Mark Hemingway: Scandals Aplenty
Posted: January 6, 2017 Filed under: Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Politics, Terrorism, White House | Tags: ABC News, Ben Rhodes, Benghazi, Bowe Bergdahl, Candy Crowly, Charlie Rose, David Axelrod, David Remnick, Fast and Furious gunrunning, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Glenn Thrush, Lois Lerner, Mark Hemingway, Solyndra, The Weekly Standard Leave a commentThe media just pretended they didn’t exist.
Mark Hemingway writes: As achievements go, this would be one in which a modern president could take pride. But in making the claim for himself, Obama proves he cannot even accurately describe the events of his presidency. His tenure saw an astounding number of scandals: Benghazi, Fast and Furious gunrunning, Solyndra and green energy subsidies for campaign donors, cash for Iranian hostages, IRS targeting of conservative groups, spying on journalists, Hillary Clinton’s private email server, the Veterans Administration disaster, trading deserter Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban leaders held in Guantánamo, droning American citizens without due process, and firing inspector general Gerald Walpin for investigating an Obama crony who was abusing federal programs. And that list isn’t exhaustive.
The media have certainly tried their best to buttress Obama’s claim to have presided over a scandal-free administration—starting long before he even made it. In 2014, New Yorker editor and Obama biographer David Remnick told the (skeptical) host of PBS’s Charlie Rose that the president had already racked up “huge” achievements. On his list: “The fact that there’s been no scandal, major scandal, in this administration, which is a rare thing in an administration.”
[Read the full story here, at The Weekly Standard]
Remnick was hardly alone. Veteran journalist Jonathan Alter wrote a column for Bloomberg back in 2011 headlined “The Obama Miracle, a White House Free of Scandal.” More recently, Glenn Thrush, then a Politico reporter, tweeted, “As Obama talks up legacy on campaign trail important to note he’s had best/least scandal-scarred 2nd term since FDR.” Even conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks last year declared the Obama administration “remarkably scandal-free.”
Remnick’s remark is particularly notable for how it presaged White House talking points. Obama’s chief campaign strategist David Axelrod was asked at the University of Chicago in 2015 about the administration’s broken promise to bar lobbyists from working for it. Axelrod admitted things hadn’t been “pristine” but said, “I’m proud of the fact that, basically, you’ve had an administration that’s been in place for six years in which there hasn’t been a major scandal.”
As Noah Rothman observed in Commentary, “The qualifier ‘major’ lays the burden on shoulders of the press to define what constitutes a serious scandal, and political media had thus far reliably covered the administration’s ethical lapses as merely the peculiar obsessions of addlebrained conservatives.”
So what would constitute a “major” scandal? Would it involve, say, dead bodies? The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gave thousands of guns to Mexican drug cartels; they used some of them to kill dozens of people, including American border patrol agent Brian Terry. When Congress tried to investigate why the ATF gave away so many guns and failed to track them, the Department of Justice engaged in unprecedented stonewalling.
The department withheld 92 percent of the documents requested and forbade 48 relevant employees from speaking to congressional investigators. Attorney General Eric Holder was ultimately held in contempt of Congress, with 17 Democrats supporting the measure. An explanation for why the ATF gave thousands of guns to violent criminals has yet to emerge—but we are to understand that this is not a “major” scandal. Read the rest of this entry »
SMIDGEN REPORT UPDATE: E-mails Reveal IRS Attempts at Damage Control
Posted: September 8, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Canada, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Lerner, Lois Lerner, Tax exemption, Tea Party, Treasury, Twitter 2 CommentsThe documents show Lerner’s efforts to persuade Treasury auditors that there was no institutional bias at the IRS, the agency’s attempts to head off a damaging investigation with a pre-emptive apology, and Lerner’s pep talk to her staff after the apology.
WASHINGTON — Gregory Korte reports: The day that former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner publicly apologized for using “inappropriate criteria” to delay tax exemptions for Tea Party groups, she told her colleagues that they were being “beaten up by the press for all the wrong reasons.”
It was only going to get worse, she told them in an e-mail, and there was no way around it other than to “ride it through.”
Then she left for a week’s vacation in Canada.
That e-mail comes in 1,706 pages of newly released documents that shed light on the damage control happening at the IRS — and at the watchdog agency investigating it — as the scandal blew up last year. Read the rest of this entry »
SMIDGEN REPORT: Email Reveals Lerner Ignored Union Political Expenditures
Posted: September 1, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Judicial Watch, Lerner, Lois Lerner, Office of Labor-Management Standards, OLMS, Trade union, Twitter Leave a commentConnor D. Wolf reports: The official at the center of the Internal Revenue Service tea party scandal once dismissed complaints that labor unions were not reporting millions of dollars in political activities on their tax forms, according to an email obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“We believe this difference in reporting does not necessarily indicate that the organization has incorrectly reported to either the DOL or the IRS.”
In 2007, Lerner responded directly to a complaint that some major labor unions reported completely different amounts of political expenditures when filing with the IRS and the Department of Labor.
At the time of the email, Lerner was the Director of Exempt Organizations at the IRS. Read the rest of this entry »
George Will: The IRS is Cuckoo Bananas Off the Rails Criminally Insane and It Is Now Thoroughly Corrupted
Posted: August 26, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Charles Krauthammer, George Will, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Judicial Watch, Lois Lerner, National Review, Obama administration, Richard Nixon, United States Department of Justice 1 CommentOkay, George didn’t say Cuckoo Bananas Off the Rails Criminally Insane, he just said off the rails and it is thoroughly corrupted. But, you get the idea…
“The IRS is the most intrusive and potentially punitive institution of the federal government and it is a law-enforcement institution and it is off the rails and it is now thoroughly corrupted.”
— George Will
From The Corner:
On Tuesday’s Special Report, George Will reacted to the revelation that the IRS destroyed Lois Lerner’s BlackBerry without searching it, after a congressional investigation into her conduct had begun.
[SMIDGEN REPORT: Federal Attorney Says Backup of Lois Lerner Emails Exist]
[SMIDGEN BOMB: There Are No Missing Lois Lerner E-mails, Justice Department Concedes ]
Will said he could hardly wait for IRS lawyers to show up in court and tell the judge it would be too onerous to stop obstructing justice in this case. Read the rest of this entry »
SMIDGEN REPORT: Blackberry? Destroyed it.
Posted: August 26, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: BlackBerry, Chief information officer, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Judicial Watch, Lerner, Lois Lerner, Stephen Manning, United States Congress 1 CommentIRS Destroyed Lois Lerner Blackberry When? AFTER Congressional Inquiry Began, That’s When.
NRO‘s Ian Tuttle reports: According to the second round of IRS affidavits submitted to U.S. district court judge Emmett Sullivan, who is presiding over the lawsuit brought against the nation’s tax agency by watchdog group Judicial Watch, Inc., IRS technical analysts did not search Lois Lerner’s Blackberry for her allegedly “lost” e-mails — and the smartphone was destroyed after congressional investigation had begun.
“There is no record of any attempt by any IRS IT employee to recover data from any Blackberry device assigned to Lois Lerner in response to the Congressional investigations or this litigation.”
— Stephen Manning, IRS Information Technology business unit
Lerner’s government-issued laptop reportedly crashed in June 2011, at which time IRS analysts tried but failed to recover data, including e-mail communications, according to previous testimony. In his sworn declaration, Stephen Manning – deputy chief information officer for strategy and modernization with the IRS Information Technology business unit – reports that “there is no record of any attempt by any IRS IT employee to recover data from any Blackberry device assigned to Lois Lerner in response to the Congressional investigations or this litigation.” This despite the fact that Lerner had been in possession of a government-issued Blackberry since November 2009, according to the statement of Thomas J. Kane – deputy associate chief counsel for procedure and administration within the IRS Office of Chief Counsel – and it would likely have hosted at least some of Lerner’s electronic communications….(read more)
SMIDGEN BOMB: There Are No Missing Lois Lerner E-mails, Justice Department Concedes
Posted: August 25, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Censorship, Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Internal Revenue Service, Judicial Watch, Lois Lerner, Obama, Obama administration, Tom Fitton, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, United States Department of Justice 3 CommentsThis is a rather stunning admission: Justice Department attorneys have acknowledged that there are not, and have never been, any missing Lois Lerner e-mails. Judicial Watch, which has been pressing the IRS and the Obama administration for the Lerner e-mails in its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, has just released this statement by JW president Tom Fitton:
Department of Justice attorneys for the Internal Revenue Service told Judicial Watch on Friday that Lois Lerner’s emails, indeed all government computer records, are backed up by the federal government in case of a government-wide catastrophe. The Obama administration attorneys said that this back-up system would be too onerous to search. The DOJ attorneys also acknowledged that the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) is investigating this back-up system...(read more)
We obviously disagree that disclosing the emails as required would be onerous, and plan to raise this new development with Judge Sullivan.
This is a jaw-dropping revelation…(read more)
The press release is here…
SMIDGEN REPORT: Federal Attorney Says Backup of Lois Lerner Emails Exist
Posted: August 25, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Emmet G. Sullivan, Freedom of Information Act, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Judicial Watch, Lois Lerner, Tom Fitton, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, United States Department of Justice 2 CommentsTom Fitton discussing the new revelation
Via Judicial Watch:
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced the following developments in the IRS’ missing emails investigation. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton stated:
Department of Justice attorneys for the Internal Revenue Service told Judicial Watch on Friday that Lois Lerner’s emails, indeed all government computer records, are backed up by the federal government in case of a government-wide catastrophe. The Obama administration attorneys said that this back-up system would be too onerous to search. The DOJ attorneys also acknowledged that the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) is investigating this back-up system.
We obviously disagree that disclosing the emails as required would be onerous, and plan to raise this new development with Judge Sullivan.
This is a jaw-dropping revelation…(read more)
Here is the second set of sworn declarations by IRS officials in response to Judge Emmet G. Sullivan’s investigation into the missing emails of Lois Lerner and other IRS officials. The declarations were provided after close of business on Friday, August 22. Read the rest of this entry »
Spoken Like a True Democratic Campaign Operative: Lois Lerner’s Potty Mouth Slur
Posted: July 30, 2014 Filed under: Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Daily Caller, Dave Camp, Eric Holder, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Lerner, Lois Lerner, Smidgen Report, Tax exemption, United States House Committee on Ways and Means 1 CommentLois Lerner Called Conservatives ‘Assholes,’ Fantasized About Working At Obama Group
For The Daily Caller, Chuck Ross reports: New emails released by the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday provide more evidence that ex-IRS official Lois Lerner is not fond of conservatives.
“Well, you should hear the whacko wing of the GOP. The US is through; too many foreigners sucking the teat; time to hunker down, buy ammo and food, and prepare for the end. The right wing radio shows are scary to listen to.”
— Lerner’s unnamed email correspondent
“So we don’t need to worry about teRroists [sic]. It’s our own crazies that will take us down,” Lerner wrote in a Nov. 9, 2012 email exchange with an IRS colleague.
Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp revealed the emails in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.
Lerner’s disdain for the right is central to an investigation into whether she targeted conservative groups who were seeking tax-exempt status. Republicans have accused the former director of the IRS’s exempt organizations division of possible criminal wrongdoing in targeting the groups.
“Great. Maybe we are through if there are that many assholes.”
— Lois Lerner
“This email shows that Ms. Lerner’s mistreatment of conservative groups was driven by her personal hostility toward conservatives,” Camp wrote. Read the rest of this entry »
SMIDGEN REPORT: IRS Reports NEW Round of Computer Crashes
Posted: July 21, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Cincinnati, Daily Caller, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Lerner, Lois Lerner, Patrick Howley, Twitter, United States Congress 1 Comment“There is an issue as to whether or not there is a ‑‑ that all of the backup recovery tapes were destroyed on the 6‑month retention schedule.”
— IRS Deputy Associate Chief Counsel Thomas Kane
For The Daily Caller, Patrick Howley reports: IRS Deputy Associate Chief Counsel Thomas Kane said in transcribed congressional testimony that more IRS officials experienced computer crashes, bringing the total number of crash victims to “less than 20,” and also said that the agency does not know if the lost emails are stillbacked up somewhere.
“So some of those backup tapes may still exist?”
— Investigator
“I don’t know whether they are or they aren’t, but it’s an issue that’s being looked at.”
— Kane
DOJ Investigating Missing IRS Emails
Posted: July 17, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Contempt of Congress, Eric Holder, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Lerner, Lois Lerner, United States Department of Justice, United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 2 CommentsWASHINGTON (AP/ Breitbart) reports: The Justice Department is investigating the circumstances behind the disappearance of emails from a former senior Internal Revenue Service official, part of a broader criminal inquiry into whether the agency had targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, according to congressional testimony released Wednesday.
In a statement to be delivered to a congressional committee on Thursday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole says investigators are looking into emails that went missing from the computer of Lois Lerner.
Cole was to appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has been investigating the matter. He declined to provide additional information about the investigation, according to prepared remarks issued ahead of his appearance.
The IRS has said it lost the emails in 2011 when Lerner’s computer crashed. At the time, Lerner headed the IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Geraghty: Apparently Lois Lerner Is ‘One-Woman Walking Electromagnetic Pulse’
Posted: July 15, 2014 Filed under: Humor, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Chuck Grassley, Dave Camp, Greta Van Sustren, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Lois Lerner, Smidgen, Smidgen Report, YouTube Leave a commentIRS: ‘There Is No Other Plausible Explanation’
Posted: July 13, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Ed Rogers, Instant messaging, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Lerner, Lois Lerner, Twitter, Washington Post 1 CommentFor The Washington Post, mirroring punditfromanotherplanet‘s favorite ongoing theme, Ed Rogers writes: Anyone paying attention to the Internal Revenue Service scandal has been waiting for the next smidgen to drop. Well, two more hit pretty hard this week. At the president’s next encounter with the media, I will scream collusion if no one asks him for his exact definition of a “smidgen,” and if he thinks he has seen a smidgen of corruption yet. At this point, only the most gullible or culpable can continue to claim there is no compelling evidence in this case. Given the delays,lies and stonewalling, there is no viable argument against a special prosecutor.
“This is a smoking gun e-mail in that it makes plain she had a cover-up in mind. There is no other plausible explanation.”
Who knows how many of her colleagues and allies are breathing a sigh of relief upon learning that their e-mails to Lerner were destroyed and their instant messages not recorded? I think Lerner must have a sizable silent cheering section in Washington; people who are rooting for her to hang tough in pleading the Fifth and hoping that she does not go wobbly on them.
[Also see Jazz Shaw‘s commentary – The Lerner Files: “smidgens upon smidgens” of corruption]
I’ll bet her government retirement check is one check that never gets lost in the mail or delayed. Read the rest of this entry »
Fund: Judges Ordering IRS Employees to Testify on Lerner E-mail Is ‘a Major Step Forward’
Posted: July 12, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice | Tags: Court, IRS, John Fund, Lois Lerner, NRO 2 CommentsVia NRO staff:
[VIDEO] Republican Congressman: Lerner Should Have Known She Was Obliged by Law to Preserve Her E-mails
Posted: June 24, 2014 Filed under: Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: David Ferriero, Federal Records, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Lois Lerner, National Archives and Records Administration, Tim Walberg, United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 1 CommentFor NRO, Molly Wharton writes: The IRS “did not follow the law” by not notifying the National Archives and Records Administration when they lost Lois Lerner’s e-mails, U.S. Archivist David Ferriero said.
During an IRS investigation hearing on Tuesday morning, Representative Tim Walberg (R., Mich.) questioned Ferriero about whether the IRS broke the Federal Records Act, which requires that if agencies become aware of unauthorized destruction of federal records, they report the incident to the archives…(read more) National Review Online
Lois Lerner Emails: Nothing Digital Ever Dies
Posted: June 19, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Science & Technology, U.S. News | Tags: Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Karl Rove, Lois Lerner, Michael S. Malone, RealClearPolitics, Republican National Committee, White House 4 CommentsFor RealClearPolitics, Carl M. Cannon writes: In 2007, while co-writing a magazine piece with Silicon Valley author and entrepreneur Michael S. Malone on best Information Age practices for politicians, I coined a phrase Malone instantly dubbed “the Cannon Codicil.”
“…mismanaging emails and thinking you’ve lost them forever are two different animals…”
Postulating that electronic messages, like diamonds, last for forever, Cannon’s codicil simply holds that “Nothing digital ever dies.”
“…most, if not all, of the missing emails from Lois Lerner and her six IRS comrades with their fried hard drives have presumably been preserved elsewhere.”
Although inspired by the water torture Democrats were then inflicting on Karl Rove over his missing Republican National Committee emails, mostly I was being metaphysical. But now, with the Internal Revenue Service claiming it has lost tens of thousands of emails from Lois Lerner and six of her IRS subordinates, the question in Washington is whether such a thing is technologically possible.
“There is no such thing as completely disappeared emails.”
The interest in those emails is not academic. Lerner is the former government official who oversaw the division in the IRS that was apparently targeting conservative non-profits for stalling and harassment. “I did nothing wrong,” she testified before Congress, but that’s about all she’d say. Lerner deflected further inquiry by invoking the 5th Amendment privilege against incriminating herself in criminal wrongdoing. Read the rest of this entry »
IRS Has Lost MORE E-mails . . .
Posted: June 17, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, White House | Tags: Charles Boustany, Dave Camp, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Lerner, Lois Lerner, Tax exemption, United States House Committee on Ways and Means Leave a commentUPDATE: For National Review Online, Eliana Johnson writes: It’s not just Lois Lerner’s e-mails. The Internal Revenue Service says it can’t produce e-mails from six more employees involved in the targeting of conservative groups, according to two Republicans investigating the scandal.
The IRS recently informed Ways and Means chairman Dave Camp and subcommittee chairman Charles Boustany that computer crashes resulted in additional lost e-mails, including from Nikole Flax, the chief of staff to former IRS commissioner Steven Miller, who was fired in the wake of the targeting scandal.
The revelation about Lerner’s e-mails rekindled the targeting scandal and today’s news has further inflamed Republicans. Read the rest of this entry »
No Wonder the IRS Is Losing E-mails: It Was Trying to Throw Innocent Conservatives in Jail
Posted: June 17, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Federal Election Commission, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Judicial Watch, Lois Lerner, Organizing for Action, Rhode Island, United States Department of Justice 1 Comment“The scale of the wrongdoing is staggering.”
Even a small child can connect these dots.
For National Review Online, David French writes: The IRS is announcing the “loss” of mass numbers of e-mails (do they have any computers that don’t crash?) even as the e-mails that do exist are beginning to show the extent of IRS corruption. Let’s take this exchange (previously uncovered by Judicial Watch) between Lois Lerner, the director of exempt organizations at the IRS, and Nikole Flax, then the IRS commissioner’s chief of staff. (To be clear, these are not “low level” employees.)
“Targeting Americans for criminal investigation without evidence, attempting to enlist multiple federal agencies in the effort, selective audits, selective disclosures of confidential documents, selective questioning and delays of nonprofit applicants — all in the service of suppressing dissent.”
First, here’s Lerner on May 8, 2013, literally two days before last year’s fake apology for IRS tea-party targeting:
I got a call today from Richard Pilger Director Elections Crimes Branch at DOJ. I know him from contacts from my days there. He wanted to know who at IRS the DOJ folk s could talk to about [Rhode Island Democrat] Sen. Whitehouse idea at the hearing that DOJ could piece together false statement cases about applicants who “lied” on their1024s –saying they weren’t planning on doing political activity, and then turning around and making large vis ible political expenditures. DOJ is feeling like it needs to respond, but want to talk to the right folks at IRS to see whether there are impediments from our side and what, if any damage this might do to IRS programs.
I told him that sounded like we might need several folks from IRS. I am out of town all next week, so wanted to reach out and see who you think would be right for such a meeting and also hand this off to Nan as contact person if things need to happen while I am gone –
Translation: The Obama Justice Department was reaching out to the Obama IRS to see if it could “piece together” prosecutions of nonprofits even before any evidence of wrongdoing emerged. Read the rest of this entry »
Oh Yes They Did: House Votes 231-187 to Hold Lois Lerner in Contempt
Posted: May 7, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Contempt of Congress, Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Internal Revenue Service, Lerner, Lois Lerner, New York Times, Republican, United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 4 CommentsGiving it to you straight, is Mediaite:
The House of Representatives voted 231-187 tonight to hold former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress, weeks after the House Oversight Committee voted to bring the contempt charge to the House floor. The point of contention is whether Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights during hearings into IRS political targeting. In addition to the contempt charge, last month the House Ways and Means Committee voted to refer Lerner to the Justice Department for a possible investigation into criminal charges.
For the more comforting pro-Democrat spin, try the NYT. Their headline: “House Holds Ex-I.R.S. Official in Contempt (in what the NYTimes, and only the NYTimes calls) the “Tea Party Case“.
Written by Jeremy W. Peters, it’s crafted to be the least upsetting to their Tea-Party hating readers. It’s meant to reassure them that it’s not a real hearing, about real crimes, it’s 100% political, lead by mean, witch-hunting, conspiracy-deranged Republicans, against innocent, law-abiding, hard-working servants of the people. Thank goodness it’s not about Lois Lerner’s accountability, or abuses against citizens by the IRS.
It includes this photo of an “angry-looking” Republican white male:
Here’s some choice quotes:
“Democrats invoked former Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and delusions of widespread conspiracy.”
House Republicans Won’t Rule Out Arresting Lois Lerner if Justice Department Doesn’t
Posted: April 9, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Contempt of Congress, Drudge, Eric Holder, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, John Boehner, Lerner, Lois Lerner, Matt Drudge, United States Congress, Washington Examiner 4 CommentsThis is one of those days where I think Matt Drudge is imitating my obsessions, rather than the other way around. Wishful thinking, I know. But readers here know, Lois Lerner is our favorite voodoo doll. At punditfromanotherplanet, a day without Lois Lerner is a day without sunshine.
For the Washington Examiner, Joel Gehrke reports: House Ways and Means Committee Republicans aren’t ruling out the use of the chamber’s “inherent contempt” authority if Attorney General Eric Holder refuses to act on the panel’s accusations against former IRS official Lois Lerner.
The committee voted Wednesday to seek an investigation of whether Lerner violated federal law by using her power to ensure Right-leaning groups were targeted for extra scrutiny by the agency, giving misleading information during a probe of the matter by the Treasury Department‘s inspector general and using her personal email to conduct official business, which could have resulted in the disclosure of confidential taxpayer information.
Congress votes Lerner in contempt of Congress, refers prosecution to Attorney General who Congress voted in contempt of Congress
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) April 9, 2014
“The Ways and Means Committee, led by Chairman [Dave] Camp [R-Mich.], has conducted a serious and thorough investigation of the IRS, uncovering abuses and criminal acts that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said of the referral. “As I’ve said, if Lois Lerner continues to refuse to testify, then the House will hold her in contempt. And we will continue to shine the light on the administration’s abusive actions and use every tool at our disposal to expose the truth and ensure the American people get the answers they deserve.”
Lerner’s Pension Could Be as Much as $3.96 Million Lifetime, $102,600 a Year
Posted: March 5, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Politics, White House | Tags: Civil Service Retirement System, Darrell Issa, Federal Election Commission, Federal Employees Retirement System, Internal Revenue Service, Lerner, Lois Lerner, National Taxpayers Union 4 Comments“…prior to her decision in favor of voluntarily retiring, Lerner was in danger of being removed from her job due to findings from an IRS inquiry board citing “neglect of duties” and mismanagement…”
Executive vice president for the National Taxpayers Union Pete Sepp reports: Even before she retired, scandalized IRS official Lois Lerner’s compensation was already attracting attention. While on administrative leave, federal rules allowed her to keep collecting a salary, one that reportedly totaled $177,000. So it was no surprise when speculation arose over how much Lerner could collect in federal pension benefits.
Unfortunately, that speculation, which initially projected a benefit of over $50,000, might be off by about half … and in the wrong direction.
National Taxpayers Union calculations show that Lerner could qualify for a starting pension at the annual equivalent of as much as $102,600, and up to $3.96 million over her lifetime.
[See also Lois Lerner’s ‘punishment’: Retirement with full pension]
The individual retirement choices of federal employees are not a matter of public record. However, precisely because NTU has been denied this information in the past (specifically pertaining to Members of Congress), we’ve developed the most accurate method available to provide solid estimates of how much federal employees can collect.
Will She or Won’t She? Awaiting Lois Lerner’s Testimony at IRS Scandal Hearing
Posted: March 5, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Law & Justice, Politics | Tags: Darrell Issa, Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Fox New Sunday, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Lois Lerner 1 CommentA former IRS official who refused to answer questions about the agency’s targeting scandal at a hearing last spring is expected to appear before a House committee on Wednesday, but it’s unclear whether she will answer questions this time, either.
[See IRS emails shed light on dispute between Lois Lerner, congressional investigators]
Lois Lerner headed the IRS division that improperly targeted tea party and other conservative groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.
[Also see [VIDEO] Lois Lerner to Testify before Congress on Wednesday]
After publicly disclosing the targeting, Lerner refused to answer questions about it at a congressional hearing, invoking her constitutional right not to incriminate herself.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told “Fox News Sunday” he expected Lerner to testify at Wednesday’s hearing. But a committee spokeswoman said Tuesday she could only confirm that Lerner was expected to attend the hearing. Read the rest of this entry »
Congressional Hearings: Preparation Advice for Lois Lerner
Posted: March 3, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Censorship, Comics, Law & Justice | Tags: censorship, Congress, Daryl Issa, Fifth Amendment, IRS, IRS corruption, Justice, Lois Lerner, Tea Party, Testimony Leave a comment‘Sit Down, Bitch’ Part 2
Posted: February 26, 2014 Filed under: Law & Justice, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Darrell Issa, Elijah Cummings, Fifth Amendment, Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Lois Lerner, Tea Party 1 Comment
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/Files
Issa, House GOP to recall Lois Lerner
House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is hauling Lois Lerner back to Congress.
Issa told Lerner’s attorney in a Tuesday letter that he expected the retired IRS official to appear before his committee on March 5.
“Because the committee explicitly rejected her Fifth Amendment privilege claim, I expect her to provide answers when the hearing reconvenes on March 5.”
— Chairman Darrell Issa
Lerner, the official at the center of the IRS targeting controversy, invoked her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination at a May 2013 hearing, just days after she apologized for the agency’s treatment of Tea Party groups.
See “Sit Down, Bitch, We’re Not Done Yet (punditfromanotherplanet.com)
But the Oversight Committee later ruled that Lerner waived her rights by making an opening statement, setting the stage for her recall next week.