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IRS’s Lois Lerner Pleads the Fifth
FrontPage Magazine
Arnold Ahlert
5/23/2013
Excerpt:
Lois Lerner, director of the IRS tax-exempt organization division that targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny, put in a brief but self-serving appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee yesterday. ”I have not done anything wrong,” she insisted in her opening statement. “I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations. And I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee,” she added. After reading that statement, Lerner made it clear that was as far as she was willing to go. ”I will not answer any questions or testify today,” she said. Committee Chairman Darrell Issa dismissed her and she left the building.
Just before Lerner got up to leave, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) raised an objection. “She waived her right to testify by issuing an opening statement,” said Gowdy. “She ought to stay and answer questions.” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the committee’s ranking Democrat, countered that assertion. “Unfortunately this is not a federal court and she does has a right,” he said. “And we have to adhere to that.” Issa ultimately agreed with Cummings, and excused Lerner “subject to recall,” adding that he might consider giving her “limited immunity” to testify.
Prior to the beginning of yesterday’s hearings, the Fox News division located in Cincinnati, the alleged epicenter of the scandal, revealed that the IRS’s claim that the scandal is limited to low-level employees “is falling apart.” They obtained an IRS directory that explains the agency’s chain of command, noting that each of the six Cincinnati agents involved — Mitchel Steele, Carly Young, Joseph Herr, Stephen Seok, Liz Hofacre and a woman identified only as Ms. Richards — has both a different manager and, further up the chain, a different territory manager. The purpose of the chain is to prevent rogue agents from acting on their own.
Fox further reveals that a tax-exempt application must be processed within 270 days, or it triggers a system flag, requiring individual agents to maintain monthly status updates on cases until they are resolved. Because more than 300 groups were targeted through the Cincinnati office alone, over a period of 18 months to three years, thousands of flags would have been triggered. According to the IRS directory, a single IRS employee in Cincinnati, Cindy Thomas, the Program Manager of the Tax Exempt Division, would have received all of the flags.
This is where the chain of command gets critical. Only four people are above Thomas: Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, who was “fired” despite the reality he was retiring next month; Joseph Grant, Commissioner of Tax Exempt and Government Entities who has also retired; Lois Lerner, who has invoked her Fifth Amendment privileges; and Holly Paz, Director of Exempt Organizations who was interviewed by the Committee on Tuesday.
Perhaps it’s time to subpoena Cindy Thomas.
Next up at yesterday’s hearing was Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal S. Wolin, who insisted his department knew nothing about the targeting of conservative groups. He pushed the administration’s line that President Obama and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew have “taken decisive action” to address the issues raised in the report by Treasury Inspector General (IG) for Tax Administration J. Russell George. That would be the report that insists the IRS abuse began in March of 2010, a contention debunked by the Thomas More Society, which released a public announcement August 4, 2009 about their involvement with two pro-life groups targeted by the IRS.
The utter disingenuousness of Wolin’s contentions is underscored by another inconvenient reality. A May 14 letter signed by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp and Ranking Member Sander Levin, demanding records of any communications between the IRS and the Treasury department, as well as any between the White House and the IRS, has been ignored. Camp and Levin had given the IRS until May 21 to comply with that demand. They refused to do so, and have not responded to multiple phone and email inquiries made by CNSNews.com.
Back at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearings, both Democrats and Republicans were outraged by the revelation that the IRS was aware its employees were targeting right-wing groups as early as May 2012, but hid that information from Congress. Issa noted that Holly Paz testified to that effect on Tuesday, revealing that an internal investigation conducted by IRS officials ended on May 3. Thus, it was established that the agency was aware of the targeting a full year prior to the release of the IG’s report.
And far more to the point, it was aware six months before the 2012 presidential election.
George was asked if officials at either the Treasury Dept. or the White House directed IRS employees to target conservative groups. He said officials told him “there was no direction from the department itself to those in the determinations unit in Cincinnati, nor their affiliate office in Washington.”
Yet in a critical exchange, George revealed his investigation never probed White House involvement. “(I)n all honestly, we didn’t look at the White House. We didn’t question anyone as to whether or not they’d received any direction from the White House,” he said. - (bold and color emphasis added in the preceeding two paragraphs)
During his testimony, former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman offered up the kind of rationale that is becoming a recurring theme surrounding this story. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) asked Shulman if he took responsibility for what occurred in Cincinnati. “You know, I don’t take personal responsibility for there being a list with criteria put on it, but I do accept the fact that this did happen on my watch,” he responded. “So you don’t take responsibility, but you recognize the fact that it happened under your watch?” Speier repeated. “Look, I recognize that this happened on my watch and I’m very sorry that this happened while I was at the Internal Revenue Service,” replied Shulman.
..............................................
View the complete article at:
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-...rgeting-story/
FrontPage Magazine
Arnold Ahlert
5/23/2013
Excerpt:
Lois Lerner, director of the IRS tax-exempt organization division that targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny, put in a brief but self-serving appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee yesterday. ”I have not done anything wrong,” she insisted in her opening statement. “I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations. And I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee,” she added. After reading that statement, Lerner made it clear that was as far as she was willing to go. ”I will not answer any questions or testify today,” she said. Committee Chairman Darrell Issa dismissed her and she left the building.
Just before Lerner got up to leave, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) raised an objection. “She waived her right to testify by issuing an opening statement,” said Gowdy. “She ought to stay and answer questions.” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the committee’s ranking Democrat, countered that assertion. “Unfortunately this is not a federal court and she does has a right,” he said. “And we have to adhere to that.” Issa ultimately agreed with Cummings, and excused Lerner “subject to recall,” adding that he might consider giving her “limited immunity” to testify.
Prior to the beginning of yesterday’s hearings, the Fox News division located in Cincinnati, the alleged epicenter of the scandal, revealed that the IRS’s claim that the scandal is limited to low-level employees “is falling apart.” They obtained an IRS directory that explains the agency’s chain of command, noting that each of the six Cincinnati agents involved — Mitchel Steele, Carly Young, Joseph Herr, Stephen Seok, Liz Hofacre and a woman identified only as Ms. Richards — has both a different manager and, further up the chain, a different territory manager. The purpose of the chain is to prevent rogue agents from acting on their own.
Fox further reveals that a tax-exempt application must be processed within 270 days, or it triggers a system flag, requiring individual agents to maintain monthly status updates on cases until they are resolved. Because more than 300 groups were targeted through the Cincinnati office alone, over a period of 18 months to three years, thousands of flags would have been triggered. According to the IRS directory, a single IRS employee in Cincinnati, Cindy Thomas, the Program Manager of the Tax Exempt Division, would have received all of the flags.
This is where the chain of command gets critical. Only four people are above Thomas: Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, who was “fired” despite the reality he was retiring next month; Joseph Grant, Commissioner of Tax Exempt and Government Entities who has also retired; Lois Lerner, who has invoked her Fifth Amendment privileges; and Holly Paz, Director of Exempt Organizations who was interviewed by the Committee on Tuesday.
Perhaps it’s time to subpoena Cindy Thomas.
Next up at yesterday’s hearing was Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal S. Wolin, who insisted his department knew nothing about the targeting of conservative groups. He pushed the administration’s line that President Obama and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew have “taken decisive action” to address the issues raised in the report by Treasury Inspector General (IG) for Tax Administration J. Russell George. That would be the report that insists the IRS abuse began in March of 2010, a contention debunked by the Thomas More Society, which released a public announcement August 4, 2009 about their involvement with two pro-life groups targeted by the IRS.
The utter disingenuousness of Wolin’s contentions is underscored by another inconvenient reality. A May 14 letter signed by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp and Ranking Member Sander Levin, demanding records of any communications between the IRS and the Treasury department, as well as any between the White House and the IRS, has been ignored. Camp and Levin had given the IRS until May 21 to comply with that demand. They refused to do so, and have not responded to multiple phone and email inquiries made by CNSNews.com.
Back at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearings, both Democrats and Republicans were outraged by the revelation that the IRS was aware its employees were targeting right-wing groups as early as May 2012, but hid that information from Congress. Issa noted that Holly Paz testified to that effect on Tuesday, revealing that an internal investigation conducted by IRS officials ended on May 3. Thus, it was established that the agency was aware of the targeting a full year prior to the release of the IG’s report.
And far more to the point, it was aware six months before the 2012 presidential election.
George was asked if officials at either the Treasury Dept. or the White House directed IRS employees to target conservative groups. He said officials told him “there was no direction from the department itself to those in the determinations unit in Cincinnati, nor their affiliate office in Washington.”
Yet in a critical exchange, George revealed his investigation never probed White House involvement. “(I)n all honestly, we didn’t look at the White House. We didn’t question anyone as to whether or not they’d received any direction from the White House,” he said. - (bold and color emphasis added in the preceeding two paragraphs)
During his testimony, former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman offered up the kind of rationale that is becoming a recurring theme surrounding this story. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) asked Shulman if he took responsibility for what occurred in Cincinnati. “You know, I don’t take personal responsibility for there being a list with criteria put on it, but I do accept the fact that this did happen on my watch,” he responded. “So you don’t take responsibility, but you recognize the fact that it happened under your watch?” Speier repeated. “Look, I recognize that this happened on my watch and I’m very sorry that this happened while I was at the Internal Revenue Service,” replied Shulman.
..............................................
View the complete article at:
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-...rgeting-story/
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