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The White House assertion that the IRS misconduct of targeting conservative groups ended in May 2012 does not match the facts. The ACLJ has received 26 IRS questionnaires sent to 18 clients during the past year – letters demanding further intrusive and intimidating questions, with the latest inquiry coming just days before the IRS revealed its targeting scheme.
For example, the IRS office in Ohio focused closely on the structure and workings of the Linchpins of Liberty from Tennessee – demanding answers to intrusive questions – with the most recent letter dated May 6, 2013 – just four days before the IRS admitted that the targeting scheme existed.
Despite the assertion by the IRS that this scheme originated with a couple of rogue agents out of the Cincinnati office, the fact is that the ACLJ’s clients have received letters not only from Cincinnati, but also from two offices in California, El Monte and Laguna Niguel as well as the national office in Washington, D.C. In fact, the Washington office sent a letter to one of our clients as recently as one month ago.
Originally posted by Swills
I do love that more scandals are coming out but according to our gov't track record I predict no one, of substance, will be held accountable. They won't be arrested, fired, suspended, or written up. Some patsy will take the fall, barely, while they, the gov't, hope America just forgets about it and or lets it go.
These criminals don't punish themselves, for they are literally above the law.
Criminals are running our country.
Criminals.
‘The misconduct had stopped in May of 2012,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters on Monday about the IRS’s improper targeting of conservative groups. Not so, say two D.C. attorneys, each representing a number of conservative groups that — after years of waiting and countless rounds of invasive questions — have yet to receive recognition from the IRS.
Says Sekulow, “Without question, the IRS misconduct of harassing and abusing our clients was still in high gear from May 2012 through May of this year. . . . To suggest this tactic ended a year ago is not only offensive, but it is simply inaccurate as well.”
The American Center for Law and Justice, headed by chief counsel Jay Sekulow, plans to file suit in federal court in the coming weeks on behalf of more than two dozen conservative groups that claim their harassment at the hands of the nation’s tax authority continued long past the White House’s purported end date — and, for a number of them, continues still. Of the 27 organizations the ACLJ has represented to date, ten still have not received approval, two years after applying. Two others gave up.
And Mitchell, like Sekulow, has evidence that many of the “dozens, if not hundreds” of conservative groups still waiting for approval received additional reams of invasive questions in the fall of 2012 and later.
the IRS demands information about minutes of all board meetings, a list of issues that are important to the organization, a list of press releases, interviews with the news media, blog posts, including all activity on Facebook and Twitter.
The IRS also raises questions about the group's goal, which is to restore and preserve ordered liberty in local communities. The IRS demands information about the content of courses, workshops and seminars organized by the group, even calling for specifics about what kind of information will be taught to young people. That organization’s tax-exempt status is still pending with its application on hold for nearly two-and-a-half years.
3. Response to statements by the IRS / Acting Commissioner Steven Miller during the week of May 13, 2013. * "The problems were resolved last year".
THIS PROBLEM IS CONTINUING.
It has not been "resolved" as stated by Acting Commission Miller. It is not in the past tense. Many organizations are still awaiting responses from the IRS. What systemic changes have been put in place to ensure that the odious questions have been terminated and the applications are being processed in accordance with the historic legal standard of review rather than the unlawful intrusion into the internal workings of these conservative citizens organizations?
* "Generally, 501(c) applications are centralized for review if there are indications in the
application that the organization may engage in political campaign intervention, lobbying
or advocacy. This was done to sure that the legal requirements related to these applications
are applied in a fair and consistent manner."
This was never done prior to 2010. The Acting Commissioner is not being truthful. These temis
"political campaign intervention, lobbying or advocacy" are legal terms of art and subject to
years of regulations, standards of review, cases and interpretation.
* The agency pinpointed two "rogue" employees in the Cincinnati IRS office as being responsible for "overly aggressive" handling of tea party requests for tax-exempt status over the past two years. This is completely false. In 2011, at least one of the Cincinnati IRS agents assigned to handle two clients' applications advised me that the Washington, DC office was actively involved in the decisions and processing of my clients' applications for exempt status. This was memorialized in a letter to the agent, Ron Bell, on November 8, 2011. When I called him in December 2011 for an update, he advised me that the applications had been transferred to a special task force in Washington, DC for further review. The effort by senior IRS officials to lay this scheme at the hands of a few low level' IRS employees is despicable and must not be tolerated. Attachment # 6 — November 8, 2011 Letter to IRS Agent Ron Bell in Cincinnati.
We now know that Lois Lerner, the Director of Exempt Organizations for the Internal Revenue Service - who refused to testify before a House committee by invoking the Fifth Amendment - has a paper trail that reveals her direct involvement in sending intrusive and harassing questionnaires to Tea Party groups in 2012.
Consider the timeline. We now know through her own testimony and from the Inspector General's report that Lerner was briefed about this unlawful targeting scheme in June 2011. But nine months later, beginning in March 2012, she sent cover letters to many of our clients - demanding additional information and forwarding intrusive questionnaires. In fact, in March and April of 2012, Lerner sent 15 letters to 15 different clients (including those who were approved after lengthy delays and those who are still pending).