebrecht of Richmond, Texas, should put to rest any suggestion that the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups was simply the work of overzealous or confused low-level staffers in Cincinnati. It's a story that should give the willies to any American, regardless of political bent.

 

Engelbrecht and her husband own a small manufacturing business. Through the years, Engelbrecht developed an interest in public policy. She acted on it by forming two groups, called True the Vote and King Street Patriots. The former seeks to ensure the integrity of elections by, among other things, working to clear voting rolls of people who have died.

 

In July 2010, Engelbrecht sought tax-exempt status from the IRS — and her world started to get turned upside down because, as Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan put it, “The U.S. government came down on her with full force.”

 

In December of that year, the FBI came to her home

http://newsok.com/troubling-stories-about-irs-continue-to-mount/article/3836594

[Draggingtree]

Wednesday, May 29, 2013 EXCLUSIVE: Lerner intrigue goes back to '96 Durbin/Salvi U.S. Senate race

CHICAGO - The IRS scandal may have its roots in Illinois politics. Specifically, the 1996 U.S. Senate race between Democrat Congressman Dick Durbin and conservative Republican State Rep. Al Salvi.

 

More than a decade before his 2010 letter to IRS officials urging the agency to target conservative organizations, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin's political career crossed paths with Ms. Lerner when she was head of the Enforcement Division of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), and directly involved in the 1996 Illinois U.S. Senate race.

 

Nearly four years and a hundred thousand dollars in legal fees later, federal judge George Lindbergh dismissed the FEC case against him, leaving the FEC attorney Lois Lerner -- who was present and actively arguing before the judge -- shocked.

 

"The judge said to Lerner, 'Let me get this straight - Mr. Salvi loaning himself money is legal, and you have no complaint against that, is that right?'" Salvi said. "Ms. Lerner agreed. Then the judge said, 'You just don't like the way his attorneys filled out the report?' Lerner agreed."

Case dismissed, the judge said shaking his head and pounding his gavel, as Lerner objected.\

 

"We never lose!" Lerner said to Salvi afterwards

 

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2013/05/lerner-intrigue-goes-back-to-96-durbinsalvi-us-senate-race.html

[Draggingtree]

Posted on Thursday, May 30, 2013

IRS may have targeted conservatives more broadly

By David Lightman and Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON A group of anti-abortion activists in Iowa had to promise the Internal Revenue Service it wouldn’t picket in front of Planned Parenthood.

 

Catherine Engelbrecht’s family and business in Texas were audited by the government after her voting-rights group sought tax-exempt status from the IRS.

 

Retired military veteran Mark Drabik of Nebraska became active in and donated to conservative causes, then found the IRS challenging his church donations.

 

While the developing scandal over the targeting of conservatives by the tax agency has largely focused to date on its scrutiny of groups with words such as “tea party” or “patriot” in their names

Sue Martinek of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, already knows what happened to her and others involved in the Coalition for Life of Iowa.

 

She first sought tax-exempt status for the group in 2008, maintaining contact by mail and phone with a woman identified only as Ms. Richards in the Cincinnati office of the IRS that’s now at the center of the scandal

 

The story is similar for Christian Voices for Life of Fort Bend County, an anti-abortion group in suburban Houston.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/05/30/192616/irs-may-have-targeted-conservatives.html#.UaiGMECze-0

[Valin]

Former IRS chief Shulman reportedly visited White House at least 157 times

5/30/13

 

Troubling stories about IRS continue to mount

The Oklahoman Editorial | Published: May 30, 2013

 

 

 

[Valin]

IRS promoted signatory on threatening letters?

Ed Morrissey

5/31/13

 

First, let’s start with Investors Business Daily’s two-time Pultizer Prize winning editorial cartoonist, Michael Ramirez, who sets the table on the political corruption in the IRS with one clear image that speaks volumes:

 

Now, that may seem a little harsh. How can one accuse the IRS of acting like gangsters when muscling groups on the basis of their politics? Well, when the bullies get promoted rather than fired, that’s certainly one good indicator:

 

President Obama may have promised “to hold the responsible parties accountable” for the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative non-profit groups, but one of the agents at the center of the scandal was recently promoted, an IRS source tells The Washington Examiner.

 

Through 2012, then-Exempt Organization Specialist Stephen Seok signed many of the intimidating letters sent to conservative nonprofits. For example, this January 2012 letter sent to the Richmond Tea Party demanded the date, time and location of all group events, as well as copies of all handouts provided at the events, and the names and credentials of all organizers. Seok also demanded the names of all speakers and the contents of the speeches they made.

 

According to WXIX-TV/Fox 19 in Cincinnati, Seok is no longer an exempt organization specialist. He has since been promoted to “supervisor IRS agent.”

(Snip)

 

 

________________________________________________________

 

Also some...interesting background on everyone's favorite IRS agent Lovely Lois Lerner.

[clearvision]

The Lerner background while she was at the FEC in the HotAir link is very interesting.

[Pepper]

The Lerner background while she was at the FEC in the HotAir link is very interesting.

 

 

It sure is, here is the link on it

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2013/05/lerner-intrigue-goes-back-to-96-durbinsalvi-us-senate-race.html

[Valin]

 

The Lerner background while she was at the FEC in the HotAir link is very interesting.

 

It sure is, here is the link on it

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2013/05/lerner-intrigue-goes-back-to-96-durbinsalvi-us-senate-race.html

 

Despite all the Democrats' efforts, Salvi never paid the FEC a dollar in fines or penalties.

No, just hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. And people wonder why so many good people don't run for political office? He ya go.

[Valin]

[Draggingtree]

First on CNN: IRS collects docs from 88 employees in investigation

 

Posted by

CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash

Updated 5:49 p.m. ET Friday 5/31

Washington (CNN) – The Internal Revenue Service has told House GOP investigators they have identified 88 IRS employees who may have documents relevant to the congressional investigation into targeting of conservative groups, according to a congressional source familiar with the investigation.

The IRS asked these employees to preserve all the "responsive documents" on their computers, and it has been in the process of collecting it all to comply with congressional requests for information. The IRS missed its May 21st deadline to turn over documents to the House Ways and Means Committee. snip

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/31/first-on-cnn-irs-collects-docs-from-88-employees-in-investigation/