IRS Ignores Deadline to Hand Over Lerner Emails
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan last week ordered the agency to turn over 1,800 new emails from Lerner, who ran the tax exempt unit which decided which organizations could receive tax exempt status. The government watchdog group Judicial Watch has sought the emails in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Monday, a spokesperson told FOXBusiness.com that the group would not oppose the IRS producing something this Wednesday and every 2 weeks thereafter, assuming the Court agrees. At the time of publication there was no word from the IRS on this development or an amended order from the court.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said his organization has agreed to receive the information this week, but as of today no information has been received. Lerner is at the center of a scandal in which conservative groups, especially those that identified themselves as Tea Party groups, were denied tax exempt status.
Did the IRS, DOJ & FBI Break the Law?
(Reuters)
According to documents made available through a Freedom of Information request filed by Judicial Watch, Lerner met with representatives of the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2010 to discuss whether conservative groups applying for tax exempt status could be prosecuted under federal election law.
What’s more, according to the documents, the tax filings of as many as 113,000 tax-exempt groups were made available to the FBI by the IRS. Some are questioning whether that is legal.
“It is potentially a violation of the law,” said Congressman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who chairs the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “You’re not supposed to willy nilly be able to share taxpayer information without specific allegations. Normally you have to get a subpoena to get this kind of information.”
Chaffetz’s committee has been investigating IRS actions regarding conservative groups and he said they are continuing their probe, adding that “there will be consequences” for illegal actions.
What happened to Benghazi? Focus is on Clinton
By MATTHEW DALY and LAURIE KELLMAN
5 minutes ago
The State Department, meanwhile, has struggled to produce a trove of emails involving Clinton and some of her key staffers. The resulting impasse has prolonged the committee's work, said Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the chairman of the Benghazi panel.
"The reason we are having a conversation about her email arrangement is because of her unusual email arrangement with herself, and not because of anything we've done on the Benghazi committee," Gowdy, a former prosecutor, said in an interview.
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the committee's ranking Democrat, said the panel has assumed a new purpose: "Derail Hillary Clinton's presidential efforts by any means necessary."
"Anybody can now see that's what it's all about," Cummings said in an interview. He'd like to see Clinton testify before the committee as soon as possible.
There's no such session scheduled, even though Clinton is expected on Capitol Hill Tuesday to meet with congressional Democrats.
Her campaign, meanwhile, has posted a 3,600-word fact sheet on the candidate's use of a private email server during her time at the State Department. The statement said Clinton's use of a private email account was widely known at the State Department and that department policy during her tenure permitted her to use a non-government email for work.
What's undisputed is that the select committee's work will continue into 2016, guaranteeing that Benghazi — and the deaths of four Americans, including U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens — will shadow Clinton during her second White House bid.
Clinton herself may have provided a glimpse of that future when she declared during a CNN interview last week that she "never had a subpoena" compelling the production of emails sent while she was secretary of state.
Gowdy pounced, releasing a subpoena he issued to Clinton in March to "correct the inaccuracy" of her claim. In fact, he had publicly announced delivery of the document at the time.
He didn't tell Clinton to go on TV, Gowdy said, "and I certainly didn't tell her what to say. Had she not said what she said to the CNN reporter, you would not have seen my homely self on TV."
Cummings rose to Clinton's defense, calling her statement "an honest mistake" and denouncing the GOP's release of the subpoena as a "stunt" in an ongoing "taxpayer-funded attack" on the Democratic front-runner.
Cummings and other Democrats voted against creating the panel last year, saying that at least eight previous investigations had disproved a variety of conspiracy theories about the attacks nearly three years ago. Notions that U.S. forces were ordered to "stand down" during the attacks or that Clinton played a direct role in security decisions are false, congressional investigators say.
Gowdy maintains that the committee is not concerned about conspiracies, but intent on learning the full truth about the attacks. The focus on Clinton is because, "No. 1, she was secretary of state at all relevant times. That's a pretty big fact," he said.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the American people deserve to know what happened.
"We still don't have the answers because the (Obama) administration and Secretary Clinton refuse to turn over the relevant documents for the American people to see," Boehner said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"We are not going to walk away from this," Boehner said. "The State Department is rolling these emails that they do have over to us at a rate of about 4,000 a month. This is going to go on throughout the rest of this year."
Despite her claims to the contrary, Clinton has not been fully forthcoming about her emails and other important documents, Gowdy and other Republicans said.
For
instance, while Clinton has said she turned over "the entire public
record" of her emails, "we know that is not accurate," Gowdy said,
citing at least 15 work-related emails from Clinton's private server
that the State Department says it cannot find.
Republicans
also are frustrated that the State Department has been slow to release
emails sent by key Clinton staffers, including top aides such as Cheryl
Mills, Jake Sullivan and Huma Abedin.
While
Democrats accuse Gowdy of stalling a planned interview with Clinton to
ensure it happens closer to the 2016 election, Gowdy said any delay is
the fault of the State Department, which has failed to produce emails
the committee is seeking.
I saw what you did here. Happy?
ReplyDeleteSadly the rule of law is being played fast and loose by our current administration. Court orders don't apply. Subpoena's are ignored. No one is held accountable.
DeleteOur sorry third world lawless administration. Sixteen more months.
yeah, you've made it abundantly clear how you feel about every administration that isn't Republican. There was more than a little lawlessness from your hero Reagan, only it wasn't lawlessness because he "couldn't recollect" certain conversations. I genuinely don't like the lawlessness any more than you do, but I don't kid myself that it will all somehow stop when some POTUS I consider to be a piece of shit leaves office. All presidents are going to do things from time to time that are illegal and they are going to do it in the interests of the American people. How many people have been slaughtered without cause in our drone strikes? The question is moot as long as oil is cheap and we aren't sending in a few battalions of troops.
DeleteIt's one thing to supportive conservative point of view William, it's another thing entirely to believe in utopias.
If hoping that our elected government would respond to a subpoena makes me a utopian. Then I guess I'm a utopian?
DeleteWhat the fuck does oil have to do with the IRS targeting groups that filed for "government recognition?"
You are utopian in your beliefs that once Obama and his lawless bunch are kicked out that it will all be different if a true conservative comes into office. Which is fantasy. Oil may not have a direct link to your precious groups, but it illustrates the point that the government will always have a macro view. The not for profit tax status is blatantly abused, there should be higher scrutiny.
Delete