Bombshell revelation blows lid off IRS scandal

 

Lois Lerner

WASHINGTON – The government watchdog group Judicial Watch has struck again, discovering Lois Lerner, former IRS tax-exempt division chief, had discussed possible criminal prosecution of conservative groups with Justice Department officials two years before what the agency had previously conceded.

Lerner met with Department of Justice, or DOJ, officials in October 2010, just before the November midterm elections. Those elections gave the GOP a huge victory, following the rise of tea party groups. It was tea party groups that Lerner primarily targeted.

Judicial Watch used a Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, request to obtain the documents, but had to go to court to force the DOJ to release the material.

One document shows a DOJ official with the Election Crimes Division of the Public Integrity Section of the DOJ’s Criminal Division setting up a meeting with a “Ms. Ingram.”

Judicial Watch said that was an apparent reference to Sarah Hall Ingram, former commissioner, IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities, and that the unnamed DOJ official was Richard Pilger, director of the Election Crimes Division.

The email was also forwarded to DOJ Public Integrity Section Chief Jack Smith and Principal Deputy Chief Raymond Hulser. According to the documents, Ingram was not available but arranged for her deputy, Lerner, to meet with the DOJ senior officials.

On April 16, 2014, Judicial Watch forced the IRS to release documents revealing Lerner communicated with the DOJ in May of 2013 about the possibility of criminally prosecuting tax-exempt groups.

In those emails. Lerner discussed that possibility with Nikole Flax, then-chief of staff to then-Acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller, and made plans to prosecute nonprofit groups who she claimed had “lied” about political activities.

During testimony before the House Oversight Committee Pilger admitted that DOJ officials met with Lerner in October 2010.

Additionally, congressional investigators found another Lerner email that showed the IRS had sent the FBI and DOJ a “1.1 million page database of information from 501(c)(4) tax exempt organizations” containing confidential taxpayer information.

When it became apparent congressional investigators were becoming aware of the IRS targeting of conservative groups, in May 2013, Lerner admitted, in answer to a planted question, those actions were “absolutely incorrect, insensitive, and inappropriate.”

“These new documents dramatically show how the Justice Department is up to its neck in the IRS scandal and can’t be trusted to investigate crimes associated with the IRS abuses that targeted Obama’s critics. And it is of particular concern that the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, which would ordinarily investigate the IRS abuses, is now implicated in the IRS crimes. No wonder the Department of Justice under Eric Holder has done no serious investigation of the Obama IRS scandal,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Judicial Watch said the DOJ is still refusing to provide at least 832 pages of documents, claiming “taxpayer privacy,” “deliberative privilege” and other explanations.

Bombshell revelation blows lid off IRS scandal
Garth Kant
Tue, 09 Dec 2014 16:50:37 GMT