Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
The House Oversight Committee's investigation of the IRS is at an inflection point. The president's congressional supporters realize that the administration's version of the agency's targeting of conservative nonprofits seeking tax-exempt statussuch as blaming local officials in the Cincinnati office or claiming that liberal groups were victimized along with conservative groupsis nonsense. Instead of debating the substance, they have resorted to procedural antics and misleading rhetoric.
I have spent a considerable amount of time and energy on the investigationwhich included 38 daylong interviews of IRS and Treasury employees ranging from line employees in Cincinnati to the IRS commissioner to the chief of staff of the U.S. Treasury. The real news has been revealed at the Lois Lerner hearing on March 5 and in the report of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on March 11: "Lois Lerner's Involvement in the IRS Targeting of Tax-Exempt Organizations."
The evidence brought to light in that hearing and report completely discredited Ms. Lerner's claims about her involvement in what went on. It also eviscerated the notion that liberal and conservative groups were targeted.
When Ms. Lerner appeared before Congress in May 2013, she made this statement: "I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations." But Ms. Lerner, we discovered, forwarded confidential taxpayer information to her personal email account in early May 2013, which is a violation of IRS rules. About the infamous "Be on the Lookout" targeting lista document used to identify conservative groups for additional scrutinyshe told Congress that the criteria for screening tax-exempt groups for extra scrutiny never changed. In fact, she personally ordered it changed in July 2011 according to documents and testimony received by the committee.
Ms. Lerner was most certainly driven by politics. One email of June 11, 2011, shows that she directed her subordinate to focus on the issues surrounding the application of Karl Rove's group, Crossroads GPS. In another email of Feb. 1, 2011, she frets about the Supreme Court "overturning the ban on corporate spending" as it applies to nonprofits. (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission also overturned the ban on union political spending, but she expressed no concern about that.)
Emails and testimony that we confronted Ms. Lerner with showed her saying that the tea party is "very dangerous," ordering a "multitiered review" (read: delay) of the cases, and managing the optics of her operation so it would not be revealed as a political project.
Mr. Chairman, I counted 17 separate factual assertions by Ms. Lerner not those three little sentences that my colleagues like to cite 17 separate factual assertions. That is a lot of talking for somebody who wants to remain silent. Thats a lot of talking, Gowdy said. If you honestly believe that you can make 17 separate factual assertions and still invoke your right to remain silent, then please tell me what waiver is. Please tell me what constitutes waiver if saying 17 separate factual things does not, Gowdy added. Thursdays meeting was convened to consider a resolution to hold Lerner, former IRS director of exempt organizations, in contempt of Congress.
As CNSNews.com reported on May 22, 2013, Lerner pled the Fifth after issuing an opening statement, in which she said: As director, I'm responsible for about 900 employees nationwide and administering a budget of almost $100 million. My professional career has been devoted to fulfilling responsibilities of the agencies for which I have worked, and I am very proud of the work that I have done in government. On May 14, the Treasury Inspector-General released a report finding that the exempt organizations field office in Cincinnati, Ohio used inappropriate criteria to identify for further review applications from orgs that planned to engage in pol activity, which may mean that they did not qualify for tax exemption. On that same day, the dept of justice launched an investigation into the matters described in the inspector-general's report, Lerner said at the time.
In addition, members of this committee have accused me of providing false information when I responded to questions about the IRS processing of applications for tax exemption, Lerner said. I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee. And while I would very much like to answer the committee's questions today, I've been advised by my counsel to assert my constitutional right not to testify or answer questions related to the subject matter of this hearing, Lerner added.
After very careful consideration, I have decided to follow my counsel's advice and not testify or answer any of the questions today. Because I'm asserting my right not to testify, I know that some people will assume that I've have done something wrong. I have not. One of the basic functions of the Fifth Amend is to protect innocent individuals, and that is the protection I'm invoking today, she concluded. Mr. Chairman, she testified, I have done nothing wrong. Ive broken no laws. Ive broken no IRS rules or regulations. Thats her testimony. What Im saying is we should have the right to cross-examine her on that testimony, Gowdy said.
MORE
"This is the first time in her life she has ever filed income taxes, after earning all of $1,800 stocking products on grocery store shelves," Hankins said. "I did her taxes for her online, but immediately she got the rejection." Thieves have claimed billions of dollars in bogus tax refunds from the IRS by swiping the Social Security numbers and identities of schoolchildren in Florida, prisoners in Pennsylvania, teachers in Washington state and soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hackers and employees with access to thousands of names stored in company databases have tapped into reams of personal information, allowing them to submit hundreds of fraudulent returns by computer and receive refunds within days. Five people in Cincinnati were sentenced to prison late last year for using the names of employees at nursing homes and hospitals to file tax returns. It all adds up to a lot of frustration for legitimate taxpayers who face more paperwork and months of waiting for their tax refunds.
Hankins was told her daughter Claire, a college student from West Milwaukee, Wis., would get her refund in about six months. But Hankins first had to spend about 20 hours filling out forms, gathering information and photocopying documents because she couldn't file electronically after the tax identity theft was discovered in February. "Some kids get to go to Florida for spring break, but she got to go to the West Milwaukee police station to file a theft report," said Hankins, who added that her daughter is worried about what will happen next now that her personal information is out there.
The IRS paid out nearly $4 billion to people using stolen identities in 2012, according to a government report. Since identity theft fraud exploded over the past three years, the agency has made stopping it a priority, but thieves are becoming more aggressive and still finding ways to get around increased scrutiny. "It's like that game of Whac-A-Mole. When you're attacking one scheme, they come up with another," said Wifredo Ferrer, the U.S. attorney in South Florida, a hot spot for the schemes.
Fraudulent filers have evaded detection lately by getting refunds loaded onto prepaid debit cards instead of receiving them by check. Others have robbed postal workers to get refunds and even recruited mail carriers to take part, Ferrer said. A former records clerk in Alabama's prisons department was charged in January with selling inmates' personal information to claim over $1 million in refunds. Three others were sentenced to prison for taking part, including a mail carrier who stole the refunds from the mail. "They're getting very creative by using people in the inside," Ferrer said. "They're creative and brazen. They're using the IRS like their own ATM."
MORE
what scandal?
you aren't allowed to be tax exempt and engage in politicing under 501(c)(4)
but keep whining.... it's awesome
what scandal?
you aren't allowed to be tax exempt and engage in politicing under 501(c)(4)
but keep whining.... it's awesome
what scandal?
you aren't allowed to be tax exempt and engage in politicing under 501(c)(4)
but keep whining.... it's awesome
More bullshit from a liar. Here is something you are probably to stupid to understand: UPON CLOSE READING OF THE LINK PROVIDED YOU WILL FIND THAT NOT ONE RIGHT WING GROUP SEEKING TAX EXEMPT STATUS THAT WAS DENIED WAS LISTED. NOT ONE! In other words, you are bitching about the IRS doing their job and checking organization who applied for tax free status before those organizations were GRANTED tax free status.Rep Jordan writes an excellent case laying out the reasons for a special prosecutor. Lerner needs to be held in contempt. The investigation needs to be yanked from the partisan mitts of Eric Holder and Co.
Jim Jordan: A Special Prosecutor for the IRS - WSJ.com
More at the source.The House Oversight Committee's investigation of the IRS is at an inflection point. The president's congressional supporters realize that the administration's version of the agency's targeting of conservative nonprofits seeking tax-exempt statussuch as blaming local officials in the Cincinnati office or claiming that liberal groups were victimized along with conservative groupsis nonsense. Instead of debating the substance, they have resorted to procedural antics and misleading rhetoric.
I have spent a considerable amount of time and energy on the investigationwhich included 38 daylong interviews of IRS and Treasury employees ranging from line employees in Cincinnati to the IRS commissioner to the chief of staff of the U.S. Treasury. The real news has been revealed at the Lois Lerner hearing on March 5 and in the report of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on March 11: "Lois Lerner's Involvement in the IRS Targeting of Tax-Exempt Organizations."
The evidence brought to light in that hearing and report completely discredited Ms. Lerner's claims about her involvement in what went on. It also eviscerated the notion that liberal and conservative groups were targeted.
When Ms. Lerner appeared before Congress in May 2013, she made this statement: "I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations." But Ms. Lerner, we discovered, forwarded confidential taxpayer information to her personal email account in early May 2013, which is a violation of IRS rules. About the infamous "Be on the Lookout" targeting lista document used to identify conservative groups for additional scrutinyshe told Congress that the criteria for screening tax-exempt groups for extra scrutiny never changed. In fact, she personally ordered it changed in July 2011 according to documents and testimony received by the committee.
Ms. Lerner was most certainly driven by politics. One email of June 11, 2011, shows that she directed her subordinate to focus on the issues surrounding the application of Karl Rove's group, Crossroads GPS. In another email of Feb. 1, 2011, she frets about the Supreme Court "overturning the ban on corporate spending" as it applies to nonprofits. (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission also overturned the ban on union political spending, but she expressed no concern about that.)
Emails and testimony that we confronted Ms. Lerner with showed her saying that the tea party is "very dangerous," ordering a "multitiered review" (read: delay) of the cases, and managing the optics of her operation so it would not be revealed as a political project.
Of course, conservatives have no interest in a special prosecutor to seek out justice, only to revive their failed phony scandal.
