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Columbia classmate: Obama using IRS to punish me
Outspoken 2008 VP candidate claims prez trying to 'silence critics'
WND
Art Moore
10/7/2012
Excerpts:
The former Libertarian Party vice presidential candidate who has claimed Barack Obama was unknown to him and his fellow Columbia University classmates charges the president is using the Internal Revenue Service to punish and silence him.
Wayne Allyn Root – a pre-law and political science major in the class of 1983, like the president – told WND that despite a spotless tax record, he became the target of an audit in January 2011 when he received an “unsettling” call from an IRS agent who called himself a fan of his and considered it “an honor” to audit him.
Root won a complete victory three months ago in tax court, which found no taxes owed in his 2007 and 2008 filings. But then, he said, something shocking happened – something his tax attorney has never heard of in his entire career. Root was hit with a new audit just five days later, for 2009 and 2010.
“That order had to come from the highest levels of government,” he asserted.
“Obama is using the power of the IRS and other government agencies to punish his political opposition and intimidate and silence his critics,” Root charged.
.................................................. ......
No sign of Obama at Columbia
Root noted he drew wide attention as the Libertarian Party vice presidential candidate in 2008 when he contended that although he and Obama were both pre-law and political science majors in Columbia’s class of 1983, he never even heard of Obama during his time at the university. None of the classmates with whom he’s spoken, knew of him either, he claimed. A 2008 Wall Street Journal article cited a Fox News survey of 400 people who were Columbia students from 1981 to 1983 and found no one who remembered him.
On the campaign trail, Root predicted Obama would follow the radical, collectivist strategy of former Columbia professors Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven to overwhelm the welfare system for the purpose of collapsing it and replacing it with a system of guaranteed annual income.
Root declared in 2008 that Obama “is going to try to badly damage the economy and bankrupt the business community,” sowing doubts about capitalism, by “overwhelming the system with spending, addicting a record number of Americans to entitlements, exploding the debt, demonizing business owners, and then trying to convince the masses to redistribute wealth (with massive tax increases).”
..................................................
‘Zero odds’
Root told WND he believes the audits were a direct attack from Obama, because “the odds are zero” that the IRS “would be hounding and harassing a small businessman … not a jet setter, not a Fortune 500 CEO, not a billionaire … just a small-businessman who happens to be an outspoken critic of Obama.”
“I have a perfect tax history,” he emphasized. “Not a single blemish. Thirty years of filing taxes without a problem.”
Prior to the January 2011 audit, he said he had been chosen at random for an audit only twice in his life and came away both times owing “not a single dollar.”
“I’ve never been late with a tax bill in my life,” he argued. “I’ve never owed money on a payment plan to the IRS. Nothing. I’m a model citizen and taxpayer for 30 years. And now this?”
His ordeal began in January 2011, he said, with an “unsettling” call from an IRS agent that became “a highly unusual and intimidating situation.”
The IRS agent called his home and left a message, Root said, then, without waiting for a response, immediately called his accountant.
“We were both shocked at how eager and excited he sounded to get started,” Root said.
The accountant told the agent to never call Root again, because the accountant had power of attorney. Nevertheless, according to Root, the agent called Root minutes later at his home to tell him he was a big fan, had requested to do the audit and was “honored” to be auditing him.
“He said he read my political columns in the Las Vegas newspaper, listened to me often on the radio, often went to my website,” Root said.
The agent said he loved Root’s libertarian-conservative politics and agreed with most everything he said.
“I found that very strange, actually chilling,” Root told WND. “It did not feel right. I got a sick feeling in pit of my stomach. Why would an IRS agent say such personal things? Why would he disclose that he’s a fan of mine and agrees with my politics? Isn’t that a conflict of interest?”
Root said his accountant remarked that in 30 years of dealing with IRS audits, he had never heard of an IRS agent starting an investigation with a phone call to the taxpayer. All audits begin with a letter from the IRS through the mail. The next steps, Root said, were even stranger, as the agent immediately called the accountant then called Root again to tell him he liked his politics and was “honored” to be auditing him? Root’s accountant said he found the agent’s actions highly unusual.
“That was the tipoff something was out of the ordinary, something just wasn’t right,” said Root.
Root said the only conclusion he could draw was that the agent was imitating “Columbo,” the famous TV detective from the 1970s, “and trying to throw me off the truth.
The agent, he said may have been “ordered to make my life very difficult, distract me or destroy me, and he decided to play ‘Columbo’ to try, first, to befriend me and get my guard down.”
“I knew then this was no ordinary audit,” Root said.
Root’s accountant called back a few weeks later, after dealing with the IRS agent, to inform him that it was unlike any audit he had ever experienced. The accountant advised Root to immediately get a tax lawyer to protect himself.
“I knew at that moment that all my gut instincts were correct,” Root said.
“This agent clearly had an agenda,” Root continued. “He was acting unreasonably. He disregarded facts. He simply disallowed virtually all of my legal deductions. There was even a debate over my mortgage deduction. Something was very wrong here. This was a classic case of government persecution. Soon the agent was auditing a second year. It got worse with each conversation.”
Just weeks later, Root said, his accountant, himself, received his own IRS audit notice.
Root researched and interviewed the top tax attorneys in the country, emphasizing he hired “the best.” His tax attorney reviewed the audit and concluded that the IRS agent was “taking an unusually aggressive stance,” and Root owed no taxes.
The attorney appealed the case to the IRS tax court in California. Root said that after nearly 18 months of “sleepless nights, lawyer bills I could not afford, accounting bills I could not afford, and damage to my marriage,” he won “a full and complete victory.”
He added: “Who knows how many years off my life I lost due to stress?”
The tax court, he said, ruled that I did not owe one cent.”
“All of the IRS agent’s unreasonable assertions were thrown out,” he said. “Case closed. One-hundred-percent vindication. Complete victory.”
But five days later, the tax attorney called with bad news.
“Are you sitting down?” Root recalled the attorney saying. “I don’t know what to say, but the IRS just contacted me. You’re being audited again.”
Root noted that just five days before he had won a complete victory for the years 2007 and 2008 and now was being audited for the 2009 and 2010 tax years.
His tax attorney said that he had never heard of such a case in all his years practicing law.
Root said the new IRS agent handling the new audit treated his attorney with disdain and, like the previous agent, simply ignored the facts and denied every legal deduction on Root’s tax return.
“It was the same treatment all over again,” Root said. “Even though we had just won a complete, 100-percent victory only five days before.”
Root said that “as a man who makes his living making predictions and beating the odds,” he is betting 1-million-to-1 that the audits were ordered “by Obama or his henchmen.”
‘Chicago style’
Root insists he is not angry with the IRS but blames Obama and “his Chicago style of politics – to persecute, intimidate and destroy the opposition.”
“The IRS is filled with good people,” he said. “They are just like you and me. They are just trying to do their jobs, as best they can.”
However, he said, when “they get a call from high above, perhaps from the office of the president of the United States, then they are fearful for their job.”
“My outrage is towards President Obama and his henchmen,” Root said.
“This is so wrong on so many levels. Whoever ordered this against me and against many other Obama critics across this country – and against GOP donors across this country and against so many tea parties – should be held accountable.”
He said it’s “time for congressional hearings.”
“The president of the United States has no right to target his political opposition, or to try to freeze free speech,” he said. “Our Founding Fathers would be rolling over in their graves.”
View the complete article at:
http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/columbia-...-to-punish-me/
Outspoken 2008 VP candidate claims prez trying to 'silence critics'
WND
Art Moore
10/7/2012
Excerpts:
The former Libertarian Party vice presidential candidate who has claimed Barack Obama was unknown to him and his fellow Columbia University classmates charges the president is using the Internal Revenue Service to punish and silence him.
Wayne Allyn Root – a pre-law and political science major in the class of 1983, like the president – told WND that despite a spotless tax record, he became the target of an audit in January 2011 when he received an “unsettling” call from an IRS agent who called himself a fan of his and considered it “an honor” to audit him.
Root won a complete victory three months ago in tax court, which found no taxes owed in his 2007 and 2008 filings. But then, he said, something shocking happened – something his tax attorney has never heard of in his entire career. Root was hit with a new audit just five days later, for 2009 and 2010.
“That order had to come from the highest levels of government,” he asserted.
“Obama is using the power of the IRS and other government agencies to punish his political opposition and intimidate and silence his critics,” Root charged.
.................................................. ......
No sign of Obama at Columbia
Root noted he drew wide attention as the Libertarian Party vice presidential candidate in 2008 when he contended that although he and Obama were both pre-law and political science majors in Columbia’s class of 1983, he never even heard of Obama during his time at the university. None of the classmates with whom he’s spoken, knew of him either, he claimed. A 2008 Wall Street Journal article cited a Fox News survey of 400 people who were Columbia students from 1981 to 1983 and found no one who remembered him.
On the campaign trail, Root predicted Obama would follow the radical, collectivist strategy of former Columbia professors Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven to overwhelm the welfare system for the purpose of collapsing it and replacing it with a system of guaranteed annual income.
Root declared in 2008 that Obama “is going to try to badly damage the economy and bankrupt the business community,” sowing doubts about capitalism, by “overwhelming the system with spending, addicting a record number of Americans to entitlements, exploding the debt, demonizing business owners, and then trying to convince the masses to redistribute wealth (with massive tax increases).”
..................................................
‘Zero odds’
Root told WND he believes the audits were a direct attack from Obama, because “the odds are zero” that the IRS “would be hounding and harassing a small businessman … not a jet setter, not a Fortune 500 CEO, not a billionaire … just a small-businessman who happens to be an outspoken critic of Obama.”
“I have a perfect tax history,” he emphasized. “Not a single blemish. Thirty years of filing taxes without a problem.”
Prior to the January 2011 audit, he said he had been chosen at random for an audit only twice in his life and came away both times owing “not a single dollar.”
“I’ve never been late with a tax bill in my life,” he argued. “I’ve never owed money on a payment plan to the IRS. Nothing. I’m a model citizen and taxpayer for 30 years. And now this?”
His ordeal began in January 2011, he said, with an “unsettling” call from an IRS agent that became “a highly unusual and intimidating situation.”
The IRS agent called his home and left a message, Root said, then, without waiting for a response, immediately called his accountant.
“We were both shocked at how eager and excited he sounded to get started,” Root said.
The accountant told the agent to never call Root again, because the accountant had power of attorney. Nevertheless, according to Root, the agent called Root minutes later at his home to tell him he was a big fan, had requested to do the audit and was “honored” to be auditing him.
“He said he read my political columns in the Las Vegas newspaper, listened to me often on the radio, often went to my website,” Root said.
The agent said he loved Root’s libertarian-conservative politics and agreed with most everything he said.
“I found that very strange, actually chilling,” Root told WND. “It did not feel right. I got a sick feeling in pit of my stomach. Why would an IRS agent say such personal things? Why would he disclose that he’s a fan of mine and agrees with my politics? Isn’t that a conflict of interest?”
Root said his accountant remarked that in 30 years of dealing with IRS audits, he had never heard of an IRS agent starting an investigation with a phone call to the taxpayer. All audits begin with a letter from the IRS through the mail. The next steps, Root said, were even stranger, as the agent immediately called the accountant then called Root again to tell him he liked his politics and was “honored” to be auditing him? Root’s accountant said he found the agent’s actions highly unusual.
“That was the tipoff something was out of the ordinary, something just wasn’t right,” said Root.
Root said the only conclusion he could draw was that the agent was imitating “Columbo,” the famous TV detective from the 1970s, “and trying to throw me off the truth.
The agent, he said may have been “ordered to make my life very difficult, distract me or destroy me, and he decided to play ‘Columbo’ to try, first, to befriend me and get my guard down.”
“I knew then this was no ordinary audit,” Root said.
Root’s accountant called back a few weeks later, after dealing with the IRS agent, to inform him that it was unlike any audit he had ever experienced. The accountant advised Root to immediately get a tax lawyer to protect himself.
“I knew at that moment that all my gut instincts were correct,” Root said.
“This agent clearly had an agenda,” Root continued. “He was acting unreasonably. He disregarded facts. He simply disallowed virtually all of my legal deductions. There was even a debate over my mortgage deduction. Something was very wrong here. This was a classic case of government persecution. Soon the agent was auditing a second year. It got worse with each conversation.”
Just weeks later, Root said, his accountant, himself, received his own IRS audit notice.
Root researched and interviewed the top tax attorneys in the country, emphasizing he hired “the best.” His tax attorney reviewed the audit and concluded that the IRS agent was “taking an unusually aggressive stance,” and Root owed no taxes.
The attorney appealed the case to the IRS tax court in California. Root said that after nearly 18 months of “sleepless nights, lawyer bills I could not afford, accounting bills I could not afford, and damage to my marriage,” he won “a full and complete victory.”
He added: “Who knows how many years off my life I lost due to stress?”
The tax court, he said, ruled that I did not owe one cent.”
“All of the IRS agent’s unreasonable assertions were thrown out,” he said. “Case closed. One-hundred-percent vindication. Complete victory.”
But five days later, the tax attorney called with bad news.
“Are you sitting down?” Root recalled the attorney saying. “I don’t know what to say, but the IRS just contacted me. You’re being audited again.”
Root noted that just five days before he had won a complete victory for the years 2007 and 2008 and now was being audited for the 2009 and 2010 tax years.
His tax attorney said that he had never heard of such a case in all his years practicing law.
Root said the new IRS agent handling the new audit treated his attorney with disdain and, like the previous agent, simply ignored the facts and denied every legal deduction on Root’s tax return.
“It was the same treatment all over again,” Root said. “Even though we had just won a complete, 100-percent victory only five days before.”
Root said that “as a man who makes his living making predictions and beating the odds,” he is betting 1-million-to-1 that the audits were ordered “by Obama or his henchmen.”
‘Chicago style’
Root insists he is not angry with the IRS but blames Obama and “his Chicago style of politics – to persecute, intimidate and destroy the opposition.”
“The IRS is filled with good people,” he said. “They are just like you and me. They are just trying to do their jobs, as best they can.”
However, he said, when “they get a call from high above, perhaps from the office of the president of the United States, then they are fearful for their job.”
“My outrage is towards President Obama and his henchmen,” Root said.
“This is so wrong on so many levels. Whoever ordered this against me and against many other Obama critics across this country – and against GOP donors across this country and against so many tea parties – should be held accountable.”
He said it’s “time for congressional hearings.”
“The president of the United States has no right to target his political opposition, or to try to freeze free speech,” he said. “Our Founding Fathers would be rolling over in their graves.”
View the complete article at:
http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/columbia-...-to-punish-me/
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