Misfired 2010 email alerted more IRS officials to Tea Party scrutiny
A misfired email from a U.S. Internal Revenue Service employee in Cincinnati in July 2010 alerted a broad group of Washington IRS officials to the heightened scrutiny being given conservative groups, according to an interview the IRS worker gave congressional investigators.
The interview transcripts, reviewed by Reuters on Thursday, provide new details about Washington IRS officials’ awareness of the scrutiny given to groups seeking tax-exempt status using terms like “Tea Party” or “patriot” to flag applications.
The transcripts show that in July 2010, Elizabeth Hofacre, an IRS official in Cincinnati who was coordinating “emerging issues” for the agency’s tax-exempt unit, was corresponding with Washington-based IRS tax attorney Carter Hull….
Lois Lerner, the IRS official who set off the controversy, said she first learned of the “be on the lookout list” (BOLO) of partisan terms in June 2011, and ordered the criteria be removed immediately. The Treasury inspector general backed that up….
Washington IRS officials including Lerner, who was put on administrative leave in response to the fracas, have stressed the lack of Washington involvement in the scrutiny….
Neither Hofacre, nor a second IRS worker in Cincinnati, Gary Muthert, knew who asked for the partisan names to be added to the BOLO list in the first place, the transcripts showed.
Still, Muthert said that when his supervisor in Cincinnati initially asked him to look for “Tea Party” applications, “he told me Washington, D.C., wanted some cases,” according to his interview with congressional investigators.
IRS Workers Say Supervisors Directed Targeting
Two Internal Revenue Service agents working in the agency’s Cincinnati office say higher-ups in Washington directed the targeting of conservative political groups when they applied for tax-exempt status, a contention that directly contradicts claims made by the agency since the scandal erupted last month.
The Cincinnati agents didn’t provide proof that senior IRS officials in Washington ordered the targeting. But one of the agents said her work processing the applications was closely supervised by a Washington lawyer in the IRS division that handles applications for tax-exempt status, according to a transcript of her interview with congressional investigators.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
[…] we have learned recently is that the IRS cannot be trusted. Not only did the IRS target political viewpoints for abuse, the IRS also provided names of donors […]
Assumption is, the bodies of the two named agents will be found floating in the Ohio River, before it joins the Mississippi River.
Holder refuses to say whether the DOJ has been spying on Congress.
“Separation of powers? What separation of powers?”
Rush Limbaugh: “We are in the Midst of a Coup Taking Place” (Audio)
http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2013/06/rush-limbaugh-we-are-in-midst-of-coup.html
This Sean Hannity special on now, that was bumped b/c of the tornadoes last week, is laying it all out beautifully. I hope you post some snippets of the most revealing revelations.
Isn’t it pathetic the way scandals are seemingly competing for attention… How long can this admin last under this kind of behavior? Too damn long. LiV’s have given us all what they voted for and we, the concerned, are well and truly screwed.
I think that a consensus could be arrive at in that the president sets the “tone” of his administration and that the party loyalists carry on from there. Since the tone of this administration appears to be based on Chicago style machine politics, no one should be surprised. In fact, all of this probably started from day one.
The pace of revelations is quickening much like occurred during Watergate. While the former was a political prank gone awry the current goings based on at least four separate “scandals” have resulted in the loss of human life.
The continued obfuscation of the facts simply smell of coverup and tacit approval of the disregard of the public trust.
Resignations would be nice but jail terms would be better…
Seriously…what have we NOT been lied to about…???
The DC lawyer mentioned in some of the IRS stories isn’t some newbie phantom. He literally wrote the instructions for 501(c)4’s
Exempt Organizations-Technical Instruction Program for FY2003
IRC 501(c)(4) Organizations
By
John Francis Reilly, Carter C. Hull, and Barbara A. Braig Allen
We need impeachment of this president. George Bush would have been targeted for assassination if he did what Obama is doing.
Perhaps I should apologize for conspiracy theorizing, but given the rate at which paranoid theories are becoming headlines, maybe no apology is needed for floating this idea.
Now that we know the IRS was, from it upper levels, corruptly serving the political ends of the Obama administration by going after his political opponents, how do we know the NSA wasn’t doing the same thing? Records of the Romney campaign’s electronic communications would be very helpful to the Obama campaign, would they not? And didn’t the Romney campaign have a massive computer failure on election day? What a coincidence! Such a thing would probably be child’s play for the NSA….
Completely forgot about the ORCA failure on election day. However, the Romney campaign turned out to be a lot of bluster and incompetence too, but having the whole federal government used against him would have made it an impossible task to overcome by even a semi-effective GOTV operation like the one GW had in 2004.
Every “scandal” post-Benghazi is engineered by the black lie’s/Jarrett’s minions to deflect attention/consume time, money and energy against a hard look at Benghazi. Benghazi has the knowledge that is lethal to the black lie. The “scandals” are back-fires against that central blaze.
I think you could be right David. We are being overwhelmed by new revelations daily while Benghazi fades into the background. Why was Ambassador Stevens stripped of the security he did have and left with only locals who had terrorist connections for his protection? This appears to be an obvious set-up, but to what end?
Oh, I don’t know. Backfires aren’t a great idea if they end up creating more destruction than the fire they are meant to contain. I think lots of people can write off Benghazi as a terror attack, “mistakes were made, but such things happen.” The IRS scandal, though, puts Nixon to shame, and gets more people upset because we all have to deal with the IRS. The NSA scandal touches everyone, too. Plus, the combined weight of the scandals makes the administration look evil and/or incompetent. I don’t think they are planning all this, or if they are, it’s not working out the way they hoped.
Since the IRS targeting first emerged, several former IRS agents have come forward to say there is no way front-line agents would or could have taken something like this upon themselves. Every single one notes the level of scrutiny from supervisors and Washington.
It defies imagination to believe it wasn’t being directed by the White House, especially in view of Shulman’s 157 visits there. It won’t be traced to Obama, though – even if he knew and directed it, only close loyalists would know, and they won’t rat out the boss – lest they forfeit the blanket pardon that will be their Ace in the hole against prosecution.
I think Romney saw it ALL laid out when the gorilla thing had the transcript of sept 12 / 2012. Right there. I think he wanted to go bash that snide stick off his smug chair but he took it for the good of America. Unimaginable pressure .
That look of recognition was As if he had met the devil.
Without naming specific names, Larry Kudlow insisted on Thursday night’s show that it’s not going to stop at Carter Hull. Kudlow seems to be plugged in to Washington Republicans so I suspect he was basing his remarks on more than a hunch.
I think Republicans already have a good idea where it’s going to lead but they want to lay the foundation and methodically build the case.
As long as the American people are silent about the IRS abuse nothing will change. The administration is in full cover-up mode ( a la Fast & Furious, Benghazi, AP, and now NSA). Demand accountability. Sign the petition for appointment of a special prosecutor http://wh.gov/lqvKn
[…] (Previous post.) (Via Legal Insurrection.) […]