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IRS Apologizes for Targeting Conservative Groups

IRS Apologizes for Targeting Conservative Groups

White House names new IRS commissioner as well.

Two big items happened today concerning the IRS. No, the agency still exists and we have to pay taxes. However, the agency has apologized for targeting conservative groups due to their political beliefs during President Barack Obama’s administration.

Also, it’s now official that IRS Commissioner John Koskinen will leave in November as President Donald Trump announced a new leader.

Apology….Finally

Back in 2013, Lois Lerner, who directed the IRS’s Exempt Organizations unit, came under fire after conservative groups had their tax-exempt status delayed due to their political beliefs.

The long awaited apology has finally arrived. From The Daily Caller:

Court documents reveal the IRS admitted wrongdoing and apologized for the nefarious conduct.

“The IRS admits that its treatment of Plaintiffs during the tax-exempt determination process, including screening their applications based on their names or policy positions, subjecting those applications to heightened scrutiny and inordinate delays, and demanding some Plaintiffs’ information that TITA determined was unnecessary to the agency’s determination of their tax-exempt status, was wrong,” the IRS said in court documents. “For such treatment, the IRS expresses its sincere apology.”

The DOJ has settled lawsuits with these conservative groups who felt the backlash from the IRS. The department did not disclose the amount of money handed out to over 400 organizations:

“The [Internal Revenue Service]’s use of these criteria as a basis for heightened scrutiny was wrong and should never have occurred,” Sessions said in a statement Thursday. “It is improper for the IRS to single out groups for different treatment based on their names or ideological positions.”

The Trump administration reached a settlement in two separate cases, one including 41 groups and another filed by 428 plaintiffs.

The attorneys for the groups celebrated the moment:

“The Government’s generous settlement with the Class Plaintiffs fully vindicates their claims that the IRS targeted Tea Party and conservative groups based on their viewpoint,” lead counsel for the conservative groups, Eddie Greim, told Fox News in an email. “However, like Lois Lerner’s stated apology back in 2013, any recent so-called ‘apology’ by the IRS has little value. That is because the Service continues to suggest that its targeting was really just ‘mismanagement.’”

Greim added: “This story was dismantled in our case. For taxpayers to be truly confident that the IRS has changed, it needs to be truthful about its past abuse of power.”

New IRS Leader

David Kautter, the current assistant secretary for tax policy at the Treasury Department, will take over as interim leader of the IRS in November when Koskinen’s term expires.

Bloomberg reported:

“David will provide important leadership while we wait to confirm a permanent commissioner,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement.

It was expected that Koskinen wouldn’t be reappointed, since he was hired by President Barack Obama and is loathed by congressional Republicans, some of whom tried to impeach him in 2016. Whoever is appointed to replace Koskinen on a permanent basis may have two high-profile and sensitive jobs: helping implement President Donald Trump’s proposed tax cuts and overseeing an audit of the president’s tax returns.

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…and about FREAKING TIME…!!!

“Whoever is appointed to replace Koskinen on a permanent basis may have two high-profile and sensitive jobs: helping implement President Donald Trump’s proposed tax cuts and overseeing an audit of the president’s tax returns.”

Stay classy, Bloomberg.

Koskinen is getting off entirely too easily. He should never hold another government post ever.

    Koskinen and Lerner should both serve time in prison and have their pensions revoked.

    Or maybe an angry mob could just drag them into the street to tar and feather them.

Wait, for years and years they said nothing happened, there was no targeting, no discrimination, no evidence, no Santa Claus…. and now, “We’re Sorry”? That better have been a VERY generous settlement.

Whoever was working under Koskinen was probably working under him during the scandals, so it won’t be an improvement.
I’m far more interested in who Trump appoints as a replacement, and what kind of reception they get in Congress.

BierceAmbrose | October 26, 2017 at 4:43 pm

Well, having govt money directed to organizations they loather is pretty much the only penalty these people will feel.

Any payment doesn’t come from them. They don’t feel embarrassment or shame. They’re not bothered by demonstrations they have no ethics, or of their illogic or inconsistency.

Their cool-kids’ club ensures that even Heather who don’t conveniently get to retire into “What difference, at this point, does it make!” land somewhere safe and lucrative.

There’s literally no way to get at them, except to redirect the patronage hose they so energetically direct toward their clients, toward someone else.

Hey, what’s the point of winning if you can’t get a payoff?

What’s the point of playing if you aren’t gonna win?

Next, how about penalties on banks and so on for dishonest practices go to people who lost their houses or pensions? The EPA has already changed policy so “judgments” go to the people poisoned, or similar, not the operatives who brought a suit.

We’ll know it’s working when the EPA pays something out to the folks in the (temporarily) yellow river valley, you know, the one they poisoned. No prosecution on that one, perhaps because a win would have taken govt money vs. money from the “bad guys” and routed it to the victims not fellow travelers.

I’d be less cynical if “resolving” Detroit’s water problem had come out differently.

“The long awaited apology has finally arrived.”

Who cares? Don’t be fooled by crocodile tears. If no one is in handcuffs, then nothing they say about it matters because nothing has actually changed.

rustyshamrock | October 26, 2017 at 4:55 pm

Apology! APOLOGY!!! Who the heck wants an apology? I want heads to roll and LONG prison sentences to be handed out!

    Exactly. I like your idea of heads rolling. The guillotine has been badly maligned. When this story broke I was so angry fashioned a terrible pop-up card depicting three people hanging by their necks but I never sent it to anybody. It was just therapy. I’m sure it’s still around in the craft room. Not like me to throw away such a thing. I titled it I.R.S. retraining center. Care to see it?

    Why isn’t anyone asking why these organizations should have tax exemption? Does everyone really think they deserve this status? Just more political welfare. The whole entitlement should be repealed so these political organizations are taxed like any other business.

      bour3 in reply to MikeT. | October 27, 2017 at 2:06 pm

      That has been asked. And answered. It’s not just tax exemption, it has to do with all the laws surrounding paying taxes. Tax exempt organizations do not have to list the names of their donors while tax paying organizations do have to list names. And listing names provides targets for crackpot activists as we’ve seen done illegally by outing supporters of tax exempt organizations that were against gay marriage who were then personally targeted for attacks. Things get vicious where emotion is involved.

        MikeT in reply to bour3. | October 27, 2017 at 2:10 pm

        That works both ways as supporters also are maligned. But that should not be a reason to make an organization tax exempt. Neither lib or conservative should have that designation. If the sole purpose is to make donors invisible, then the IRS better be more diligent in refusing to grant 501c status.

Subotai Bahadur | October 26, 2017 at 5:34 pm

So we have absolutely no penalty for those who actually broke the law. Koskinen suffers no penalty beyond leaving his job when he was scheduled to. And there is no disincentive for the Left to do it again, or even now since they still run most Executive departments because McConnell is slow walking Trump’s appointments; as soon as they get a chance.

Not sufficient.

    Ragspierre in reply to Subotai Bahadur. | October 26, 2017 at 5:52 pm

    “And there is no disincentive for the Left to do it again, or even now since they still run most Executive departments because McConnell is slow walking Trump’s appointments”

    That’s just a lie. Koskinen served every day at T-rump’s good pleasure.

    And you either know it, or you’re willing to lie about it.

      healthguyfsu in reply to Ragspierre. | October 26, 2017 at 6:07 pm

      I won’t call you a liar as you do others but your statements are a bit of a stretch don’t you think considering Koskinen was appointed by the previous tenure. That’s like saying every day Comey was FBI director since Trump took office was because he wanted Comey to be FBI director.

Welcome to the era where saying “my bad” is sufficient to excuse all wrong doing and without penalty.

And he’ll get a pension, just like Lois Lerner. Crime pays.

This scummy woman is apologizing only because she got caught, and only because she became so vilified, and only because she’s threatened with prosecution because hillary clinton screwed up the election.

Screw her and her apology. Her villany will live on forever. Hopefully, she’l l be prosecuted and sued into ruin.

Apology? With penalties and interest.

This is woefully inadequate for the weaponization of one of the most-feared Executive agencies for political purposes.

This illegal IRS harassment and targeting was key in undermining the momentum and then-growing power of the Tea Party movement. That movement was so significant that lefties are still dreaming about and trying to manufacture its success. So threatening were we that political and media attacks weren’t enough, we had to be intimidated and shut down via the IRS.

Everything worked as intended: the Tea Party was a growing and strong political force, sic the IRS on them, watch them dwindle away. Later, we’ll just say, “Ooopsie!” and all will be well.

The message with this too-little, too-late apology and lack of actual consequences: Lather, rinse, repeat.

Not. Good. Enough.

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to Fuzzy Slippers. | October 26, 2017 at 9:00 pm

    AGREED 100%

    Lois needs to spend the rest of her un-natural life in prison!

    Maybe she can bunk with Hillary.

    Close The Fed in reply to Fuzzy Slippers. | October 26, 2017 at 11:31 pm

    Fuzzy Slippers is obviously right.

    If the Tea Parties hadn’t been harassed and drained, it’s quite possible Obama could have lost in 2012. . .

      rustyshamrock in reply to Close The Fed. | October 27, 2017 at 9:06 am

      Election “collusion”.

      notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to Close The Fed. | October 28, 2017 at 2:43 pm

      But….imo….Obama lost in 2012 and in 2008, cause dead voters, convicted felon voters, illegal alien voters, and voters casting more than 1 ballot in a single election don’t count!

      Obama never won a single fair election in his entire life.
      So why would he start in 2008 and 2012?

      “Obama – Erected, but Never Elected!”

“Justice Department risked losing the ability to charge the 2009 felonies because of the five-year statute of limitations on most federal crimes.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/452972/uranium-one-deal-obama-administration-doj-hillary-clinton-racketeering

Everyone unhappy with no prosecutions needs to read an actual lawyer (which excludes Rags) on the subject. And statute of limitations takes actual laws getting past the NeverTrumpers in Congress.

Of course, Rags could refute this by actually telling us which laws still apply; a real lawyer has tools to do that kind of research. He won’t.

    Ragspierre in reply to SDN. | October 27, 2017 at 10:09 am

    Well, at least two of us have no FLUCKING idea what you’re talking about (you and I).

    Here I was on the point of giving you plaudits for reading NR (gutsy, given the haters here), and you come up this this trolling bullshit.

    It’s “STATUTES of limitation”, btw, not “statute of limitations”.

    If you want me to research something, you should ask. Politely. And at least somewhat coherently. I have no clue what the FLUCK you’re babbling about.

    Try again. Nicely. Maybe I can help you. But I promise I won’t if you just act like a cultist troll.

    Ragspierre in reply to SDN. | October 27, 2017 at 10:13 am

    Oh, btw, you can look up the term “tolling” wrt statutes of limitation. It isn’t the same as trolling, so it will be a new concept to you. Actual lawyers know about it and we use it all the time.

Lois Lerner should be charged and put where she belongs in jail.

This was part of the attacks that the Obama administration allowed for 8 years against citizens who had a political view different than they did.

This is just the tip of the ice berg.

I’m still waiting for the IRS to investigate the Clinton Foundation and Chelsea for her taking $14 Million to pay for her wedding and honeymoon.

Anyone knows the cash value of an apology nowadays?

Big deal. The head of IRS is retiring and not being rehired. No stones to let this happen. Lois Lerner is free and living large. Not one of the gutless SOB’s is doing a thing about it. Sorry as hell.

DouglasJBender | October 28, 2017 at 5:40 pm

“Sorry we used the IRS against you.”

“Sorry I lied when I said you could keep your doctor and your plan.”

“Sorry we stole the election with voter fraud.”

“Sorry we lied about the Iran deal.”

“Sorry about the lies we told about Benghazi.”

“Never mind about the Russian collusion thing.”

“Sorry about the whole private server / email thing; it won’t happen again.”

“Sorry about giving control of 20% of America’s uranium to Russia — Who knew uranium was so important?”

“Sorry about hiding all of this from Congress and the American public for years. Looks like we didn’t really understand what ‘transparent’ means.”

“Which reminds us: Sorry for the whole ‘transgender’ push.”