Obama IRS Obstructs
Justice?
NO!!! REALLY !!!
I HAVE BEEN CALLING FOR THE ABOLISHMENT OF THE IRS...YOU CANNOT HAVE A BIASED TAX COLLECTION AGENCY THAT LOOKS THE OTHER WAY FOR OBAMA SUPPORTERS LIKE AL SHARPTON AND JESSE JACKSON..AND ATTACKS THE POLITICAL OPPOSITION
Well this one doesn't
come as a surprise, but it does demonstrate that justice delayed can be justice
denied. We have just obtained
new internal documents from the Department of Justice
(DOJ) that show how the IRS Office of the Chief Counsel
worked to delay a meeting between an IRS employee and DOJ and FBI investigators
about the Obama IRS abuse and harassment of Tea Party and conservative groups
and individuals who were in the way of Barack Obama's reelection
effort.
To help you with a
timeline, it was in May 2013 that the Treasury Inspector for Tax Administration
(TIGTA) released an audit
report confirming that the IRS used "inappropriate" criteria
to identify, hamstring, and handcuff conservative organizations that stand in
opposition to Team Obama. Put simply, the agency violated the First Amendment
rights of countless Americans just as Obama sought reelection. As further
confirmation of the criminality of Obama's IRS abuse, in 2014, Lois Lerner, the
former Director of the IRS Exempt Organizations Unit that was "suppression
central" for the tax agency, was held in contempt of
Congress after refusing to
testify at a congressional hearing about the agency's witch hunts. (The Holder
Justice Department has yet to prosecute this contempt
charges.)
This latest
batch of emails, which were
released in response to just
one of our several FOIA lawsuits against the
DOJ, provide the first window into the criminal investigation of the
alleged IRS abuses. The emails detail the involvement of the DOJ's Public
Integrity Section, which JW was first to
expose as being part of a
scheme to work with the IRS to prosecute groups and individuals critical of the
Obama administration. The documents show the IRS scandal is only getting worse
and that the IRS Counsel's office, which is operated by an Obama appointee, has
been, once again, stonewalling any serious
investigation.
For starters, the
emails show that on June 12, 2013, the lawyer for a cooperating IRS
employee witness in Cincinnati complained to a Justice Department prosecutor
about the IRS Counsel's office delaying approval of a meeting between the IRS
employee and Justice Department
prosecutors:
...we find it amazing that they didn't immediately
respond giving us the green light to meet with you.
So, that's not a very encouraging
sign.
The DOJ prosecutor wanted to know who the contact in
the IRS Counsel's office was and wrote back, "Let's talk in am if they don't get
back to you. Thanks."
Though investigators wanted to meet quickly, the
emails show it was nearly a month before the unnamed IRS employee met to proffer
evidence to two Justice Department prosecutors, two FBI officials, and an
investigator from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The
proffer session seems to have taken place in the IRS's Cincinnati office on July
11, 2013, and included the IRS employee's attorney, who the documents suggests
works at the Cincinnati area law firm of Adams, Stepner, Woltermann & Dusing, PLLC. The documents detail that the proffer took
place after a Garrity immunity waiver was
secured for the IRS witness. This matters because Garrity immunity assures the right of public
employees not to be compelled to incriminate themselves.
And why is the Obama DOJ is quick to give an Obama IRS employee immunity one of the most significant
scandals of the Obama era? One can't have confidence in this decision-making
because the Obama Justice Department has a massive conflict of interest that
undermines public confidence in its ability to pursue justice in this
matter.
The most obvious conflict is evident in the fact that
the DOJ's Public Integrity Section was investigating the IRS scandal only a
month after it reached out to Lois Lerner about prosecuting targeted tax-exempt
entities!
And then there is Barbara Bosserman, who is an attorney at the Civil Rights Division
who has been reported to be leading the IRS investigation at DOJ. She's not
exactly, a detached dispassionate figure here. According to Federal Election Commission
records, Bosserman contributed $6,750 to Obama's campaigns and the
DNC from 2004 to 2012, including 12 separate contributions to Obama for America
between 2008 and 2012. As I told you last
week, the Obama
administration is desperately fighting us in federal to cover up even the most
basic information about her role in the
investigation.
Then there's William J. Wilkins, the chief counsel
for the IRS, who is a political
appointee of President
Obama's. Wilkins was a former Democratic staffer in the U.S Senate,
a donor to
Democratic candidates and committees, and was a lobbyist for several years. Guess which office is key in the ongoing IRS cover-up that Judicial Watch is
successfully fighting through multiple federal lawsuits? The
IRS Counsel's office. And guess whose lawyers are representing and
defending the IRS cover-ups in these same federal lawsuits? The Justice
Department! All with your tax-dollars, of
course.
Recall that the May 14, 2013, Treasury Inspector General
report that revealed that the
IRS had singled out groups with conservative-sounding terms such as "patriot"
and "Tea Party" in their titles when applying for tax-exempt status details that
the "Chief Counsel" was involved in the IRS's Tea Party and conservative
targeting.
In this second "rolling production," the DOJ also
released 34 pages of heavily redacted emails, while admitting that it had
reviewed 938 pages of responsive records related to its contacts with the IRS
concerning the criminal prosecution of targeted tax exempt
entities.
The DOJ claimed that 904 pages were exempted from
release for one of the following reasons: a) contains tax return information;
b) deliberative process and attorney work-product privilege; and c) unwarranted
invasion of personal privacy of third parties. An additional 55 pages are
currently being reviewed by the FBI for processing and
response.
Despite these redactions, the new documents do
provide us with important details and insight into what DOJ officials were
examining and the nature of the documents it wanted from the IRS witness in
question here.
On July 12, 2013, the DOJ attorney (whose name is
blacked out) emails:
We appreciate receiving the time line related to the
"TAG spreadsheet" and "BOLO" that [REDACTED-BLACKED OUT] prepared. As we stated,
that time line will be covered by the proffer agreement she Executed
yesterday.,,,
we would also appreciate obtaining the email
communications that you obtained from [REDACTED-BLACKED OUT] pertaining to the
501(c)-application issues we discussed yesterday, i.e., the public allegations
that the IRS "targeted" certain groups based on their political viewpoints, in
particular groups associated with the 'Tea Party." As I explained yesterday, due
to the filter procedures we have in place, could you please divide the
communications into two groups, those dated before and those dated on or after
March 1, 2012? To the extent practical, the emails dated on or after March 1,
2012, should be placed in a sealed envelope or otherwise clearly separated from
the first batch (i.e., if they are scanned and emailed, please do so in separate
files). To the extent any of these applications contain taxpayer information,
return information, and/or taxpayer return information, the Department of
Justice and the FBI have referral authority under 18 U.S.C. 6103(h) to view this
information by virtue of our participation in a joint investigation with
TIGTA.
We don't know why the emails needed to be filtered.
And we don't know what the witnesses shared with investigators. We do know this
"investigation" is an ugly mess and it is no surprise that, after nearly two
years, the criminal investigation of the Obama IRS by its co-conspirators at the
Obama Justice Department is a farce.
From Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch.
ABOLISH THE IRS NOW
From Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch.
ABOLISH THE IRS NOW