Tag: IRS Targeting

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Emails Raise New Questions About IRS Targeting

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Emails Raise New Questions About IRS Targeting

By John D. McKinnon

Judicial Watch, the conservative group, has landed another batch of emails from the Internal Revenue Service that raise new questions about the possible extent of alleged targeting of conservative groups.

The new documents could help stoke the IRS targeting story again, as lawmakers return to Washington next week.

Perhaps the most intriguing of the new documents shows that IRS officials had some sort of “secret research project” going that related to the donor lists it had collected – inappropriately, as it turned out – from many conservative nonprofit groups.

The IRS demanded the donor lists in the course of reviewing dozens of conservative groups’ applications for tax-exempt status starting in 2010. An inspector general found in 2013 that the IRS targeted many of those conservative groups for improper scrutiny, including the demands for donor identities. Democrats say some liberal groups eventually were caught up in the net as well.

Unfortunately, it’s not at all clear yet what this “secret research project” concerned. If the project involved the IRS systematically targeting conservative donors for extra scrutiny too – as some GOP lawmakers suspect – that’s a very big deal.

https://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/09/04/emails-raise-new-questions-about-irs-targeting/

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Scott Garrett Leads Letter to IRS Commissioner on Religious Freedom

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Scott Garrett Leads Letter to IRS Commissioner on Religious Freedom
Aug 25, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Chairman of the Congressional Constitution Caucus, along with eight of his colleagues sent a letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen today.  The letter outlines the deep concerns the Members have about news of the recent IRS dismissal agreement with the Freedom from Religion Foundation.  Additionally, the Members request answers to the following questions:

Provide a copy of any agreement between the IRS and the Freedom from Religion Foundation.
Provide any communications between the IRS and the Freedom from Religion Foundation regarding dismissal of the case.
Why did the IRS agree to dismiss this case without prejudice when it recently won a nearly identical case, and who was the highest ranking official to sign off on the settlement?
How have the IRS regulations in this area changed since the 2009 ruling in U.S. v Living Word Christian Ctr., which deemed them unlawful?
How is the IRS going to enforce the Johnson Amendment without impinging on the First Amendment freedoms of religious leaders?
Other than self-referral by leaders opposed to the Johnson Amendment, how did the IRS find the 99 religious organizations currently under investigation by the “Political Activities Referral Committee,” and how did they decide these organizations merited the use of precious investigative resources?
How much money has been spent by the Political Activities Referral Committee in each of the last fiscal years since 2009?
How much has been spent in total investigating the 99 organizations currently under investigation?
What safeguards are in place to make sure that the IRS does not stifle protected First Amendment speech?

To view the complete letter, click here.

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IRS ethics lawyer facing possible disbarment, accused of lying

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IRS ethics lawyer facing possible disbarment, accused of lying

By Jim McElhatton – The Washington Times – Tuesday, August 26, 2014

A lawyer in the IRS ethics office is facing the possibility of being disbarred, according to records that accuse her of lying to a court-appointed board and hiding what she’d done with money from a settlement that was supposed to go to two medical providers who had treated her client.

The disciplinary arm of the D.C. Court of Appeals has recommended that Takisha McGee, a section manager in the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility, lose her law license over the charge, which stems from a personal injury case she worked about a year before she joined the tax agency.

Read more: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/26/irs-ethics-office-lawyer-could-be-disbarred-for-ly/?preview#ixzz3Bg4LgYza 

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Blackberry Blackout! Nets Refuse to Report That IRS Destroyed Lerner’s Phone After Probe Began

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Blackberry Blackout! Nets Refuse to Report That IRS Destroyed Lerner’s Phone After Probe Began

By Geoffrey Dickens | August 26, 2014 | 11:12

On the heels of a Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyer admitting to Judicial Watch that Lois Lerner’s missing e-mails do exist comes another stunning revelation.

On Monday evening the New York Observer reported “the IRS destroyed Lerner’s Blackberry after it knew her computer had crashed and after a Congressional inquiry was well underway.” Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) network coverage of this fishy behavior on the part of the IRS and Lerner? 0 seconds.  

There hasn’t been a single story on the Blackberry destruction or the DOJ lawyer’s admission of the existence of Lerner’s e-mails on any of the Monday evening or Tuesday morning shows on ABC, CBS or NBC.

All three morning shows on Tuesday did find time (5 minutes, 32 seconds) to cover the altercation on a plane caused by an unruly passenger upset about the “Knee Defender” product intruding on her personal space.  

On August 25, the New York Observer reported the following:

“The IRS filing in federal Judge Emmet Sullivan’s court reveals shocking new information. The IRS destroyed Lerner’s Blackberry AFTER it knew her computer had crashed and after a Congressional inquiry was well underway. As an IRS official declared under the penalty of perjury, the destroyed Blackberry would have contained the same emails (both sent and received) as Lois Lerner’s hard drive.”

Read more: https://newsbusters.org/blogs/geoffrey-dickens/2014/08/26/blackberry-blackout-nets-refuse-report-shocking-revelation-irs-des#ixzz3BblSBfgl

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Judicial Watch: Lerner emails aren’t missing

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Judicial Watch: Lerner emails aren’t missing
By Bernie Becker – 08/25/14 08:32 PM EDT

A conservative group suing the IRS said Monday that the Obama administration has acknowledged that former agency official Lois Lerner’s emails are recoverable.

Judicial Watch, which says it was among the groups that the IRS improperly scrutinized, said that Justice Department attorneys told the group late last week that the government backed up all emails in case of catastrophe.

The government lawyers added that the problem was not that the emails couldn’t be found, but that the back-up system was too onerous to search, Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch’s president, said Monday.

“This is a jaw-dropping revelation. The Obama administration had been lying to the American people about Lois Lerner’s missing emails,” Fitton said in a statement, adding that the group would bring the government’s statements up with Judge Emmet Sullivan, who is presiding over the group’s lawsuit.

But an administration official with knowledge of Friday’s conversation said Judicial Watch’s statement, which runs counter to months of statements from a variety of administration and IRS higher-ups, was off-base.

The administration official said Justice Department lawyers had dropped no bombshells last week, and that Judicial Watch was mischaracterizing what the government had said.

The official said that Justice lawyers were only referring to tapes backing up IRS emails that were routinely recycled twice a year before 2013, when the investigation into the Tea Party controversy began.

The IRS has acknowledged those procedures were in place since it told lawmakers in June that Lerner’s computer crashed in 2011, leaving the agency unable to recover many of her emails over a two-year span.

John Koskinen, the IRS commissioner, has testified before Congress several times over the last two months that the tapes backing up Lerner’s emails were recycled.

“There is no newly divulged back-up system that was not previously known about,” the official said. “Government lawyers were simply referring to the back-up system at the IRS that Commissioner Koskinen had already disclosed.”

Lerner has been a central figure in the IRS investigation since May 2013, when she became the first agency official to acknowledge and apologize for the improper scrutiny of Tea Party groups.

She has since retired from the IRS, been found in contempt of Congress by the House and been referred to the Justice Department for potential criminal charges.

Judicial Watch’s Monday statement noted that Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration, which outlined the IRS’s improper scrutiny of Tea Party groups, is investigating the back-up system for e-mails.

The administration official said that the inspector general is examining whether any data can be recovered from the previously recycled back-up tapes and suggested that could be the cause of the confusion between the government and Judicial Watch.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/finance/215940-conservative-group-lerner-emails-arent-missing#ixzz3BUyOnWql
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Issa: More Than 20 Obama Officials ‘Lost or Destroyed’ E-mails After House Launched Probes

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Issa: More Than 20 Obama Officials ‘Lost or Destroyed’ E-mails After House Launched Probes
By Joel Gehrke
August 7, 2014 5:27 PM

The revelation that Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Marilynn Tavenner did not retain her e-mails means that more than 20 witness in the Obama administration to lose or delete e-mails without notifying Congress, according to the top House investigator.

“The Obama administration has lost or destroyed e-mails for more than 20 witnesses, and in each case, the loss wasn’t disclosed to the National Archives or Congress for months or years, in violation of federal law,” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) said ofTavenner’s lost e-mails.

“It defies logic that so many senior Administration officials were found to have ignored federal recordkeeping requirements only after Congress asked to see their e-mails,” he continued. “Just this week, my staff followed up with HHS, who has failed to comply with a subpoena from ten months ago. Even at that point, the administration did not inform us that there was a problem with Ms. Tavenner’s e-mail history. Yet again, we discover that this administration will not be forthright with the American people unless cornered.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/384906/issa-more-20-obama-officials-lost-or-destroyed-e-mails-after-house-launched-probes

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Tea party groups’ suit against IRS moves forward

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Tea party groups’ suit against IRS moves forward

Tea party groups’ lawsuit against IRS over reported extra scrutiny moves forward

By Amanda Lee Myers, Associated Press10 hours ago

CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal judge has allowed a lawsuit by 10 tea party groups to move forward against the Internal Revenue Service, rejecting a request by the federal government to dismiss all the allegations that the agency subjected conservative groups to additional, often burdensome scrutiny.

In her ruling Thursday, Judge Susan Dlott allowed two of the tea party groups’ claims — including that the IRS discriminated and retaliated against them based on their views in violation of their free speech rights — to survive to trial.

The Cincinnati-based Dlott did dismiss a third claim, ruling the tea party groups could not pursue allegations of privacy violations on behalf of their individual members. The individuals themselves have to do that, she said.

Edward Greim, the lead attorney for the tea party groups, said Friday he is pleased the case will move forward.

https://news.yahoo.com/tea-party-groups-suit-against-185614227.html

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Judges Set Clock Ticking for IRS to Explain, Recover Missing Emails

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Judges Set Clock Ticking for IRS to Explain, Recover Missing Emails

Philip Wegmann / July 12, 2014

The IRS has less than 30 days to detail under oath and in writing the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of former official Lois Lerner’s emails and to summarize options to recover the messages, a federal judge ruled.

Judicial Watch, a non-partisan watchdog group, has sought the documents from the Internal Revenue Service since last year as part of its ongoing lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act. The judge gave the IRS no more than 30 days, or until Sept. 10, to comply with the order.

Part of a greater compromise, the ruling handed down Thursday by Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court in Washington allows Judicial Watch to access the documents and limits the exposure to the scandal involving IRS targeting  of conservative groups. Originally, Judicial Watch requested that IRS officials testify under oath, The Hill newspaper reported.

In a separate decision Friday afternoon, another federal judge demanded that the IRS provide additional information on Lerner’s missing emails. Ruling in a lawsuit brought by True the Vote, one of the targeted groups, District Court Judge Reggie Walton ordered the tax agency to explain the disappearance, Fox News reported.

In the Judicial Watch case, Judge Sullivan ordered the IRS and the watchdog group to work cooperatively with another federal judge to recover Lerner’s emails, which IRS officials have said were destroyed when a computer hard drive crashed.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton called the decision  “a victory for public accountability.” Fitton expressed optimism about eventual recovery of emails, calling Judge John Facciola “an expert in e-discovery.”

The watchdog group previously had said the Lerner emails “could be critical to getting to the bottom of the IRS scandal where tea party and other conservative group applications were illegally delayed by the IRS.”

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Lois Lerner Unwittingly Reveals IRS Instant Messaging System

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Lois Lerner Unwittingly Reveals IRS Instant Messaging System

July 10, 2014
Windows Media

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Lois Lerner has unwittingly revealed that the IRS had an internal instant messaging system above and beyond their e-mail system. So when she says that the dog ate her e-mails and that the computer crashed and it had seven months of e-mails or seven, whatever, however many disappeared, I don’t remember ’cause it was bogus, it doesn’t matter.

It turns out that the IRS has this internal messaging system sort of like the old prof notes in the old, old days of the Iran-Contra crisis.  Old Microsoft stuff.  I don’t know what it is, but it was above and beyond e-mail and Lois Lerner was caught warning other IRS workers to be careful what they put in their e-mails because they might end up being seen. They might end up being subpoenaed so be careful what you put in your e-mails.  And nobody, up until that moment, knew the IRS had its own private IM system.

https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2014/07/10/lois_lerner_unwittingly_reveals_irs_instant_messaging_system

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“The dog ate Lois Lerner’s emails” geez ..

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“The dog ate Lois Lerner’s emails” geez ...

Laughable.

Local Desktop computer crashes and “all email is gone”

Really? This is the excuse provided by the “tech savvy” Obama

Are these people so technically ignorant that they think email is stored locally?
Are they saying that the email servers also crashed and the daily (if not more frequent) server backups are lost?
And the offsite storage facility where long term backups are stored has been destroyed?
And the recipients of the emails (and the people that they forwarded the emails to have also had their computers crash and their emails were lost?
And nobody printed off ANY email ever? There would be paper copies as well as email logs and (possibly) email images stored by the networked printers.

AND… IF ALL OF THE ABOVE WAS TRUE (100% unlikely) – then the entire government IT organization should be fired immediately and we have a much bigger problem – that the government’s IT is incompetent and critical data is not being secured and protected – a major, major national security issue as well as a major, major scandal.

Really – this is beyond insulting and laughable.

They might as well have said that “The dog ate Lois Lerner’s emails” – that would be more believable.

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Sources: Lois Lerner’s emails likely gone forever

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Sources: Lois Lerner’s emails likely gone forever

By RACHAEL BADE | 6/18/14 9:59 PM EDT Updated: 6/18/14 11:34 PM EDT

Ex-IRS official Lois Lerner’s crashed hard drive has been recycled, making it likely the lost emails of the lightening rod in the tea party targeting controversy will never be found, according to multiple sources.

“We’ve been informed that the hard drive has been thrown away,” Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Repu told POLITICO the same late Wednesday, citing IRS officials.

Two additional sources told POLITICO the same late Wednesday, citing IRS officials.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/irs-lois-lerner-emails-108044.html#ixzz354hOtzEn

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IRS Claims to Have Lost Over 2 Years of Lerner Emails…ah yea that’s believable

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IRS Claims to Have Lost Over 2 Years of Lerner Emails…ah yea that’s believable 
Jun 13 2014

Washington, DC – Today, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) issued the following statement regarding the Internal Revenue Service informing the Committee that they have lost Lois Lerner emails from a period of January 2009 – April 2011.  Due to a supposed computer crash, the agency only has Lerner emails to and from other IRS employees during this time frame.  The IRS claims it cannot produce emails written only to or from Lerner and outside agencies or groups, such as the White House, Treasury, Department of Justice, FEC, or Democrat offices.

“The fact that I am just learning about this, over a year into the investigation, is completely unacceptable and now calls into question the credibility of the IRS’s response to Congressional inquiries.  There needs to be an immediate investigation and forensic audit by Department of Justice as well as the Inspector General.

“Just a short time ago, Commissioner Koskinen promised to produce all Lerner documents.  It appears now that was an empty promise.  Frankly, these are the critical years of the targeting of conservative groups that could explain who knew what when, and what, if any, coordination there was between agencies.  Instead, because of this loss of documents, we are conveniently left to believe that Lois Lerner acted alone.  This failure of the IRS requires the White House, which promised to get to the bottom of this, to do an Administration-wide search and production of any emails to or from Lois Lerner.  The Administration has repeatedly referred us back to the IRS for production of materials.  It is clear that is wholly insufficient when it comes to determining the full scope of the violation of taxpayer rights.”

Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Charles Boustany Jr., M.D. (R-LA) added, “In the course of the Committee’s investigation, the Administration repeatedly claimed we were getting access to all relevant IRS documents. Only now – thirteen months into the investigation – the IRS reveals that key emails from the time of the targeting have been lost.  And they bury that fact deep in an unrelated letter on a Friday afternoon.  In that same letter, they urge Congress to end the investigations into IRS wrongdoing. This is not the transparency promised to the American people.  If there is no smidgeon of corruption what is the Administration hiding?”

https://waysandmeans.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=384506

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Judicial Watch Obtains New Documents Showing IRS Targeting Came Directly From Washington D.C.

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Judicial Watch Obtains New Documents Showing IRS Targeting Came Directly From Washington D.C.

Katie Pavlich | May 14, 2014

New documents obtained and released through a Judicial Watch lawsuit show the targeting of tea party and conservative groups came directly out of Washington D.C., not a rogue IRS office in Cincinnati.

On July 6, 2012, former Director of the IRS Rulings and Agreements Division and current Manager of Exempt Organizations Guidance Holly Paz sent an email to IRS Attorney Steven Grodnitzky asking for an explanation of how tea party group applications were being handled. Grodnitzky responded by confirming the cases were being handled in Washington.

“EOT is working the Tea party applications in coordination with Cincy. We are developing a few applications here in DC and providing copies of our development letters with the agent to use as examples in the development of their cases. Chip Hull [another lawyer in IRS headquarters] is working these cases in EOT and working with the agent in Cincy, so any communication should include him as well. Because the Tea party applications are the subject of an SCR [Sensitive Case Report], we cannot resolve any of the cases without coordinating with Rob,” Grodnitzky wrote.

When the IRS targeting scandal broke last year, officials in Washington immediately pinned the blame on the Cincinnati office. This documentation proves not only that direction was coming out of Washington, but that Washington instructed Cincinnati about how to handle tea party applications.

A new email from Lois Lerner also details how BOLO lists (be on the look out) were specifically created for tea party groups or groups with issues related to government spending, debt, taxes and “how the country is being run.”

“Because the BOLO only contained a brief reference to “Organizations involved with the Tea Party movement applying for exemption under 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4)” in June 2011, the EO Determinations manager asked the manager of the screening group, John Shafer [IRS Cincinnati field office manager], what criteria were being used to label cases as “tea party ” cases. (“Do the applications specify/state ‘ tea party’? If not, how do we know applicant is involved with the tea party movement?”) The screening group manager asked his employees how they were applying the BOLO’s short –hand reference to “tea party.” His employees responded that they were including organizations meeting any of the following criteria as falling within the BOLO’s reference to “tea party” organizations: “1. ‘Tea Party’, ‘Patriots’ or ‘9/12 Project’ is referenced in the case file. 2. Issues include government spending, government debt and taxes. 3. Educate the public through advocacy/legislative activities to make America a better place to live. 4. Statements in the case file that are critical of the how the country is being run. . . ” Lerner wrote on April 2, 2013. “So, we believe we have provided information that shows that no one in EO “developed” the criteria. Rather, staff used their own interpretations of the brief reference to “organizations involved with the Tea Party movement,” which was what was on the BOLO list.”

Judicial Watch also found the IRS put red and orange alert symbols on tea party issues for heightened awareness. Here are two slides from a “Heightened Awareness Presentation” used at the IRS.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/05/14/new-documents-show-irs-targeting-came-directly-from-washington-dc-n1838128

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Too Big To Audit? Large Partnerships Escape IRS Scrutiny, GAO Reports

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Too Big To Audit? Large Partnerships Escape IRS Scrutiny, GAO Reports
May 2, 2014 – 1:14 PM
By Barbara Hollingsworth

(CNSNews.com) – In 2011, while the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was busy scrutinizing the tax-exempt status of 100 percent of Tea Party groups and other conservative non-profits, the tax agency did not audit a single high-value electing large partnership (ELP) with more than $100 million in assets.

That’s according to a preliminary report released to Congress by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) April 17th. (See GAO.pdf)

An ELP is a business entity with more than 100 partners and more than $100 million in assets that is required to file a 1065-B tax return every year. They include large private equity firms, hedge funds and oil and gas partnerships.

“No partnerships that filed a Form 1065-B from tax years 2002 to 2011 had their tax return audited and closed by IRS from fiscal years 2007 to 2013,” a footnote on page 14 of the GAO report stated.

Jim White, a spokesman for GAO, confirmed that no ELPs were audited by the IRS between 2007 and 2013, the last year statistics are available. However, he pointed out that there were only 15 ELPs out of 105 filing 1065-B returns nationwide in 2011 that met the $100 million asset threshold.

Another 2,211 partnerships filed under IRS Form 1065 in 2011, “but only 20 audits (or less than one percent) were closed that year,” White told CNSNews.com, acknowledging that “this is a very low audit rate.”

White noted that GAO is doing a follow-up and “will be asking the IRS a number of questions to try to better understand” the tax agency’s audit decisions.

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-hollingsworth/too-big-audit-large-partnerships-escape-irs-scrutiny-gao-reports

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Who Gets Rewarded for Stiffing the IRS? IRS Agents!

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Who Gets Rewarded for Stiffing the IRS? IRS Agents!
J.D. Tuccille|Apr. 23, 2014 12:17 pm

If you and I pay the Internal Revenue Service less than it claims it owes us, we can get slammed pretty hard with fines, penalties, and even jail time. The IRS even stages armed raids in its search for a few more sheckels to feed the government’s appetite. We even can getdinged $5,000 for filing “frivolous” returns that just annoy the tax collectors.

But there is one class of people that can misbehave and even stiff the IRS, and receive rewards in return. Who has that sweet deal? IRS employees.

According to a press release from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration:

between October 1, 2010 and December 31, 2012, more than 2,800 employees with recent substantiated conduct issues resulting in disciplinary action received more than $2.8 million in monetary awards and more than 27,000 hours in time-off awards. Among these, more than 1,100 IRS employees with substantiated Federal tax compliance problems received more than $1 million in cash awards and more than 10,000 hours in time-off awards.

Whoops!

https://reason.com/blog/2014/04/23/who-gets-rewarded-for-stiffing-the-irs-i