Documents: IRS Letters Harassing Conservative Groups Came From Washington, DC Headquarters And California Offices, Despite IRS’ Claims It Was “Rogue” Cincinnati Employees… They wouldn’t lie to us, would they? Via Daily Mail: Letters from the IRS to tea party-related organizations in Oklahoma City and Albuquerque, New Mexico show that IRS headquarters in Washington, D.C., and two satellite offices in California, were directly involved with sending harassing letters to conservative organizations that sought tax-exempt status. The IRS has acknowledged only the involvement of its Exempt Organizations office in Cincinnati, Ohio, which typically makes most decisions about granting or denying tax-exempt status to non-profit organizations. And Wednesday afternoon, CNN cited a congressional source in reporting that the acting IRS Commissioner – whom President Obama fired later in the day – had identified two ‘rogue’ employees, both in Cincinnati, whom he thought were responsible for targeting right-wing organizations with tactics that were not applied to left-wing or non-political groups. Steven Miller then the acting IRS Commissioner, described the two employees as being ‘off the reservation,’ according to the CNN source. Miller, added CNN, had emphasized that the problem was not confined to just two staffers. Tuesday’s report from the IRS Office of Inspector General, however, focused exclusively on the Cincinnati office. This IG’s review, according to the report ‘was performed at the EO [Exempt Organizations] function Headquarters office in Washington, D.C., and the Determinations Unit in Cincinnati, Ohio.’ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325068/Documents-IRS-letters-harassing-conservative-groups-came-Washington-DC-headquarters-California-offices-despite-Inspector-Generals-focus-Cincinnati-employees.html
Director Of IRS Office In Charge Of Tax-Exempt Determinations An Obama Donor… Surprise! Via NRO: The director of the Office of Rulings and Agreements, which oversees the determinations of tax-exempt organizations, is a donor to Barack Obama. Holly Paz donated $2,000 to Obama’s 2008 campaign, according to Open Secrets, which maintains a database of individual political donations.
IRS Executive In Charge Of Unit That Targeted Conservatives Received Over $42K In Bonuses Since 2009… By all accounts she did a splendid job targeting anti-Obama groups. Via Beltway Confidential: Lois Lerner, the senior executive in charge of the IRS tax exemption department and the person at the center of the exploding scandal over the IRS targeting conservative, evangelical and pro-Israel non-profits, has been given $42,531 in bonuses since 2009. That figure was included in data provided by the IRS in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by The Washington Examiner. Lerner is director of the IRS exempt organizations division, which processes and approves or denies applications from groups seeking tax-exempt status. Lerner received $17,220 for 2009, $24,691 for 2010 and $10,620 for 2011, the most recent year for which the I(RS said data was available. http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2529759
None of this better be true.... I've got a feeling it all is and with every minute this just gets worse... mother***er http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Govern...oup-in-2012-with-leaked-IRS-scandal-documents
IRS Executive Who Led Unit Targeting Conservatives Got $103,000 In Bonuses… Same woman who is now in charge of the IRS’ Obamacare unit. Via Washington Examiner: Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS executive in charge of the tax exempt division in 2010 when it began targeting conservative Tea Party, evangelical and pro-Israel groups for harrassment, got more than $100,000 in bonuses between 2009 and 2012. http://washingtonexaminer.com/irs-tax-exemptionobamacare-exec-got-103390-in-bonuses/article/2529899?custom_click=rss More recently, Ingram was promoted to serve as director of the tax agency’s Obamacare program office, a position that put her in charge of the vast expansion of the IRS’ regulatory power and staffing in connection with federal health care, ABC reported earlier today. Ingram received a $7,000 bonus in 2009, according to data obtained by The Washington Examiner from the IRS, then a $34,440 bonus in 2010, $35,400 in 2011 and $26,550 last year, for a total of $103,390. Her annual salary went from $172,500 to $177,000 during the same period.
Bonused for confiscating private wealth. When she was hired did she have to prick her finger and hold a burning holy card ? You tell me the difference.
Report: Fifth IRS Agent In Cincinnati Office Tied To Tea Party Scandal… So much for those two “rogue” employees. CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) - Continuing our exclusive coverage of the IRS scandal, FOX19 has obtained documents of a fifth Cincinnati IRS agent who reportedly came after a pro-life group in 2009. The group was asked about prayer meetings, and the content of signs held up outside Planned Parenthood. According to documents obtained by FOX19, the group in question is ‘Coalition for Life’, a group based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Coalition for Life stated it was ‘organized for charitable, religious and educational activities’, all of which would allow it to qualify as an exempt organization under 501(c)(3) status. Over 150 pages of back-and-forth took place in 2009, prior to the dates given by the IRS for when so called ‘rogue’ agents began targeting conservative groups. Testimony in Washington on Friday claimed it began in 2010 after a surge of Tea Party and Liberty groups began seeking 501(c)(4) status. “In 2010, the inappropriate criteria that singled out organizations for tax exempt status by name was developed by what office, and where are those employees located?” Steven Miller was asked during a hearing on Friday, the former acting IRS Commissioner. “For the most part, they are located in Cincinnati,” he replied. So, this latest revelation does not correlate with the timeline given in Washington as testimony on Friday. The IRS has claimed this behavior began in 2010. However, according to documents obtained by FOX19, an IRS agent in Cincinnati, identified only as a ‘Ms. Richards’, was questioning the Coalition for Life as early as April of 2009.
Obama’s Chief Lawyer Told IRS Had Been Targeting Conservatives Weeks Ago… Does anyone really believe Obama had no idea? Via WSJ: The White House’s chief lawyer learned weeks ago that an audit of the Internal Revenue Service likely would show that agency employees inappropriately targeted conservative groups, a senior White House official said Sunday. That disclosure has prompted a debate over whether the president should have been notified at that time. In the week of April 22, the Office of the White House Counsel and its head, Kathryn Ruemmler, were told by Treasury Department attorneys that an inspector general’s report was nearing completion, the White House official said. In that conversation, Ms. Ruemmler learned that “a small number of line IRS employees had improperly scrutinized certain…organizations by using words like ‘tea party’ and ‘patriot,’ ” the official said. President Barack Obama said last week he learned about the controversy at the same time as the public, on May 10, when an IRS official revealed it to a conference of lawyers. The president’s statement drew criticism, focusing attention on his management style and whether he has kept himself sufficiently informed about the agencies under his authority.
White House Stands Behind IRS Official Who Led Division Targeting Anti-Obama Groups… For a job well done. WASHINGTON — The White House is standing behind the woman who led the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt division while it targeted conservative groups — the same official who now runs the part of the agency charged with implementing “Obamacare.” “No one has suggested that she did anything wrong yet,” said White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, speaking on “Fox News Sunday.”Mr. Pfeiffer added that no one should jump to conclusions about whether Sarah Hall Ingram, given a promotion at the IRS as the agency’s singling out of tea party and conservative groups began to come to light, was directly involved in any wrongdoing. “Before everyone in this town convicts this person in the court of public opinion with no evidence, let’s actually get the facts and make decisions after that,” Mr. Pfeiffer said. “There’s nothing that suggests she did anything wrong.”
Dem Sen. Max Baucus: A Lot More Coming Out In IRS Scandal Soon… <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Yb19uDyfHAk?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0"></iframe> Sounds like he knows something. Sen. Baucus (D-MT): A Lot More Coming Out In IRS Scandal Soon (May 19, 2013)
IRS In Cincinnati: “Everything Comes From The Top; There Has To Be A Directive” Not to mention, it has already been shown the heads of IRS knew and that this practice went across country and was not just in Cincinnati. Via Washington Post: CINCINNATI — The fog of scandal hangs over a boxy, modernist, 10-story building that looks like a monument to paperwork. Shrubs and chain smokers flank its front entrance here on Main Street, in the heart of downtown. Every day, 2,000 employees go to work at various federal agencies in this John F. Kennedy-era structure, whose chief tenant is the Internal Revenue Service — which is having just about the worst week an agency can have. Up on the fourth floor — with its gray linoleum, low ceilings and fluorescent lights, file carts heaped with manila envelopes, its keypad-coded doors labeled 4-022 (the file room) and 4-034 (the supply room) — the determinations unit of the IRS’s exempt-organizations office is at work. People in this Cincinnati unit have been accused of using “inappropriate” and “politically sensitive” criteria to scrutinize conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status. People in the unit, in a purple state’s red-leaning nook, have singled out applicants whose names include the words “tea party” and “patriot.” People in Cincinnati have made people in Washington hopping mad. “I am angry about it,” President Obama said at the White House on Wednesday, referring to the scandal that was also fueled by IRS offices in the District and California. As could be expected, the folks in the determinations unit on Main Street have had trouble concentrating this week. Number crunchers, whose work is nonpolitical, don’t necessarily enjoy the spotlight, especially when the media and the public assume they’re engaged in partisan villainy. “We’re not political,’’ said one determinations staffer in khakis as he left work late Tuesday afternoon. “We people on the local level are doing what we are supposed to do. . . . That’s why there are so many people here who are flustered. Everything comes from the top. We don’t have any authority to make those decisions without someone signing off on them. There has to be a directive.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/at-cincinnati-irs-office-surprise-over-claims-of-partisan-villainy/2013/05/17/f693c60e-bd81-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html
Does The Tax Exempt Obama Foundation Actually Have A Real Address? While it is conceivable that a smaller organization might use a UPS address, what is more questionable is giving an address where they have never been, apparently. Via Daily Caller: The “charity” run by President Barack Obama’s half-brother that was fast-tracked for IRS tax-exempt status is based at a Virginia UPS store, according to its website. The organization’s IRS filings list another Virginia address that is actually a drug rehab center where the foundation does not appear ever to have been based. The Barack H. Obama Foundation is run by Abon’go “Roy” Malik Obama, the half-brother of Barack Obama. As first reported by The Daily Caller, the foundation was speedily approved for IRS exemption by Lois Lerner, the IRS senior official at the center of the targeting of conservative organizations that have waited over two years to receive tax exempt status. The charity was even given retroactive tax-exempt status despite never having bothered to apply for it. And its history of soliciting donations before receiving tax-exempt status was apparently overlooked. http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/20/tax-exempt-obama-foundation-doesnt-exist-at-listed-addresses/
Former Manager Of Cincinnati IRS Group Behind Tea Party Scandal Says “Rogue” Employees Explanation Is Bogus… Obviously. Via NBC News: A former manager at the IRS Cincinnati office at the center of the controversy over the targeting of conservative political organizations seeking tax-exempt status tells NBC News she doesn’t think low-level employees acted on their own in flagging them for further scrutiny. But she also said that in her time at the IRS she has never known politics or partisan motivations to play any role in the office’s work, and doesn’t think it did in this case. Bonnie Esrig, a 38-year IRS veteran, worked as an area manager in the Determinations Unit of the IRS’ Exempt Organizations department in 2011 and 2012. According to a federal audit and IRS Congressional testimony, some employees in the unit used inappropriate selection criteria to flag the applications of Tea Party and other conservative organizations for further scrutiny, according to an audit by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. (Esrig worked on tax-exemption status issues in the IRS office, but for other types of organizations, such as charter schools – not on the political advocacy groups cases at the center of the controversy. She retired from the IRS in January.) The audit released last week by the Department of the Treasury’s Inspector General for Tax Administration found that IRS employees in that unit “targeted” conservative political advocacy organizations for additional review based on keywords in their organizations’ names, such as “Tea Party.” Esrig said that recent media headlines reporting that “rogue” agents were responsible and questioning whether the Obama Administration had played a role, surprised her, given her first-hand knowledge of the unit and its work. “Those were things that were not consistent with my knowledge of the way the organization works,” Esrig said. Esrig said she doesn’t believe that a few employees in the Cincinnati office made the decisions to use the inappropriate selection criteria – as the IRS has claimed to Congress and as the Treasury Inspector General reported in its audit. According to a congressional source, the IRS reported in a briefing to Congress that two “rogue” employees were responsible for the use of the criteria. But Esrig said that doesn’t make sense based on her experience. “The idea of two rogue employees,” Esrig said, “is inconsistent with the kinds of checks and balances that are inherent in the way the organization is set up.”
IRS Has 8 Offices And 2,137 Agents To Enforce Obamacare… What could possibly go wrong? Via Washington Secrets: The Internal Revenue Service, charged with implementing the biggest change in tax laws in 20 years due to Obamacare, has created eight offices and special “teams” to handle the chore, way more than initially revealed. Besides the top office headed by the woman in the middle of the IRS-Tea Party scandal, there are seven others and a special enforcement team that make up an organization chart that mirrors the organization of the IRS itself, according to a Treasury Inspector General’s report. The June report focused on concerns that the IRS, which is filling the Obamacare offices with 2,137 agents and officials to make sure citizens and companies comply with the new health law or pay a fine, isn’t clear on its new role and how many new workers it will actually need. For example, the IRS will be in charge of analyzing hospital “community benefit activities,” which it has never done before. http://washingtonexaminer.com/giant-octopus-irs-has-8-offices-to-enforce-obamacare/article/2530200
Letters Show Lois Lerner Directly Involved In IRS Targeting… Ridiculous they couldn’t/didn’t fire her. Via NRO: A series of letters suggests that senior IRS official Lois Lerner was directly involved in the agency’s targeting of conservative groups as recently as April 2012, more than nine months after she first learned of the activity. Lerner, the director of the IRS exempt organizations office in Washington, D.C., signed cover letters to 15 conservative organizations currently represented by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) between in March and April of 2012. The letters, such as this one sent to the Ohio Liberty Council on March 16, 2012, informed the groups applying for tax-exempt status that the IRS was “unable to make a final determination on your exempt status without additional information,” and included a list of detailed questions of the kind that a Treasury inspector general’s audit found to be inappropriate. Some of the groups to which Lerner sent letters are still awaiting approval. [...] “One thing is clear: this correspondence shows [Lerner’s] direct involvement in the scheme,” wrote Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the ACLJ. “Further, sending a letter from the top person in the IRS Exempt Organization division to a small Tea Party group also underscores the intimidation used in this targeting ploy.” http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/349212/%5Btitle-raw%5D
BREAKING: Report Says IRS Has Placed Lois Lerner On Administrative Leave – Update: Refused To Resign… Or as government workers call it, paid vacation. Via NRO: Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service’s director of exempt organizations, has been placed on administrative leave, according to a source in the agency’s Cincinnati office. Lerner on Thursday afternoon sent an e-mail to employees in the exempt organizations division she oversees stating, “Due to the events of recent days, I am on administrative leave starting today. An announcement will be made shortly informing you who will be acting while I am on administrative leave. I know all of you will continue to support EO’s mission during these difficult times.” She concluded, “I thank you for all your hard work and dedication,” adding, “The work you do is important.” Update: And because it’s the federal government it’s next to impossible to fire someone. Via Politico: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a senior member of the tax writing Finance Committee, said in a statement Thursday that Lerner was placed on administrative leave after she refused a request from Danny Werfel, the newly installed acting IRS commissioner, to resign. “My understanding is the new acting IRS commissioner asked for Ms. Lerner’s resignation, and she refused to resign,” Grassley said. “She was then put on administrative leave instead. From all accounts so far, the IRS acting commissioner was on solid ground to ask for her resignation.”
NBC News: Letters Show IRS Higher-Ups Requested Info On Conservative Groups… Is the Obama regime still using the “rogue” employees excuse? Via NBC News: Additional scrutiny of conservative organizations’ activities by the IRS did not solely originate in the agency’s Cincinnati office, with requests for information coming from other offices and often bearing the signatures of higher-ups at the agency, according to attorneys representing some of the targeted groups. At least one letter requesting information about one of the groups bears the signature of Lois Lerner, the suspended director of the IRS Exempt Organizations department in Washington. Jay Sekulow, an attorney representing 27 conservative political advocacy organizations that applied to the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt status, provided some of the letters to NBC News. He said the groups’ contacts with the IRS prove that the practices went beyond a few “front line” employees in the Cincinnati office, as the IRS has maintained. “We’ve dealt with 15 agents, including tax law specialists — that’s lawyers — from four different offices, including (the) Treasury (Department) in Washington, D.C.,” Sekulow said. “So the idea that this is a couple of rogue agents in Cincinnati is not correct.” Among the letters were several that bore return IRS addresses other than Cincinnati, including IRS headquarters in Washington, and the signatures of IRS officials higher up the chain. Lerner’s signature, which appeared to be a stamp rather than an actual signature, appeared on a letter requesting additional information from the Ohio Liberty Council Corp. http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/28/18563008-irs-higher-ups-requested-info-on-conservative-groups-letters-show?lite
IRS Also Targeted Individual Donors To GOP Group… But… but… but… rogue employees! Via WSJ: At the same time the Internal Revenue Service was targeting tea-party groups, the tax agency took the unusual step of trying to impose gift taxes on donors to a prominent conservative advocacy group formed in 2007 to build support for President George W. Bush’s Iraq troop surge. The probe of the group, Freedom’s Watch, began in the unit led by Lois Lerner, the IRS official already under scrutiny for her role in the more recent targeting of conservative groups. While the IRS confirmed the existence of the gift-tax initiative in 2011, the identity of the group involved—as well as the affiliation of individual donors—remained a mystery. Former officials of Freedom’s Watch say they believe all five of the IRS audits involved donors to their group, based on conversations with IRS agents and donors at the time of the audits in 2011.
:shock: Heard on the radio... In the 8 years that George W. Bush was president, the head of the IRS visited the White House one time. In the five years that Obama has been president, the head of the IRS has visited the White House 157 times...