Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Judicial Watch: New Documents Show IRS HQ Control of Tea Party Targeting

Judicial Watch: New Documents Show IRS HQ Control of Tea Party Targeting

MAY 14, 2014
Documents also Reveal Unusual Pressure from Key Democrat Senator to Target Conservatives
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released a new batch of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) documents revealing that its handling of Tea Party applications was directed out of the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC.  The documents also show extensive pressure on the IRS by Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) to shut down conservative-leaning tax-exempt organizations. The IRS’ emails by Lois Lerner detail her misleading explanations to investigators about the targeting of Tea Party organizations.
The documents came in response to an October 2013 Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed after the agency refused to respond to four FOIA requests dating back to May 2013 (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:13-cv-01559)).
One key email string from July 2012 confirms that IRS Tea Party scrutiny was directed from Washington, DC. On July 6, 2010, Holly Paz (the former Director of the IRS Rulings and Agreements Division and current Manager of Exempt Organizations Guidance) asks IRS lawyer Steven Grodnitzky “to let Cindy and Sharon know how we have been handling Tea Party applications in the last few months.”  Cindy Thomas is the former director of the IRS Exempt Organizations office in Cincinnati and Sharon Camarillo was a Senior Manager in their Los Angeles office. Grodnitzky, a top lawyer in the Exempt Organization Technical unit (EOT) in Washington, DC, responds:
EOT is working the Tea party applications in coordination with Cincy. We are developing a few applications here in DC and providing copies of our development letters with the agent to use as examples in the development of their cases. Chip Hull [another lawyer in IRS headquarters] is working these cases in EOT and working with the agent in Cincy, so any communication should include him as well. Because the Tea party applications are the subject of an SCR [Sensitive Case Report], we cannot resolve any of the cases without coordinating with Rob.
The reference to Rob is believed to be Rob Choi, then-Director of Rulings and Agreements in IRS’s Washington, DC, headquarters.
Another email string from February – March 2010 includes a message from a California EO Determinations manager discussing a Tea Party application “currently being held in the Screening group.” The manager urges, “Please let ‘Washington’ know about this potentially embarrassing political case involving a ‘Tea Party’ organization. Recent media attention to this type of organization indicates to me that this is a ‘high profile’ case.”  A co-worker responds: “I think sending it up here [DC] is a good idea given the potential for media interest.”  As with Ben Rhodes’ Benghazi-related talking points email, Judicial Watch obtained a more complete version of this IRS email chain than was provided to a congressional committee.
The Judicial Watch documents also contain email correspondence to internal IRS investigators from Lerner, dated April 2, 2013, that tries to explain the “Be on the Lookout” (BOLO) criteria used to select organizations for screening and scrutiny:
Because the BOLO only contained a brief reference to “Organizations involved with the Tea Party movement applying for exemption under 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4)” in June 2011, the EO Determinations manager asked the manager of the screening group, John Shafer [IRS Cincinnati field office manager], what criteria were being used to label cases as “tea party ” cases. (“Do the applications specify/state ‘ tea party’? If not, how do we know applicant is involved with the tea party movement?”) The screening group manager asked his employees how they were applying the BOLO’s short –hand reference to “tea party.” His employees responded that they were including organizations meeting any of the following criteria as falling within the BOLO’s reference to “tea party” organizations: “1. ‘Tea Party’, ‘Patriots’ or ’9/12 Project’ is referenced in the case file. 2. Issues include government spending, government debt and taxes. 3. Educate the public through advocacy/legislative activities to make America a better place to live. 4. Statements in the case file that are critical of the how the country is being run. . . “
So, we believe we have provided information that shows that no one in EO “developed” the criteria. Rather, staff used their own interpretations of the brief reference to “organizations involved with the Tea Party movement,” which was what was on the BOLO list.
Lerner omits that her office was “developing” the applications for all Tea Party groups.
The IRS documents also include a presentation entitled “Heightened Awareness Issues” with a red and orange “Alert” symbol identifying the “emerging issues” that trigger scrutiny for organizations seeking tax-exempt status. Page six of the presentation focuses on the Tea Party organizations due, in part, to the fact that these groups had become a “Relevant Subject in Today’s Media.”
A series of letters between Senator Levin (D-MI), chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations, and top IRS officials throughout 2012 discuss how to target conservative groups the senator claimed were “engaged in political activities.” In response to a Levin March 30 letter citing the “urgency of the issue,” then-Deputy Commissioner Steven Miller assured the senator that IRS regulations were flexible enough to allow IRS agents to “prepare individualized questions and requests” for select 501(c)(4) organizations.
The newly released IRS documents contain several letters and emails revealing an intense effort by Levin and IRS officials to determine what, if any, existing IRS policies could be used to revoke the nonprofit exemptions of active conservative groups and deny exemptions to new applicants. In a July 30, 2012, letter, Levin singles out 12 groups he wants investigated for “political activity.” Of the groups – which include the Club for Growth, Americans for Tax Reform, the 60 Plus Association, and the Susan B. Anthony List – only one, Priorities USA, is notably left-leaning.
As the 2012 presidential election drew nearer, Levin sent a series of letters to the IRS intensifying his campaign against predominantly conservative nonprofit groups:
  • September 27, 2012: Levin asks for copies of the answers to IRS exemption application question 15 – a question about planned political expenditures – from four specific groups: Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, Priorities USA, Americans for Prosperity, and Patriot Majority USA.
  • October 17, 2012: Miller informs Levin, “As discussed in our previous responses dated June 4, 2012, and August 24, 2012, the IRS cannot legally disclose whether the organizations on your list have applied for tax exemptions unless and until such application is approved.” Miller, however, then informs Levin that Americans for Prosperity and Patriot Majority have been approved, but the IRS has no records for Crossroads and Priorities USA.
  • October 23, 2012: Levin writes to again express his dissatisfaction with the IRS handling of “social welfare” (501(c)(4) organizations insisting that IRS guidance “misinterprets the law” by allowing any political activity. He again demands an answer as to whether the four organizations he listed in his previous letter were primarily engaged in the promotion of social welfare.  He also seeks copies of tax exempt revocation letters sent due to c4 political activities, as well as statistics on how many c4s have been notified that they may be in violation due to political activities.
In perhaps the most revealing letter from the IRS to Levin, Miller on June 4, 2012, takes 16 pages to explain to the senator what IRS regulations and policies may and may not be used to evaluate political groups and assures him that the agency has considerable leeway in picking and choosing which groups would be subject to additional scrutiny:
There is no standard questionnaire used to obtain information about political activities. Although there is a template development letter that describes the general information on the case development process, the letter does not specify the information to be requested from any particular organization … Consequently, revenue agents prepare individualized questions and requests for documents relevant to the application. . .
A May 14, 2013, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report 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. The TIGTA probe determined that “Early in Calendar Year 2010, the IRS began using inappropriate criteria to identify organizations applying for tax-exempt status (e.g., lists of past and future donors).”  The illegal IRS reviews continued for more than 18 months and “delayed processing of targeted groups applications” preparing for the 2012 presidential election.
“These new documents show that officials in the IRS headquarters were responsible for the illegal delays of Tea Party applications,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “It is disturbing to see Lois Lerner mislead the IRS’ internal investigators about her office’s Tea Party targeting.  These documents also confirm the unprecedented pressure from congressional Democrats to go after President Obama’s political opponents.  The IRS scandal has now ensnared Congress.”
In mid-April, Judicial Watch released a batch of IRS documents (produced earlier in this litigation) revealing that Lerner had communicated with the Department of Justice about whether it was possible to criminally prosecute certain tax-exempt entities.
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Republicans at odds over authorizing strike on Benghazi attackers

Republicans at odds over authorizing strike on Benghazi attackers


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The Washington Times
Monday, May 12, 2014


Two House Republicans are in a turf battle over how to give President Obama the authority to kill the terrorists who killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya.
More than a year after the attack, one of the most persistent questions aimed at administration officials is why the perpetrators, who have been charged by the Justice Department, are still free.
In closed-door testimony before the House Committee on Armed Services in October, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, Joint Chiefs chairman, provided part of the answer: The 2001 law known as Authorization of Use of Military Force allows the U.S. to kill/capture al Qaeda — but not the terrorists in Benghazi, where they would have to be arrested, presumedly with Libya’s consent.
With that testimony, Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican, introduced an amendment to grant the commander-in-chief use of military force powers for Benghazi. He got more than 20 co-sponsors and waited for last week’s mark-up of the 2015 defense budget/policy bill by the Armed Services committee, on which he sits.
But a phone call scuttled that plan.
Mr. Hunter spoke with Rep. Ed Royce, California Republican and chairman of the House Committee of Foreign Affairs. Under parliamentary rules, his committee also controls use-of-force resolutions.
A Hunter aide said Mr. Royce would not waive joint jurisdiction, so Mr. Hunter withheld his amendment.
“Royce, as committee chairman, has every prerogative to say, ‘No, you can’t do it,’” the aide said. “We’re all about getting to the heart of the matter and insuring the president has the authority.”
The strategy is this: The Democratic-controlled Senate would not likely ever take up such a bill. By putting the amendment in the House’s defense legislation, it would go to conference with the Senate and could then emerge in the final 2015 authorization act, the aide said. Otherwise, it would die in the Senate as a standalone bill.
Mr. Hunter left the mark-up with a new plan: to bring it up for full House debate. House rules allow him to present it as an amendment once the Pentagon bill hits the House floor the week of May 19.
“Using that vehicle improves the chances that something will get done,” the staffer said.
But Mr. Royce apparently is not acceding to that plan, either.
A Foreign Affairs committee spokesman said the Hunter bill is now with Mr. Royce’s committee.
The spokesman provided a statement to The Washington Times:
“Chairman Royce believes the president has the authority, to say nothing of the responsibility, to bring these killers of Americans to justice. However, some in the administration have questioned the president’s authority to target the Benghazi terrorists. The Hunter proposal was referred to the Foreign Affairs Committee, according to House rules, where it will be acted upon with the support of the chairman or moved as a floor amendment.”
Story Continues →
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Senate Committee Examines Enforcement of Campaign Finance Laws

Senate Committee Examines Enforcement of Campaign Finance Laws

Sen. Whitehouse Urges Robust Enforcement by the Justice Department, IRS

Washington, DC – In the wake of the 2012 election cycle, which saw an unprecedented level of campaign spending by super PACs and tax-exempt political organizations that do not disclose their donors, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism today held a hearing on “Current Issues in Campaign Finance Law Enforcement.”  The hearing focused on the challenges facing the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in enforcing criminal campaign finance laws relating to independent groups.
Subcommittee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse presided over the hearing, which examined the enforcement of campaign finance laws prohibiting: coordination between outside groups and candidates; the use of shell companies to hide donor identities; and political contributions from foreign nationals.  The hearing also focused on whether 501(c)(4) tax exempt groups engaged in politics are being held accountable for deceptive information in their tax filings.
In his opening statement, Senator Whitehouse discussed the abuse of the 501(c)(4) designation, which gives non-profit status to entities that are “operated exclusively to promote social welfare.”
Whitehouse said that “[t]his promotion of social welfare is specifically forbidden to include ‘direct or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office.’  That seems clear enough, but after the Supreme Court opened the floodgates to big money in elections in its disgraceful Citizens United decision, big donors like to use these non-profit entities to launder campaign spending and hide their identities.”
The Subcommittee heard testimony from two panels today.  Testifying on the first panel were Mythili Raman, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice; and Patricia Haynes, Deputy Chief of Criminal Investigation for the Internal Revenue Service.  Testifying on the second panel were Lawrence M. Noble, President of Americans for Campaign Reform; Gregory L. Colvin, Principal of Adler & Colvin; and Bradley A. Smith, Chairman of the Center for Competitive Politics.
In questioning the witnesses from DOJ and IRS, Whitehouse asked why they have not prosecuted 501(c)(4) groups that have seemingly made false statements about their political activities or donors that have used shell companies to donate to Super PACs to hide the donor’s identity.
Whitehouse said, “I would urge that the Department and the Service get together and rethink whether in these two specific areas, which I think bear little resemblance to traditional tax violations and are in fact very plain-vanilla criminal cases, whether or not that deference to the IRS is actually serving the public interest at this point, or whether the Department could not proceed to… put together a criminal case showing a fairly straightforward false statement or a fairly [straightforward] shell corporation disclosure violation.”
The full testimony of each witness is available online here.
Senator Whitehouse, who has emerged as a leading voice for campaign finance reform, will use the information compiled in this hearing in his ongoing efforts to improve fairness and transparency in our system of elections.  Last year he was the lead sponsor of the DISCLOSE Act, which would have shined a light on secret spending by 501(c)(4) organizations and other groups.  The Department of Justice today expressed that inadequate disclosure requirements hamper their investigation of campaign finance violations.  Whitehouse has said he will reintroduce the bill in this Congress.
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Weekly Update: Exclusive Benghazi Update

Weekly Update: Exclusive Benghazi Update

MAY 09, 2014
Judicial Watch Lawsuit Success Forces Congress to Act on Benghazi
Last week in the Weekly Update we reported to you that in our continuing efforts to pierce the Obama Benghazi cover-up we had finally found the smoking gun – and started an uproar. On Tuesday, April 29, we released 41 new Benghazi-related State Department documents, and the major media immediately began wall-to-wall coverage that put the Obama administration on the defensive and led to a special House Select Committee that promises to do a better job of exposing the full story of what happened before, during, and after the deadly attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi.
We released to the public a newly declassified email showing then-White House Deputy Strategic Communications Adviser Ben Rhodes and other Obama administration public relations officials attempting to orchestrate a campaign to portray the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack as being “rooted in an Internet video, and not a failure of policy.” They also colluded to try to convince the public of Obama’s “strength and steadiness in dealing with difficult challenges.” Other documents show that State Department officials initially described the incident as an “attack” and a possible kidnap attempt.
If you watched the ongoing, remarkable coverage of the Judicial Watch expose, you will recall that the Obama administration’s first response was to trot out White House press secretary Jay Carney to tell reporters not to believe their own eyes. Yes, he intoned, of course there was a memo from Rhodes – but it was not about Benghazi:  “This document was explicitly not about Benghazi, but about the general dynamic in the Muslim world at the time,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
One blogger over at The Washington Post called the Obama response to the Judicial Watch material, “the worst excuse ever” And Fox News’ Brett Bair termed it “surreal”:
This was a surreal answer from Jay Carney. Now, this is a prep session with Susan Rice, getting ready for five Sunday talk shows. This is three days after 9/11 when four Americans, including the American ambassador to Libya, are killed. Everybody in the chain has said it’s a terrorist attack, everyone in the chain is saying there’s no protest. And yet this email, if we’re to believe Jay Carney at the White House, had nothing to do with Benghazi … Now, that really strains credulity, I mean it is really out there.
In an explosive op-ed in the Washington Times, Judge Andrew Napolitano gave Judicial Watch full credit for getting hold of critical material that the House of Representatives had been denied by a battened-down Obama White House:
The White House responded to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the fearless private watchdog group Judicial Watch and turned over an email about constructing the appropriate narrative response to the tragedy at Benghazi written by Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to President Obama.
When investigators from the House of Representatives realized that they had subpoenaed that email and not received it, they knew that there was far more to learn about the affair than met theeye.
After we broke the story, House Speaker John Boehner reacted by calling for a House vote on forming a Select Committee on Benghazi. And I issued the following statement in support of his move:
I applaud Speaker Boehner’s decision today to finally move toward a Select Committee on Benghazi in response to revelations from Judicial Watch. This is long overdue. Judicial Watch is pleased that its work uncovered the “smoking gun” Rhodes email that led to this important step. Five House Committees have failed for nearly two years to get to the bottom of the Benghazi mess and have been trifled with by a stonewalling administration. We stand ready to assist Congress in any investigation of this important issue.
Now, this is a long time coming. Judicial Watch had been part of a broad coalition calling for Boehner to appoint a select committee for some time.  It finally took our startling disclosure, tying the White House to Benghazi lies, to push Boehner over the edge.  Congress had been denied this document, and its investigation and subpoenas had been thwarted by the Obama gang. To his credit, the Speaker of the House had had enough.
But, even with all of that, we still aren’t finished.  We are pleased that there is now a Select Committee but if you know Judicial Watch, you also know that we aren’t going to shut down our investigations and lawsuits just because a new congressional committee has been formed.
And so our battle to expose the truth on Benghazi is only heating up.

Obama Administration Benghazi Cover Up Continues
Once again, taking the lead in investigating Benghazi, Judicial Watch released a 17-page draft Vaughn Index document obtained from the U.S. Department of State on May 1, which reveals how the Obama administration is still refusing to provide the full details of how top officials arrived at the now-discredited talking points released to the public following the deadly assault on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, Libya. The new documents, containing more than 50 paragraphs of justifications to withhold information, were obtained in response our June 2013 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (Judicial Watch, Inc., v. U.S. Department of State, (Civil Action No. 13-cv-00951 (EGS)) that uncovered the Benghazi White House talking points stunner.
A Vaughn Index is a document prepared by a federal agency to justify and detail the withholding of material from public disclosure.  The State Department sent the Benghazi draft Vaughn Index to Judicial Watch on May 1, 2014, in accordance with a court order of October 1, 2013.
The new document seeks to justify withholding internal Obama administration exchanges about the Benghazi attack dating back to a September 11, 2013, interagency email exchange containing redactions of an opinion offered on how to respond Benghazi attack updates. Though the State Department document repeatedly describes the material as “Unclassified” or “Sensitive But Unclassified,” it nonetheless justifies scores of extensive redactions and exemptions.
I’m going to go through this material in detail for you because much of the media will do its best provide cover for a White House already under attack because of Judicial Watch’s revelations.
The majority of material in the draft Vaughn Index document pertains to “various drafts, and comments related to the drafts, of a proposed letter from United States Mission to the United Nations (USUN) Ambassador Susan Rice in response to various Congressional inquiries regarding the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, Libya.” The internal debate about the Rice response apparently continued until October 30, 2012. The material obtained by Judicial Watch included the following descriptions related to redacted or exempted material:
  • Document C05415305is a seven-page inter-agency e-mail exchange consisting of sixteen messages between State Department and other U.S. Government officials [Rhodes, Brennan, McDonough . . .] on September 27 and September 28, 2012, with an original subject line “FOX News: US officials knew Libya attack was terrorism within 24 hours, sources confirm.” Subsequent e-mail subject lines were redacted. The document was originally designated SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. The Department withheld comments, opinions and assessments related to the formulation of a media strategy with respect to an ongoing sensitive matter under Exemption 5 pursuant to the deliberative process privilege…The information withheld under Exemption 5 is pre-decisional and deliberative in nature. The release of this information could reasonably be expected to chill the frank deliberations that occur when State Department and other U.S. Government officials are formulating public responses to address sensitive issues. The material is therefore exempt under FOIA Exemption 5, 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(5), pursuant to the deliberative process privilege.”
  • Document C05415752 is a one-page intra-agency e-mail exchange, consisting of three messages, that is dated September 11, 2012, and bears the subject line “UPDATE: Clashes at U.S. consulate in eastern Libyan city (Reuters).” The Department withheld an opinion offered in response to an update regarding the Benghazi attack under FOIA Exemption 5 pursuant to the deliberative process privilege.
  • Document C05415756 is a four-page intra-agency e-mail exchange consisting of ten messages between State Department officials, dated September 11, 2012, with the subject line “Libya update from Beth Jones.” [Jones was Assistant Secretary of State to Hillary Clinton at the time of the Benghazi attack.]
  • Document C05415286 is a three-page intra-agency e-mail exchange, consisting of three messages, dated September 15, 2012, between various State Department personnel. This document … gives a readout and comments on an internal video conference held by U.S. Government officials on September 15, which discussed the security situation in parts of the Islamic world in the wake of a controversial film on the Prophet Mohammed.
  • Document C05415951 is a three-page intra-agency e-mail exchange, consisting of six messages, between State Department and other U.S. Government officials, dated September 28, 2012 and originally designated UNCLASSIFIED. The subject line of the first five messages is “Statement by the Director of Public Affairs for National Intelligence Shawn Turner on the intelligence related to the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.”
  • Document C05415969 is a three-page intra-agency e-mail exchange, consisting of six messages, dated September 29-30, 2012. The subject line of the messages is “Benghazi Draft Response Letter- v14.” The Department withheld candid comments, opinions and assessments made during internal strategy discussions related to the drafting of an official response letter under FOIA Exemption 5 pursuant to the deliberative process privilege.
  • Documents C05416026 is a two-page intra-agency e-mail exchange, consisting of three messages, dated September 30, 2012. The subject lines of the three messages are, beginning with the earliest in time, “Press Recommendation on Libya,” “Draft Response – Vl 7,” and “[Redacted] version of the response letter.”
The State Department’s withholdings make President Obama’s transparency pledges seem like a joke. In one of his first official acts (on January 21, 2009, President Obama issued a memorandum on FOIA that includes the following:
Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails. The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears. Nondisclosure should never be based on an effort to protect the personal interests of Government officials at the expense of those they are supposed to serve. In responding to requests under the FOIA, executive branch agencies (agencies) should act promptly and in a spirit of cooperation, recognizing that such agencies are servants of the public.
All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government. The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA.
This document is a guide to the Obama administration’s Benghazi cover up.  While Congress finally tries to get its act together, while the liberal media attacks, Judicial Watch will keep plugging away in court to get at the truth about Benghazi.

Judicial Watch Role in Lerner Contempt Citation
I’m pleased to report that Benghazi is not the only major Obama administration scandal Judicial Watch has moved to the front burner in Washington. On Wednesday, May 7, the House of Representatives voted 231-187 to hold disgraced former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about the agency’s targeting of Tea Party groups. Moments after the contempt vote, the House passed a separate resolution asking the Department of Justice to appoint a special counsel to probe the IRS over the scandal, by a vote of 250-168.
Regular readers of the Weekly Update will recall that Judicial Watch has been on the cutting edge from the very beginning in ferreting out the truth about Lerner’s efforts to harass and hamstring conservative organizations. Our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and lawsuits resulted in revelations of Lerner’s collusion with the Department of Justice (DOJ) as well as her spearheading efforts within the IRS to delay or block applications from Tea Party groups for 501(c)(4) tax exempt status in what clearly was an attempt to impact the 2012 presidential election.
Just as in the case of the Benghazi scandal, Judicial Watch was able to obtain documents that the Obama administration had refused to provide to Congress. In early April of this year, we released a batch of internal IRS documents revealing that Lerner had directly communicated with DOJ officials about whether it was possible to criminally prosecute certain tax-exempt entities. The documents were obtained through an October 2013 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the IRS after the agency refused to respond to four FOIA requests dating back to May 2013.
In a particularly revealing email sent by Lerner on May 8, 2013, to Nikole C. Flax (then-Chief of Staff to then-Acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller) , the Exempt Organizations director discussed her plans to work with the DOJ to prosecute nonprofit groups for political activities.  Just two days before she revealed the IRS assault on Tea Party groups, falsely blaming it all on the Cincinnati office, Lerner laid out her plans to Flax to collude with Eric Holder’s DOJ:
I got a call today from Richard Pilger Director Elections Crimes Branch at DOJ … He wanted to know who at IRS the DOJ folk s [sic] could talk to about Sen. Whitehouse idea at the hearing that DOJ could piece together false statement cases about applicants who “lied” on their 1024s –saying they weren’t planning on doing political activity, and then turning around and making large visible political expenditures. DOJ is feeling like it needs to respond, but want to talk to the right folks at IRS to see whether there are impediments from our side and what, if any damage this might do to IRS programs. I told him that sounded like we might need several folks from IRS…
One month earlier, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) had held a hearing during which, “in questioning the witnesses from DOJ and IRS, Whitehouse asked why they have not prosecuted 501(c)(4) groups that have seemingly made false statements about their political activities.” In a March 27, 2013, email obtained by Judicial Watch, Lerner had already made it clear to top IRS staff that the impetus for the Whitehouse hearing was to go after political groups:
As I mentioned yesterday — there are several groups of folks from the FEC world that are pushing tax fraud prosecution for c4s who report they are not conducting political activity when they are (or these folks think they are). One is my ex-boss Larry Noble (former General Counsel at the FEC), who is now president of Americans for Campaign Reform. This is their latest push to shut these down. One IRS prosecution would make an impact and they wouldn’t feel so comfortable doing the stuff. So, don’t be fooled about how this is being articulated – it is ALL about 501(c)(4) orgs and political activity. [Emphasis added]
Rep. Darrel Issa (R-CA), the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee – which had been largely stymied in its efforts to get to the truth about Lerner’s activities – was quick to recognize the import and impact of the Judicial Watch disclosures. “The release of new documents underscores the political nature of IRS Tea Party targeting and the extent to which supposed apolitical officials took direction from elected Democrats,” said Issa. “These emails are part of an overwhelming body of evidence that political pressure from prominent Democrats led to the targeting of Americans for their political beliefs.”
Judicial Watch has helped shape the case that has now led to Lerner’s contempt of Congress citation and calls for a special counsel to criminally investigate the matter.
And we will keep the pressure on.  We’ll be announcing new IRS revelations next week, so stay tuned.

Pennsylvania: Fighting Back Against a “Tyranny of One”
“If one man can be allowed to determine for himself what is law, every man can. That means first chaos, then tyranny.” –Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter
Public corruption and abuse of office isn’t just a DC phenomenon.  Corruption in the states is also endemic and more “in your face” than the typical DC scandal.  So when Judicial Watch Attorney Michael Bekesha testified before the State Government Committee of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on May 6, 2014, he didn’t pull any punches. Attorney General Kathleen Kane, Bekesha explained, had consistently refused to honor her sworn oath to uphold the constitution of the state. And he warned of dire consequences if she was allowed to continue abrogating the duly enacted laws of the Commonwealth.
As James Madison warned in Federalist 47: “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” Attorney General Kane’s announcement on July 11, 2013,when Kane announced she would not defend Pennsylvania’s defense of marriage law, makes it clear that she believes that she has the authority to create, enforce, and interpret the law. In Attorney General Kane’s view, Pennsylvania is a tyranny of one, not a democracy.
Clearly, concisely, and forcefully Bekesha explained that Kane had violated her oath of office in not just one, but four separate instances. And in each case, he charged, she has shown “little respect for her office and the people of Pennsylvania.”  (To review Bekesha’s testimony in full, click here.)
Bekesha was invited to testify about Kane’s malfeasance by the Chairman of the State Government Committee, Daryl Metcalfe. Citing Kane’s continuing refusal to uphold Commonwealth laws with which she disagrees, Metcalfe has initiated proceedings that ought to result in the Attorney General’s impeachment.
Bekesha suggested that Kane “must have had her fingers crossed” when she put her hand on the Bible and swore to “discharge the duties of my office with fidelity.” He advised the Committee members that since then she had taken upon herself to “decide which laws she wants to uphold and defend.” And he cited as proof four specific instances in which her actions spurned a 1973 Commonwealth Court ruling that, “The Attorney General is without statutory authority to implement his opinion as to constitutionality”:
  • Attorney General Kane declared a duly enacted Pennsylvania law [against homosexual marriage] unconstitutional and announced that she would not “uphold and defend” it. Although her action in itself may not have been the suspension of the law, the result of her declaration was just that. Less than two weeks after her announcement, the Montgomery County Register of Wills Bruce Hanes stated that he was prepared to violate the law based on, in part, ‘the Attorney General’s belief that Pennsylvania’s marriage laws are unconstitutional.’
  • In January 2014, the State Ethics Commission concluded that the promotion of the Attorney General’s sister to Chief Deputy Attorney General Child Predator Section “created a perception that the promotion of [her] sister was not free from [her] influence.” Again, the Attorney General and others could argue “no harm, no foul.” But we know that is not true. The process is as important, if not more important than, the results. As lawyers and judges regularly say, just the appearance of impropriety or misbehavior damages the office.
  • [B]ased on records received by Judicial Watch from the Office of the Mayor of New York, Attorney General Kane, shortly before taking office, received a “Gun Policy Memo” from then-Mayor Bloomberg’s Mayors against Illegal Guns group. One can only wonder who and what money is influencing her decisions concerning the Second Amendment.
  • Then, we have Attorney General Kane’s decision not to prosecute certain elected officials for allegedly accepting cash and other gifts in exchange for voting “no” on the Pennsylvania Voter ID bill that passed in 2012.
In the latter situation, as the Philadelphia Inquirer explained the situation in a March, 17, 2014, expose:
The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office ran an undercover sting operation over three years that captured leading Philadelphia Democrats, including four members of the city’s state House delegation, on tape accepting money …
Prosecutors began the sting in 2010 when Republican Tom Corbett was attorney general. After Democrat Kathleen G. Kane took office in 2013, she shut it down …
Before Kane ended the investigation, sources familiar with the inquiry said, prosecutors amassed 400 hours of audio and videotape that documented at least four city Democrats taking payments in cash or money orders, and in one case a $2,000 Tiffany bracelet.
We’re proud of the work Michael Bekesha did on behalf of JW in Pennsylvania. It is particularly fitting that he journeyed to the state that gave us the Declaration of Independence to help ensure that the rule of law remains independent of political correctness and partisan politics.
The impeachment process in Pennsylvania is as controversial as you would expect it to be here in Washington, DC – and a good indication of how any impeachment against Obama, Holder, or other administration officials would proceed.  As the hearing was beginning, Democrats first tried to shut down the hearing.   The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports:
Democrats on the panel did not hear Bekesha or three other witnesses. They boycotted the hearing, walking out when the GOP chairman asked House security to remove a lawmaker who repeatedly suggested adjourning the hearing.
“Have your kangaroo court, pal,” state Rep. Mike O’Brien, D-Philadelphia, said as guards approached him. He left on his own.
J. Christian Adams, who is helping us in our Election Integrity Project, also testified separately about Kane’s abuses.
We’ll keep you posted on what becomes of Kathleen Kane and her penchant for inflicting the Commonwealth with what Michael so aptly labeled a “tyranny of one.”

Until next week…
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The IRS Targeting Investigation: What is the Administration Doing?

The IRS Targeting Investigation: What is the Administration Doing?

Witness and Testimony Documents
Civil Rights Division
United States Department of Justice
Partner
Foley & Lardner LLP
Founder
King Street Patriots
Chief Counsel
American Center for Law and Justice
Founder and President
Wetumpka TEA Party, Inc.
Hearing Documents
Topics
Economic Growth, Job Creation and Regulatory Affairs
February 06, 2014 | 9:30 a.m. in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building
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BREAKING: Emails Show Lois Lerner Fed True the Vote Tax Information to Democrat Elijah Cummings

BREAKING: Emails Show Lois Lerner Fed True the Vote Tax Information to Democrat Elijah Cummings

Katie Pavlich | Apr 09, 2014
Katie Pavlich
New IRS emails released by the House Oversight Committee show staff working for Democratic Ranking Member Elijah Cummings communicated with the IRS multiple times between 2012 and 2013 about voter fraud prevention group True the Vote. True the Vote was targeted by the IRS after applying for tax exempt status more than two years ago. Further, information shows the IRS and Cummings' staff asked for nearly identical information from True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht about her organization, indicating coordination and improper sharing of confidential taxpayer information.
Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, along with five Subcommittee Chairmen are demanding Cummings provide an explanation for the staff inquiries to the IRS about True the Vote and for his denial that his staff ever contacted the IRS about the group.
“Although you have previously denied that your staff made inquiries to the IRS about conservative organization True the Vote that may have led to additional agency scrutiny, communication records between your staff and IRS officials – which you did not disclose to Majority Members or staff – indicates otherwise,” the letter to Cummings states. “As the Committee is scheduled to consider a resolution holding Ms. Lerner, a participant in responding to your communications that you failed to disclose, in contempt of Congress, you have an obligation to fully explain your staff’s undisclosed contacts with the IRS.”
The first contact between the IRS and Cummings' staffers about True the Vote happened in August 2012. In January 2013, staff asked for more information from the IRS about the group. Former head of tax exempt groups at the IRS Lois Lerner went out of her way to try and get information to Cummings' office.The information Cummings received was not shared with Majority Members on the Committee.
On January 28, three days after staffers requested more information, Lerner wrote an email to her deputy Holly Paz, who has since been put on administrative leave, asking, “Did we find anything?” Paz responded immediately by saying information had not been found yet, to which Lerner replied, “Thanks, check tomorrow please.”
On January 31, Paz sent True the Vote's 990 forms to Cumming's staff.
Up until this point, Rep. Cummings has denied his staff ever contacted the IRS about True the Vote and their activities during Oversight hearings. In fact, on February 6, 2014 during a Subcommittee hearing where Engelbrecht testified, Cummings vehemently denied having any contact or coordination in targeting True the Vote when attorney Cleta Mitchell, who is representing the group, indicated staff on the Committee had been involved in communication with the IRS. This was the exchange:
Ms. Mitchell: We want to get to the bottom of how these coincidences happened, and we’re going to try to figure out whether any – if there was any staff of this committee that might have been involved in putting True the Vote on the radar screen of some of these Federal agencies. We don’t know that, but we – we’re going to do everything we can do to try to get to the bottom of how did this all happen.

Mr. Cummings. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Meadows. Yes.

Mr. Cummings. I want to thank the gentleman for his courtesy. What she just said is absolutely incorrect and not true.
After the hearing, Engelbrecht filed an ethics complaint against Cummings for his targeting and intimidation of her organization.
Rep. Cummings has described the investigation into IRS targeting of conservative groups as a "witch hunt," and has tried multiple times to put the investigation on hold.
"These documents, indicating involvement of IRS officials at the center of the targeting scandal responding to your requests, raise serious questions about your actions and motivations for trying to bring this investigation to a premature end. If the Committee, as you publicly suggested in June 2013,'wrap[ped] this case up and moved on' at that time, the Committee may have never seen documents raising questions about your possible coordination with the IRS in communications that excluded the Committee Majority," the letter sent by Issa and the Chairmen further states. "As the Committee continues to investigate the IRS's wrongdoing and to gather all relevant testimonial and documentary evidence, the American people deserve to know the full truth. They deserve to know why the Ranking Member and Minority staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform surreptitiously contacted the IRS about an individual organization without informing the Majority Staff and even failed to disclose the contact after it became an issue during a subcommittee proceeding...We ask that you explain the full extent of you and your staff's communications with the IRS and why you chose to keep communications with the IRS from Majority Members and staff even after it became a subject of controversy."
The House Oversight Committee will vote tomorrow about whether to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress.
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Judicial Watch Obtains New Documents Showing IRS Targeting Came Directly From Washington D.C.

Judicial Watch Obtains New Documents Showing IRS Targeting Came Directly From Washington D.C.

Katie Pavlich | May 14, 2014
Katie Pavlich
New documents obtained and released through a Judicial Watch lawsuit show the targeting of tea party and conservative groups came directly out of Washington D.C., not a rogue IRS office in Cincinnati.
On July 6, 2012, former Director of the IRS Rulings and Agreements Division and current Manager of Exempt Organizations Guidance Holly Paz sent an email to IRS Attorney Steven Grodnitzky asking for an explanation of how tea party group applications were being handled. Grodnitzky responded by confirming the cases were being handled in Washington.
"EOT is working the Tea party applications in coordination with Cincy. We are developing a few applications here in DC and providing copies of our development letters with the agent to use as examples in the development of their cases. Chip Hull [another lawyer in IRS headquarters] is working these cases in EOT and working with the agent in Cincy, so any communication should include him as well. Because the Tea party applications are the subject of an SCR [Sensitive Case Report], we cannot resolve any of the cases without coordinating with Rob," Grodnitzky wrote.
When the IRS targeting scandal broke last year, officials in Washington immediately pinned the blame on the Cincinnati office. This documentation proves not only that direction was coming out of Washington, but that Washington instructed Cincinnati about how to handle tea party applications.
A new email from Lois Lerner also details how BOLO lists (be on the look out) were specifically created for tea party groups or groups with issues related to government spending, debt, taxes and "how the country is being run."
"Because the BOLO only contained a brief reference to "Organizations involved with the Tea Party movement applying for exemption under 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4)" in June 2011, the EO Determinations manager asked the manager of the screening group, John Shafer [IRS Cincinnati field office manager], what criteria were being used to label cases as "tea party " cases. ("Do the applications specify/state ' tea party'? If not, how do we know applicant is involved with the tea party movement?") The screening group manager asked his employees how they were applying the BOLO's short –hand reference to "tea party." His employees responded that they were including organizations meeting any of the following criteria as falling within the BOLO's reference to "tea party" organizations: "1. 'Tea Party', 'Patriots' or '9/12 Project' is referenced in the case file. 2. Issues include government spending, government debt and taxes. 3. Educate the public through advocacy/legislative activities to make America a better place to live. 4. Statements in the case file that are critical of the how the country is being run. . . " Lerner wrote on April 2, 2013. "So, we believe we have provided information that shows that no one in EO "developed" the criteria. Rather, staff used their own interpretations of the brief reference to "organizations involved with the Tea Party movement," which was what was on the BOLO list."
Judicial Watch also found the IRS put red and orange alert symbols on tea party issues for heightened awareness. Here are two slides from a "Heightened Awareness Presentation" used at the IRS.
Further, documents show the IRS responded to "intense" requests from Democrat Senator Carl Levin to come down on conservative tax exempt groups in an effort to get rid of them, specifically the groups working against his reelection campaign.
Emails released by Judicial Watch last month show former head of taxpayer groups Lois Lerner was in contact with the Department of Justice about the potential criminal prosecution of conservative groups. In her emails about DOJ, Lerner noted that putting one person from a conservative organization in jail would create and example and "shut the whole thing down."
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White Veteran Stabbed To Death By Group Of Thugs Yelling Slurs, Media Ignores

White Veteran Stabbed To Death By Group Of Thugs Yelling Slurs, Media Ignores

      May 14, 2014 White Veteran Stabbed To Death By Group Of Thugs Yelling Slurs, Media Ignores2014-05-14T03:50:33+00:00     News      Comments
In Lakewood, Washington, a 20-year-old soldier named Tevin Geike was stabbed to death in a parking lot. According to reports, he was walking along the Pacific Highway SW with two other white soldiers when a group of black men drove by and yelled at the group.
Allegedly, the men driving by were yelling racial slurs, and when one of the soldiers responded, the car turned around. Then, the driver of the vehicle recognized that they were fighting soldiers.
One of the suspects bumped into Geike, and the soldiers saw him fall to the ground. Meanwhile, the car sped away into the distance. Geike bled to death from multiple stab wounds.
“He was already dead in my brother’s arms,” Glenn Zimmerman, a friend of Geike, told reporters.
The group of soldiers had been at a party that night, celebrating the end of Geike’s contract, and honoring his service to his country.
“I don’t understand how someone can do this—that man, he almost gave his life for people to enjoy the freedoms they have and he was just stabbed for no reason,” Zimmerman continued.
Given the racial implications of the incident, investigators are considering whether the killing is classified as a hate crime. In the meantime, Police are searching for the vehicle and the five suspects, all five of whom are black men in their 20s.
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When drugs have you dancing naked on an external AC unit 11 stories up… It might be time to check yourself.

When drugs have you dancing naked on an external AC unit 11 stories up… It might be time to check yourself.

When drugs have you dancing naked on an external AC unit 11 stories up… It might be time to check yourself.

naked_woman_dances_balcony_hotel-378494
According to the Daily Star:
A NAKED woman drew huge crowds after she climbed onto an external air conditioning unit and started DANCING.
Police and firemen had gathered to the scene, initially thinking that the woman was about to kill herself by hurling herself to the ground below.
But the huge crowd who had gathered at the hotel were instead treated to the sight of the woman dancing on the small unit.
The naked woman was eventually dragged kicking and screaming to safety.
Drugs were found in the room and a urine test later confirmed that the woman had took them.
More pictures of the incident can be found here as we don’t want to offend anyone.
As America seems to move further and further towards legalization, let this serve as a reminder the effects that drugs might have on our society.

 

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Breaking News...Elijah Cummings Implicated By IRS Email As Person Direct...

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14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
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13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
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Matthew 11:28-30 (King James Version)

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
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