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Bombshell at IRS hearings today? Watch LIVE

Bombshell at IRS hearings today? Watch LIVE

The House Oversight Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing today at 11:00am ET on “The IRS’ Systematic Delay and Scrutiny of Tea Party Applications.” (Livestream also at the bottom of this post).

FOX News’ Carl Cameron reported Wednesday evening on the O’Reilly Factor that major evidence is expected to be revealed at Thursday’s hearing that proves, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, that the IRS targeting scandal goes “way higher up in the government” and that the IRS in DC “was ultimately calling the shots.”

Cameron on O’Reilly:

“Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the committee, has said they have new testimony, they’ve interviewed some new witnesses, who have evidence that, Issa claims, tomorrow will reveal that this goes way higher up in the government, that the IRS in DC was ultimately calling the shots.  Even if it did originate in Cincinnati, it was taken over by Lois Lerner and the bureaucrats and they’re denying it…What he [Issa] said to me today was, make sure we watch tomorrow’s hearing because he’s going to present the evidence to prove it.”

h/t Gateway Pundit

Issa also claims that the IRS chief counsel’s office is involved in the targeting controversy as well.

In addition, on July 17th, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan, and Ways and Means Subcommittee Chairman Charles Boustany Jr. M.D. sent a letter to Acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, requesting documents “related to IRS employee discussions about the 2010 election, the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, and the tax-exempt status of Tea Party groups.”

From the letter:

“As a part of this ongoing investigation, the Committees have learned that the IRS Chief Counsel’s office in Washington, D.C. has been closely involved in some of the applications.  Its involvement and demands for information about political activity during the 2010 election cycle appears to have caused systematic delays in the processing of Tea Party applications,” wrote Issa, Camp, Jordan, and Boustany in their letter to Werfel.  “[B]ased on his decades of experience, [career IRS official Carter Hull] determined he had enough facts to make recommendations whether to approve or deny the applications … However, Mr. Hull’s recommendations were not carried out.  Instead, according to Michael Seto, the head of Mr. Hull’s unit in Washington, Lois Lerner instructed that the Tea Party applications go through a multi-layer review that included her senior advisor and the Chief Counsel’s office.”

Read the full letter, which includes witness testimony.

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You can view the livestream for this morning’s committee hearing in progress and follow Twitter updates below.

 


Videos from the hearing:

Darrell Issa Opening Statement

Common Cents has also got some posts on the hearing.

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Comments

The IRS has perhaps the strangest organizational chart of any federal agency. If we are to believe the reports so far, their Chief Counsel reports to a lowly rogue GS-5 employee toiling away in a cubicle in the basement of the Cincinnati field office.

    bawatkins in reply to northcross. | July 18, 2013 at 8:05 pm

    When I worked for the gov, 15+ years back, it was almost impossible to be allowed to hire anyone below a GS7, so GS5 would be someone with a high school diploma and no college at all.

I think if I was Carl Cameron, or any Fox News reporter, I would be very reluctant to break any news. His parents now have to be careful what they say on the phone.

legacyrepublican | July 18, 2013 at 11:47 am

We already know what the result will be.

Nixon wrong and criminal.

Obama smart and not responsible.

The ultimate response from the Administration? “So what?”

After all, the House cannot charge anyone or force the DoJ to prosecute these crimes. And Boehner won’t do a thing to rock the boat.

Amazing to see what happens when an administration goes full rogue.

    Aridog in reply to iconotastic. | July 18, 2013 at 1:57 pm

    First they came for the budget and took it away…no need for all that…Continuing Resolutions have so much less oversight with direct Executive Branch authority to spend ala’ whoop de do….with minor spot appropriations via arm twists and sacred cow goring.

    Next they advised the Supreme Court that enforcement might be dicey, SOTU 2011 and remarks prior to PPACA decision. [The Andrew Jackson gambit].

    Result: The Autocracy we have today.

    Coming Next: Elections via sampling and polling.

The FBI still has not interviewed any of the people involved in the targeting. How is it possible to have an investigation when you haven’t spoken to the victims? I would think that is where the investigation would start, you speak to the targets, get copies of documents, and go from there. But the DOJ has no problem swarming Florida with agents looking for dirt on George Zimmerman, having the Community Relations Board spend thousands of dollars to pay for protests and investigating tips sent to email targeting one man.

There is no bigger civil rights violation than the United States most powerful gov’t agency targeting peaceful citizens who try to get involved in their country’s political process.

The federal government is at war with its citizens.

    Aridog in reply to guycocoa. | July 18, 2013 at 2:46 pm

    That is true. It is also true that the senior executives in government [all appointed] are at war with their subordinates in civil service. Extortion is the common method of lining up the subordinates. I can speak with some knowledge on this after time in the military and as a “Fed.” You can reduce the SES and higher ranks, including the military flag ranks, by 50+% and with no loss of efficiency or effective service provision. But no one dares to do it. So it grows and grows.

Finally, seeking out “worker bees” is the start to lead to the real culprits in this sordid affair. The two people that testified today linked it directly to the White House.

Now the pressure must be increased on Lois Lerner or maybe it would be wise to call in her immediate subordinates. Someone is going to sing like a canary and her butt will be toast.

Still, the direct White House link has to be established..

[…] don't really respect the process or its results. In the wake of the Snowden revelations, the IRS scandal, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the 'recess appointments,' the DoJ's targeting of […]

The ‘Just Us’ Dept. and the IRSS … which among these departments is the most corrupt? Is it a tie?

what a dud