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Documents prove IRS targeted conservatives because of ideology

Working for the Democratic Party: Newly released FBI documents show that the IRS purposely aimed its harassment against conservatives and tea party groups solely because of their opposition to the Democratic Party and the Obama administration.

The FBI 302 documents confirm the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) 2013 report that said, “Senior IRS officials knew that agents were targeting conservative groups for special scrutiny as early as 2011.” Lerner did not reveal the targeting until May 2013, in response to a planted question at an American Bar Association conference. The new documents reveal that then-acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller actually wrote Lerner’s response: “They used names like Tea Party or Patriots and they selected cases simply because the applications had those names in the title. That was wrong, that was absolutely incorrect, insensitive, and inappropriate.”

The FBI documents also reveal that IRS officials stated that the agency was targeting conservative groups because of their ideology and political affiliation in the summer of 2011. According to one senior tax law specialist, “The case seemed to be pulled because of the applicant’s political affiliation and screening is not supposed to occur that way … [Redacted] said he thought the cases were being pulled based upon political affiliations.” And IRS senior official Nancy Marks, appointed by Miller to conduct an internal investigation stated, “Cincinnati was categorizing cases based on name and ideology, not just activity.”

Read the whole thing. The documents show that the targeting was under the direct supervision of high IRS supervisors such as Lois Lerner and Holly Paz. The documents also show that the IRS commissioner at the time, Douglas Shulman, lied to Congress when he claimed that “There is absolutely no targeting.” He was clearly informed at the time that conservatives were being targeted for harassment.

Sadly, I will not celebrate when and if Donald Trump uses the precedent of this scandal (whereby the government got away with using the IRS to destroy its opponents) to go after his opponents. I fully expect him to do so, and though some of them might deserve it for their own illegal and oppressive behavior, such retaliation by Trump will only signal the coming end to American freedom.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

7 comments

  • Mitch S.

    Trump might try, but he’ll discover the main stream media won’t cover for him like they do for Democrats.
    And just maybe (with some guidance from Republicans who want to make improvements when they can) he’ll do some serious tax reform/simplification and be able to trim the IRS.

  • PeterF

    The democratics (I believe it was Hillary) have already warned us that a Trump presidency represents a danger if he attains real power over government institutions like the IRS. Just imagine what he could do! Perhaps they doth protest too much?

    The targeting of organizations with the word “Patriot” caused problems for the New England Patriots football team as well as several charities associated with them.

    I would welcome a Trump presidency that ensures that anyone involved in this practice is fired and prosecuted. If Hillary is elected? I wouldn’t expect anyone will ever be held accountable…

  • Cotour

    PeterF:

    The Democrat narrative seems to be going to continue to focus on the Trump / Russian connection. I have people starting to repeat the mantra that Manafort worked for the Ukrainian’s and so there begins the inside connection and implication that Trump is controlled by Putin. Then a friend of mine told me that his Liberal friends are starting to say that Trump has burned all of his financing bridges and the only financing that he can get is from Deushe Bank or the Russians. (? I do not know)

    Manafort is a successful lobbyist / arranger / consultant and did work for the Ukrainians, among may other , is or was partners with Trumps close friend and now outside attack dog Roger Stone, and I can not find anything on the Russians or how true or untrue the financing rumor is or is not.

    We all know that “truth” is not what this game is about , it is perception, and the Left is in the process of trying to defining Trump as having some nefarious connection to Putin and that will be the political weapon of perception that they will attempt to develop.

    And the right will be spinning up their perception machine.

    Right now some poles have the two candidates about even or Trump with a bit of a lead, IMO its Trumps to lose because no matter how many times Hillary reintroduces herself, it will never be enough, for me anyway.

  • Kirk

    PeterF:
    > I would welcome a Trump presidency that ensures that anyone involved in this practice is fired and prosecuted.

    I have a hard time imagining Trump giving up any tool he can use to increase his power.

    Johnson/Weld are the only candidates I hear talking about turning back the unconstitutional growth of executive power.

  • ken anthony

    Connecting Trump to the Ukraine to prove a Russian connection? Yeah, and all Asians look alike. How ridiculous.

    coming end? That ship has long past sailed. If we neutralize the IRS and
    other politicized government agencies (pretty much all of them) it still wouldn’t put a dent in the problem… which is the assumption by all government employees, elected or not, left or right, that they are in charge. That things are working the way they are supposed to. Rickl linked to this article that is a must read by every American. Also, follow the first link in the article.

  • Cotour

    Ken:
    Im just reporting the current ruminations and the application of the logic process going on in the Liberal mind.

    I read this yesterday in the Economist:
    http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21702750-farewell-left-versus-right-contest-matters-now-open-against-closed-new

    I guess the only choice for America now is to choose total destruction of the American culture and become the wonderful “open” European counter part so we can all be ruled from the U.N. and the leftists among us (good), or to actually have borders protected and immigrants vetted and the Constitution honored and the bill of rights upheld (bad).

    I listened to both Trumps convention speech and Hillary’s. I could only listen to about 25 minutes of Trump, he is no Ronald Reagan but he was speaking to things that concern me. I also listened to Hillary’s speech for a bout the same amount of time, or the amount of time that I could stand it. She too is in no way, shape or form an inspirational speaker. Monotonous, stiff and compartmentalized (?), very annoying and always on the verge of being shrill. Now that the conventions are over, let the political carnage begin.

    I am biased but I will have to give the convention speech edge to Trump, and I do not expect any kind of bump to Hillary’s campaign from it, zero. The panic will begin to set in. I have heard a commercial featuring a Bengazi murder victims wife, it does not work out well for Hillary, a devastating commercial. I expect a lot more of them.

    In the end, do the American people really want what has been going on for the past seven and a half years, “leading from behind”, to continue for another four to eight years? I have to think not, to think otherwise is much too disturbing, we can not be that ignorant to elect another person the the presidency because they are a “minority” or a woman.

    I also believe that anything that can be done will be done legal and illegal to install Hillary to her “destined” place in history. There will treachery at the poles and in cyberspace to accomplish it, so Trump and sane Americans must crush her and her party with massive turn out and crushing, unassailable numbers.

  • Cotour

    The Liberal information stream:

    https://youtu.be/ui7hCwwsNNY

    And Trump gives them their ammunition, but this is how the imagery is solidified in the American subconscious, true or not.

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