AND recent wrinkle appears in the IRS scandal:
Republicans investigating the IRS hacking scandal said as much on Wednesday the agency continued to conduct secret surveillance of the tea groups even after they were approved for tax exemption. Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel said he shut down the monitoring program when he learned about it and halted all audits of tax-exempt organizations based on political activity as he tries to deal with the troubled agency. Mr. Werfel, who was called on to tidy up the Internal Revenue Service four months ago after the targeting came to featherlight, also told Congress that he was concerned about emails sent by Lois G. Lerner, the woman at the center of the targeting scandal, that raised questions about her behavior . He said he asked internal investigators to review these emails…Mr. Werfel took issue with the characterization of continued “oversight” and said he saw no evidence that any IRS employee had improperly influenced the groups on the audit list. But he said the program was so disturbing that he closed it two weeks ago.
Wait. They just shut down the practice two weeks ago? So even as public controversy over the IRS’s focus raged this spring and summer, the agency didn’t give up Still secretly monitoring those lucky Tea Party groups that actually received tax-exempt approval. Werfel appears to have been blindsided by the existence of the monitoring program, which forced him to discontinue it in an “attempt to get a handle on” his organization’s activities. The commission’s report states that superiors at the IRS were “acutely aware” about President Obama’s desire to crack down on funding for conservative groups ahead of the 2010 midterm elections. These latest revelations come as recent questions emerge about an extremely turbulent relationship between IRS official Lois Lerner and the truth. Fox News had reportthat Carol mentioned last week:
IRS official attacked Newly released emails, which further undermine the claim that the targeting was the work of rogue Ohio employees, show that Lois Lerner was deeply involved in analyzing Tea Party groups’ applications for tax-exempt status. One captivating February 2011 email from Lerner said, “The Tea Party case is very dangerous,” and then warned that the “case” could be used to bring a lawsuit to test campaign spending limits. … The same email warned that “Cincy” – likely a reference to the IRS office in Cincinnati – “should probably NOT have cases like this.” This and other emails show that Lerner and other Washington officials play a huge role in handling Tea Party cases…A follow-up February 2011 email from IRS official Holly Paz said that “no decisions will be issued from Cincy” until the DC office goes through the entire process. Lerner wrote back with further instructions.
When the scandal broke in May, IRS officials – including Lerner – tried to blame two “rogue” agents in Cincinnati for misconduct. Lerner even claimed that she was unaware of the aiming patterns until then read about them in the press. (Sound acquaintance?) These emails prove that she knew about them and was deeply involved in them as far back as 2011. In other words, she lied. Again. The tranche of emails also indicates Lerner’s political leanings:
On July 10, 2012, Sharon Light, an adviser to Lerner, emailed Mrs. Lerner a story from National Public Radio about how outside money was making it challenging for Democrats to maintain a majority in the Senate. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission that conservative groups such as Crossroads GPS and Americans for Prosperity should be treated as political committees rather than 501(c)(4), which are tax-exempt social welfare groups that they do not have to disclose their donors. “Maybe the FEC will save the day,” Ms. Lerner wrote back later that morning. That response suggests Ms. Lerner’s political leanings, but it also raises questions about Ms. Lerner’s intentions in a separate email exchange she had when an FEC investigator asked about the status of the conservative group American Future Fund. The FEC and IRS do not have the authority to release such information under Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code. But the more crucial question is: why did they want it? Following the FEC investigation, American Future Fund also received a questionnaire from the IRS.
According to a former colleague, Lerner’s hyperactive nature and pro-government leanings were hallmarks of her decades-long career as a federal bureaucrat. Democrats argued that the IRS attacks were not politically motivated, noting that some liberal groups also came under scrutiny. Audience he doesn’t believe first statement. The latter is deeply misleading. Indeed, of the groups that have been victims of IRS abuse, over 80 percent they were right-wing. Ultimately, one hundred percent of the “targeted” leftist groups were approved, while majority conservative organizations have been rejected or delayed indefinitely. Tea Party groups were also asked about three times as many questions, and the IRS continued to secretly monitor conservative groups fortunate enough to receive the green featherlight. Senior administration officials at the Treasury Department learned of the Inspector General’s investigation into alleged IRS abuses several months before the 2012 election. The White House insisted it did not order such an attack and was not aware of it. Americans they are skeptical this claim, perhaps because the administration has changed its mind about when this will happen he did finally at least find out five times.
