Democrat Elijah Cummings Faces Up to Five Years in Federal Prison -- Gateway Pundit

[bsteadman]

Democrat Elijah Cummings Faces Up to Five Years in Federal Prison

Gateway Pundit
Jim Hoft
4/9/2014

Excerpt:

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) could face up to five years in federal prison for obstructing a Congressional proceeding.

On Wednesday, Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and five Subcommittee Chairmen on the committee sent a letter to Ranking Member Cummings demanding an explanation for his staff’s queries from the IRS, why the Minority hid these efforts from the Majority, and why the Ranking Member denied such actions by his staff at a February Subcommittee hearing:

“Although you have previously denied that your staff made inquiries to the IRS about conservative organization True the Vote that may have led to additional agency scrutiny, communication records between your staff and IRS officials – which you did not disclose to Majority Members or staff – indicates otherwise,” wrote the Chairman and five Subcommittee Chairmen of the Oversight Committee. “As the Committee is scheduled to consider a resolution holding Ms. Lerner, a participant in responding to your communications that you failed to disclose, in contempt of Congress, you have an obligation to fully explain your staff’s undisclosed contacts with the IRS.”

This is not good news for Cummings.

According to Cornell.edu Cummings could go to prison for five years for obstructing Congressional proceedings.

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View the complete post at:

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014...ederal-prison/

[bsteadman]

Issa Accuses Cummings of Colluding with the IRS

National Review Online
Eliana Johnson
4/9/2014

Excerpt:

The war between Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa and the committee’s ranking member, Elijah Cummings, rages on.

Issa on Wednesday accused the Maryland Democrat of colluding with the Internal Revenue Service in its targeting of the conservative nonprofit group True the Vote, whose founder, Catherine Engelbrecht, said she received multiple letters from Cummings in 2012 and personal visits from the IRS and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Explosives. Engelbrecht’s True the Vote is one of the many conservative groups that claims to have been improperly targeted by the IRS while it scrutinized the applications of tea-party groups.

In a letter signed by his five subcommittee chairmen, Issa raised the possibility that Cummings coordinated with the IRS, “surreptitiously” contacting the agency to request information about True the Vote.

E-mails unearthed in the course of Issa’s investigation into the IRS’s inappropriate targeting of right-leaning groups show that in January 2013, a member of Cummings’s staff contacted the IRS asking for any publicly available information on True the Vote. The matter was discussed by IRS officials that included Lois Lerner, the former exempt-organizations chief who retired in the wake of the targeting scandal. One of Lerner’s deputies, Holly Paz, subsequently sent the organization’s 990 forms to Cummings and his staff — not an illegal disclosure of taxpayer information, though sources say the exchange of such information was not routine.

The correspondence does not indicate whether the IRS’ scrutiny of True the Vote’s application for tax exemption was prompted by Cummings’s inquiries about the group and the timing of the correspondence suggests it was not, but instead that Cummings may have modeled his inquiries on those the IRS had already made.

In February 2012, Engelbrecht’s True the Vote received a letter from the IRS requesting more information about the group; one of Cummings’s letters, which Engelbrecht received in October 2012, contained questions that closely mirrored those posed by the IRS. Issa details them in his letter, strongly implying that Cummings based his letter on the one Engelbrecht had already received from the agency: Both requested information about the software True the Vote was using for voter registration, about the process the group used to train its employees, and about the vendors it used to obtain voter lists.

True the Vote’s lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, raised the prospect that the minority staff had exchanged information with the IRS at a hearing in February. “We want to get to the bottom of how these coincidences happened,” Mitchell said, “and we’re trying to figure out whether any — if there was any staff on this committee that might have been involved in putting True the Vote on the radar screen of some of these federal agencies.” Cummings said in response that Mitchell’s tacit allegation was “absolutely incorrect and not true.”

Issa on Wednesday seized on the similarities between the two letters, though they were issued before Cummings’s staff contacted the IRS for additional information about True the Vote in January 2013. “Although you have previously denied that your staff made inquiries to the IRS about conservative organization True the Vote that may have led to additional agency scrutiny, communication records between your staff and IRS officials – which you did not disclose to Majority Members or staff – indicates otherwise,” Issa said. “As the Committee is scheduled to consider a resolution holding Ms. Lerner, a participant in responding to your communications that you failed to disclose, in contempt of Congress, you have an obligation to fully explain your staff’s undisclosed contacts with the IRS.”
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View the complete article at:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner...eliana-johnson

[bsteadman]

True the Vote Calls Out Rep. Cummings for Role in IRS Targeting Scandal

"No more lies, Mr. Cummings: Tell America the truth."

Truth Revolt
Bradford Thomas
4/10/2014

Excerpt:

Catherine Engelbrecht, president of True the Vote—one of the conservative organizations that claim to have been targeted by the IRS—called out Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) after new revelations about his role in the IRS scandal, calling for an end to the “lies” and stating that the information revealed Wednesday has proven that Cummings played a clear role in the collusion of two branches of government “to target and silence private citizens.”

After the information released by the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee Wednesday, showing collusion between Cummings and former IRS chief Lois Lerner, True the Vote has amended its ethics complaint to include Cummings. In the announcement of the amended complaint, Engelbrecht asserts that "America has come to a tipping point" and that True the Vote will not be intimidated into silence, stating, "I will not ask Rep. Cummings, Lois Lerner, Barack Obama, or anyone else, for permission to exercise my constitutional rights."

Here is the full statement True the Vote released Wednesday:

NO MORE LIES, MR. CUMMINGS:

TELL AMERICA THE TRUTH

Houston, TX - April 9, 2014 - Washington is reeling as Rep. Elijah Cummings' (D-MD) true role in the IRS abuse scandal has come to light. Emails released by the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee, of which Cummings is the ranking member, show Cummings and his staff communicating with Lois Lerner while the IRS targeted True the Vote for abuse.

"Today's committee action reveals what we knew all along. Partisan politics and the weaponization of government against opponents of this administration is real and continues," said True the Vote president Catherine Engelbrecht. "Elijah Cummings has blocked the IRS abuse investigation all along. We now see clearly that two branches of government have colluded to target and silence private citizens.

"America has come to a tipping point," Engelbrecht said. "No more lies. No more cover-ups. No more collusion. Enough is enough. Finally, we have a chance for the rule of law to be re-established, thanks to the bold efforts of Chairman Issa and Rep. Jordan."

Engelbrecht added, "We filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Cummings in February. Today we're amending that filing to include this latest revelation. As I have said in my testimony before Congress; I will not retreat, I will not surrender, I will not be intimidated. I will not ask Rep. Cummings, Lois Lerner, Barack Obama, or anyone else, for permission to exercise my constitutional rights."

Click ... for a copy of the letter from Chairman Issa and five Subcommittee Chairman to Ranking Member Cummings.

Click ... for documents about Cummings'interactions with the IRS about True the Vote

The House Ways and Means Committee Republicans have not ruled out the “inherent contempt” authority to arrest former IRS chief Lois Lerner if Eric Holder continues to refuse to act on the panel’s vote to seek an investigation of Lerner and her role in the IRS targeting scandal. As The Washington Examiner reports, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) spoke about the committee’s threat to hold Lerner in contempt:

The Ways and Means Committee, led by Chairman [Dave] Camp [R-Mich.], has conducted a serious and thorough investigation of the IRS, uncovering abuses and criminal acts that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. As I've said, if Lois Lerner continues to refuse to testify, then the House will hold her in contempt. And we will continue to shine the light on the administration's abusive actions and use every tool at our disposal to expose the truth and ensure the American people get the answers they deserve.

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View the complete article at:

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/true...geting-scandal

[bsteadman]

Free Republic is running a thread titled, 'BREAKING: Emails Show Lois Lerner Fed True the Vote Tax Information to Democrat Elijah Cummings', which was started 4/9/2014 by 'ConservativeMan55'

The thread references a 4/9/2014 article in Townhall written by Katie Pavlich - http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepa...mings-n1822247

View the complete Free Republic thread at:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3142639/posts

Excerpt from the original article:

New IRS emails released by the House Oversight Committee show staff working for Democratic Ranking Member Elijah Cummings communicated with the IRS multiple times between 2012 and 2013 about voter fraud prevention group True the Vote.