You’re wrong, Mr. Obama, the IRS is Corrupt

Posted: February 5, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Politics | Tags: American Center for Law & Justice, Barack Obama, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Jay Sekulow, Obama, Super Bowl Sunday, United States |4 Comments

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156-Sekulow Jay Sekulow writes: In the aftermath of an IRS targeting scandal that may have influenced the 2012 election, in the midst of criminal and congressional investigations, while civil litigation is pending in federal court, before a single deposition is taken and while the IRS clings to tens of thousands of documents, the president of the United States has spoken. His meaning is clear.

“…it is not remotely appropriate for a sitting president to make such a declaration in the midst of an ongoing criminal investigation”

Move along, nothing to see here.

In his Super Bowl Sunday interview with Bill O’Reilly, President Obama declared that the IRS scandal was the product of “boneheaded decisions,” and there was “not even a smidgen of corruption.”

“Singling out conservatives wasn’t an accident or mistake; it was an intentional act by lawyers who knew it was wrong”

I suppose that’s just another way of saying “phony scandal.”

While the easy and immediate response is to ask the president whether senior IRS officials typically assert their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when there’s not even a “smidgen of corruption,” his statement actually has deeper problems.

First, it is not remotely appropriate for a sitting president to make such a declaration in the midst of an ongoing criminal investigation.

Given that the FBI hasn’t even interviewed the victims of IRS targeting, it’s safe to say the president hasn’t seen all the evidence.

How can we trust the results of an investigation when Barbara Bosserman, one of the lead attorneys, is not only a large donor to Obama’s campaigns, but the president himself has publicly issued to that attorney his opinion about the outcome?

Next, he ignores the context. The IRS scandal was orchestrated not by young, inexperienced government employees but by attorneys with decades of experience in the IRS and in the federal government. They knew that singling out applicants for additional scrutiny merely because of their presumed politics violates the Constitution.

Viewpoint neutrality is a basic legal requirement for federal bureaucrats, one they’re made aware of from day one of federal employment.

In other words, singling out conservatives wasn’t an accident or mistake; it was an intentional act by lawyers who knew it was wrong.

Third, he downplays the extent of the wrongdoing. In addition to the initial targeting scandal, we know the IRS leaked confidential information to friendly leftist media outlets.

We know the IRS has engaged in targeted audits of the administration’s political enemies.

Oh, and we know that the targeting continues to this day – in spite of media coverage, multiple investigations and multiple lawsuits…