Elijah Cummings & Lois Lerner Exchanged Mail Discussing Targeting Conservative Group

[mudwhistle]

Elijah Cummings, the very same Democrat on the committee that is investigating IRS abuses, claiming they are a Republican political witch-hunt, sent out letters that he felt that "True The Vote", a conservative group that is trying to assure that our elections are fair and honest, should be investigated by the IRS.

Yes, the very same Elijah Cummings who threw a temper-tantrum at the end of the last Lois Lerner hearing, when she again took the 5th. This very same Representative has been implicated in an investigation of a conservative group by the IRS.

And he claims this is all just a witch-hunt.

Revelations last week that the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings, was in contact with the IRS in order to target the Texas-based conservatie group True the Vote is just "the tip of a very ugly iceberg" according to the group's president Catherine Engelbrecht,​

Breitbart TV 6 Feb 2014 237


Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote who was targeted by the IRS, FBI and other agencies, filed a formal ethics complaint against Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD). Engelbrecht explained her reasoning on Thursday's "The Kelly File" on the Fox News Channel, accusing the Maryland Democrat of trying to intimidate her by causing the targeting.

Cummings on three separate occasions sent letters with his title on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee stating that he had concerns and felt an investigation should be open on True the Vote. True the Vote's Engelbrecht Files Formal Ethics Complaint Against Rep. Elijah Cummings

BREAKING: Emails Show Lois Lerner Fed True the Vote Tax Information to Democrat Elijah Cummings
Katie Pavlich | Apr 09, 2014

New IRS emails released by the House Oversight Committee show staff working for Democratic Ranking Member Elijah Cummings communicated with the IRS multiple times between 2012 and 2013 about voter fraud prevention group True the Vote. True the Vote was targeted by the IRS after applying for tax exempt status more than two years ago. Further, information shows the IRS and Cummings' staff asked for nearly identical information from True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht about her organization, indicating coordination and improper sharing of confidential taxpayer information.

Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, along with five Subcommittee Chairmen are demanding Cummings provide an explanation for the staff inquiries to the IRS about True the Vote and for his denial that his staff ever contacted the IRS about the group.

“Although you have previously denied that your staff made inquiries to the IRS about conservative organization True the Vote that may have led to additional agency scrutiny, communication records between your staff and IRS officials – which you did not disclose to Majority Members or staff – indicates otherwise,” the letter to Cummings states. “As the Committee is scheduled to consider a resolution holding Ms. Lerner, a participant in responding to your communications that you failed to disclose, in contempt of Congress, you have an obligation to fully explain your staff’s undisclosed contacts with the IRS.”

The first contact between the IRS and Cummings' staffers about True the Vote happened in August 2012. In January 2013, staff asked for more information from the IRS about the group. Former head of tax exempt groups at the IRS Lois Lerner went out of her way to try and get information to Cummings' office.The information Cummings received was not shared with Majority Members on the Committee.

On January 31, Paz sent True the Vote's 990 forms to Cumming's staff.

Up until this point, Rep. Cummings has denied his staff ever contacted the IRS about True the Vote and their activities during Oversight hearings. In fact, on February 6, 2014 during a Subcommittee hearing where Engelbrecht testified, Cummings vehemently denied having any contact or coordination in targeting True the Vote when attorney Cleta Mitchell, who is representing the group, indicated staff on the Committee had been involved in communication with the IRS. This was the exchange:

Ms. Mitchell: We want to get to the bottom of how these coincidences happened, and we’re going to try to figure out whether any – if there was any staff of this committee that might have been involved in putting True the Vote on the radar screen of some of these Federal agencies. We don’t know that, but we – we’re going to do everything we can do to try to get to the bottom of how did this all happen.

Mr. Cummings. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Meadows. Yes.

Mr. Cummings. I want to thank the gentleman for his courtesy. What she just said is absolutely incorrect and not true.​

Links

True the Vote's Engelbrecht Files Formal Ethics Complaint Against Rep. Elijah Cummings

BREAKING: Emails Show Lois Lerner Fed True the Vote Tax Information to Democrat Elijah Cummings - Katie Pavlich

 

[mudwhistle]

Engelbrecht filed a complaint against Cummings in February, charging that he prompted the investigation against True the Vote. Cummings said at the time that those allegations were unequivocally false, but attorney Cleta Mitchell says these new emails back up Engelbrecht's claim.

"Now we find out from these emails released that in fact our request for an investigation really is well placed because [Cummings] was, and his staff, they were having communications with the IRS about True the Vote," said Mitchell, who is representing True the Vote.

Mitchell said the similarities between questions asked of True the Vote by Cummings staffers and IRS officials at separate junctures strongly suggested inappropriate coordination between Cummings and the IRS. Engelbrecht said holding Cummings accountable is important, but the issue goes far beyond him.

"To whatever extent there can be disciplinary action taken, we need to be very serious about taking them, but make no mistake, Elijah Cummings, though very important at this juncture of this discovery in this investigation, is just one of what I believe will be quite an extensive cast of characters that will point to a much vigor, much more orchestrated effort to target and silence private citizens," Engelbrecht said. "He's just one of many."

Mitchell told the "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV, that she was not surprised by the emails about Cummings.

The revelation come two months after Mitchell filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics, seeking a probe of Cummings and his staff to see what role, if any, they played in the targeting of True the Vote and Engelbrecht.

"[Cummings] was very outraged and said that was incorrect, it was not true, and we said, well, we just want an investigation to find out … [He] has been trying to do everything he can to thwart the investigation," Mitchell said.

"Well, guess what? It turns out that when finally … the committee obtains more of [IRS official] Lois Lerner's emails, we find out that, in fact, she was communicating within the IRS about a special request from Cummings' staff saying they had opened their own investigation into True to Vote ...

"He said there was no involvement by him and his staff and that turns out to be a lie."​

http://americanthinker.com/blog/201...he_vote_responds_to_cummings_allegations.html

 

[1776]

Cummings needs to end up in jail where he is ass raped 24/7.

It was clear from the start he was trying to cover up these IRS crimes but it was thought he was doing it for his slave master, Obama, but now it is clear he was doing it to cover up for his own black ass.

 

[mudwhistle]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrY08msuPtM]Dem Rep. Elijah Cummings Explodes after Lois Lerner Pleads the 5th and Hearing is Adjourned - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OxD1VIQNm8]Rep. Elijah Cummings accuses Katherine Engelbrecht and True the Vote of racism - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWIhKbTJ0o4]Catherine Engelbrecht files formal ethics complaint against Elijiah Cummings for intimidation - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVEnpEgOxu4]Congress Democrat Tries to Talk at Tea Party Founder, Rep Jim Jordan in for the Save! - YouTube[/ame]

 

[MACAULAY]

Cummings needs to be in jail. Lois Lerner needs to be in jail. Holder needs to be in jail. Clapper is a perjurer.

And this lady attorney Mitchell sounds like the type of person we need to start getting the malefactors rounded up and incarcerated.

 

[Clementine]

How much longer can the media ignore the blatant signs of corruption in very high places? This is disturbing.

 

[westwall]

How much longer can the media ignore the blatant signs of corruption in very high places? This is disturbing.

They will ignore it till it becomes too dangerous for them. They call themselves the "fourth estate" Look up what that really means, and then you will know why they do what they do.

 

[jillian]

How much longer can the media ignore the blatant signs of corruption in very high places? This is disturbing.

They will ignore it till it becomes too dangerous for them. They call themselves the "fourth estate" Look up what that really means, and then you will know why they do what they do.

ignore what? falsehoods and distortion posted by breitbart's rag?

again, no 501(c)(4) is allowed to engage in political activity.

and again... for the upteenth time... a legitimate 501(c)(4) didn't need permission from the IRS... they only had to file their tax returns.

 

[1776]

When scum like Cummings rant and rave then claim the hearings should be over before key people give their full testimony, it is clear he is part of a cover up.

Why else would Democraps want to stop this investigation if they have nothing to hide....

 

[westwall]

How much longer can the media ignore the blatant signs of corruption in very high places? This is disturbing.

They will ignore it till it becomes too dangerous for them. They call themselves the "fourth estate" Look up what that really means, and then you will know why they do what they do.

ignore what? falsehoods and distortion posted by breitbart's rag?

again, no 501(c)(4) is allowed to engage in political activity.

and again... for the upteenth time... a legitimate 501(c)(4) didn't need permission from the IRS... they only had to file their tax returns.

You're a lawyer Jillian. What laws did Cummings and Lerner break in those emails? I can think of two off the top of my head and I'm not a lawyer. Does MOVEON.ORG qualify? They are a 501 group and they are purely political. Why have they never been investigated?

 

[depotoo]

How much longer can the media ignore the blatant signs of corruption in very high places? This is disturbing.

They will ignore it till it becomes too dangerous for them. They call themselves the "fourth estate" Look up what that really means, and then you will know why they do what they do.

ignore what? falsehoods and distortion posted by breitbart's rag?

again, no 501(c)(4) is allowed to engage in political activity.

and again... for the upteenth time... a legitimate 501(c)(4) didn't need permission from the IRS... they only had to file their tax returns.

Seriously? To receive exemption status they must apply.

 

[1776]

Lerner just releasing private tax information to 3rd parties is a felony.

Add that crime to a political conspiracy to rig an election and later a cover up then it is even worse.

 

[HenryBHough]

They will ignore it till it becomes too dangerous for them. They call themselves the "fourth estate" Look up what that really means, and then you will know why they do what they do.

There no longer is any "fourth estate". All that's left is a fifth column.

 

[westwall]

They will ignore it till it becomes too dangerous for them. They call themselves the "fourth estate" Look up what that really means, and then you will know why they do what they do.

There no longer is any "fourth estate". All that's left is a fifth column.

No, you're wrong. By declaring themselves to be the "fourth estate" they are declaring that they are a part of the ruling class. Look up the Estates General prior to the French Revolution for the origin of the term.

 

[Rozman]

Ahhhh...The plot thickens.
MSNBC will eventually get to it after they spend another few years looking into
"BridgeGate"....... Or after they are sure they took Christie out.

 

[westwall]

Ahhhh...The plot thickens.
MSNBC will eventually get to it after they spend another few years looking into
"BridgeGate"....... Or after they are sure they took Christie out.

Are you sure they're still not looking for who killed Nicole Brown Simpson? Oh, wait a minute...wrong group of scumbags.

 

[LoneLaugher]

Political groups need to pay taxes. Quit whining, bitches.

 

[Howey]

Elijah Cummings, the very same Democrat on the committee that is investigating IRS abuses, claiming they are a Republican political witch-hunt, sent out letters that he felt that "True The Vote", a conservative group that is trying to assure that our elections are fair and honest, should be investigated by the IRS.

Yes, the very same Elijah Cummings who threw a temper-tantrum at the end of the last Lois Lerner hearing, when she again took the 5th. This very same Representative has been implicated in an investigation of a conservative group by the IRS.

And he claims this is all just a witch-hunt.

Revelations last week that the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings, was in contact with the IRS in order to target the Texas-based conservatie group True the Vote is just "the tip of a very ugly iceberg" according to the group's president Catherine Engelbrecht,​

Breitbart TV 6 Feb 2014 237


Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote who was targeted by the IRS, FBI and other agencies, filed a formal ethics complaint against Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD). Engelbrecht explained her reasoning on Thursday's "The Kelly File" on the Fox News Channel, accusing the Maryland Democrat of trying to intimidate her by causing the targeting.

Cummings on three separate occasions sent letters with his title on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee stating that he had concerns and felt an investigation should be open on True the Vote. True the Vote's Engelbrecht Files Formal Ethics Complaint Against Rep. Elijah Cummings

BREAKING: Emails Show Lois Lerner Fed True the Vote Tax Information to Democrat Elijah Cummings
Katie Pavlich | Apr 09, 2014

New IRS emails released by the House Oversight Committee show staff working for Democratic Ranking Member Elijah Cummings communicated with the IRS multiple times between 2012 and 2013 about voter fraud prevention group True the Vote. True the Vote was targeted by the IRS after applying for tax exempt status more than two years ago. Further, information shows the IRS and Cummings' staff asked for nearly identical information from True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht about her organization, indicating coordination and improper sharing of confidential taxpayer information.

Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, along with five Subcommittee Chairmen are demanding Cummings provide an explanation for the staff inquiries to the IRS about True the Vote and for his denial that his staff ever contacted the IRS about the group.

“Although you have previously denied that your staff made inquiries to the IRS about conservative organization True the Vote that may have led to additional agency scrutiny, communication records between your staff and IRS officials – which you did not disclose to Majority Members or staff – indicates otherwise,” the letter to Cummings states. “As the Committee is scheduled to consider a resolution holding Ms. Lerner, a participant in responding to your communications that you failed to disclose, in contempt of Congress, you have an obligation to fully explain your staff’s undisclosed contacts with the IRS.”

The first contact between the IRS and Cummings' staffers about True the Vote happened in August 2012. In January 2013, staff asked for more information from the IRS about the group. Former head of tax exempt groups at the IRS Lois Lerner went out of her way to try and get information to Cummings' office.The information Cummings received was not shared with Majority Members on the Committee.

On January 31, Paz sent True the Vote's 990 forms to Cumming's staff.

Up until this point, Rep. Cummings has denied his staff ever contacted the IRS about True the Vote and their activities during Oversight hearings. In fact, on February 6, 2014 during a Subcommittee hearing where Engelbrecht testified, Cummings vehemently denied having any contact or coordination in targeting True the Vote when attorney Cleta Mitchell, who is representing the group, indicated staff on the Committee had been involved in communication with the IRS. This was the exchange:

Ms. Mitchell: We want to get to the bottom of how these coincidences happened, and we’re going to try to figure out whether any – if there was any staff of this committee that might have been involved in putting True the Vote on the radar screen of some of these Federal agencies. We don’t know that, but we – we’re going to do everything we can do to try to get to the bottom of how did this all happen.

Mr. Cummings. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Meadows. Yes.

Mr. Cummings. I want to thank the gentleman for his courtesy. What she just said is absolutely incorrect and not true.​

Links

True the Vote's Engelbrecht Files Formal Ethics Complaint Against Rep. Elijah Cummings

BREAKING: Emails Show Lois Lerner Fed True the Vote Tax Information to Democrat Elijah Cummings - Katie Pavlich

First: What's this got to do with Cumming's rightful rant against IRS convention spending?

Second: If any group is deserving of scrutiny by the IRS for illegally registering as a tax exempt non profit, it would be True the Vote.

I honestly applaud Rep. Cummings for this action.

A right-wing voter vigilante group, TrueTheVote, may be pushing their anti-democratic agenda into illegal territory in Ohio by interfering with that state’s official poll worker training regimen one week before the 2012 presidential election.

In recent weeks, the Texas-based group, with many local affiliates drawn from Tea Party ranks, has been urging poll workers in key Ohio counties—primarily Republicans—to supplement their official state training with TrueTheVote materials. These Election Day workers are not the observers chosen by political parties who can watch but not interfere with voting; they are the people who are drawn from both parties and employed by the state to run the voting process.

“A few weeks back it was reported that TrueTheVote had talked about doing trainings,” said Brian Rothenberg, ProgressOhio Executive Director. “It appears that some offshoot of the Tea Party is now training elections workers in Hamilton County and we’re starting to hear that it’s happening in other counties, and that requests are being made for lists of poll workers throughout Ohio—to provide extra training.”

It is a crime in Ohio to interfere with conducting an election. Moreover, after the 2004 presidential election the state signed a federal consent decree that, among other things, established uniform poll worker training. Whether TrueTheVote’s interference with the state’s official trainings violates these legal standards has not been tested in court.

But the possibility that the group might be urging poll workers to use different standards other than what’s prescribed by the state is disturbing, said Dan Tokaji, an election law professor at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law.

True the vote - SourceWatch

True the Vote claims to be nonpartisan, but began as an outgrowth of the King Street Patriots a nonprofit tea party organization mostly active in Texas. Several members of the King Street Patriots, including their president Catherine Englebrecht, were dissatisfied with the voting process in Harris County Texas during the 2008 election, especially the shortage of poll workers, which they believed "invited fraud and other problems at the polls." [6] During the 2010 election season, True the Vote trained over a thousand volunteers to monitor elections in Texas.

What's next? Will James O'Keefe be applying for 501c (3) status?

 

[depotoo]

Political groups need to pay taxes. Quit whining, bitches.

Never heard you complaining about acorn not paying any.

 

[Howey]

More from Source Watch:

On May 21, 2013, True the Vote filed a complaint [3] against the Internal Revenue Service to "force a decision in court" of whether its 3-year-pending application for 501(c)3 tax-exempt status should be approved. [33] This complaint arose from the IRS pattern of targeting organizations containing the words "Tea Party" or "patriot," which the IRS claimed was a method of centralizing a large influx of nonprofit applications between 2010 and 2012. [34] While the IRS did admit that mistakes were made in the categorization and review process, it is likely that True the Vote has rightly been scrutinized since its inception in 2010. [35] Many media sources identify 2012 as the year when targeted IRS investigations and abuses occurred, but True the Vote's status has been questioned since its inception in 2010. [36] While a 501(c)4 Tea Party group, such as the King Street Patriots may engage in some political activity, a 501(c)3 status is an absolute bar against any campaign or partisan activity. [37]

So, basically what this boils down to is you're bitching now that the IRS b.