Trump Justice Department settles lawsuits over Obama IRS harassment
The Trump administration has come to a settlement with the lawsuits filed by tea party groups over their harassment by the IRS during the Obama administration.
The government apologized Thursday for illegally targeting tea party groups for intrusive scrutiny and agreed to settlements with hundreds of organizations snared in the targeting, bringing to a close one of the more embarrassing episodes of the Obama administration.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the IRS owed the groups an apology after years of poor treatment and even longer refusal to concede bad behavior. He placed blame on “the last administration,” saying the targeting that went on under President Obama “was wrong and should never have occurred.”
One of the settlement agreements, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., officially admits that the IRS singled out groups because of their political beliefs, in defiance of the law. The other settlement, in a class-action lawsuit in Ohio, includes a “generous” payout to more than 400 groups snared, according to a lawyer involved.
The amount of the settlement was not released.
Meanwhile, John Koskinen remains head of the IRS, despite a long documented record of stone-walling and obstruction of justice. If the Trump administration is really sincere about fixing this proglem so that it won’t happen again, why has Trump not fired him?
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The Trump administration has come to a settlement with the lawsuits filed by tea party groups over their harassment by the IRS during the Obama administration.
The government apologized Thursday for illegally targeting tea party groups for intrusive scrutiny and agreed to settlements with hundreds of organizations snared in the targeting, bringing to a close one of the more embarrassing episodes of the Obama administration.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the IRS owed the groups an apology after years of poor treatment and even longer refusal to concede bad behavior. He placed blame on “the last administration,” saying the targeting that went on under President Obama “was wrong and should never have occurred.”
One of the settlement agreements, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., officially admits that the IRS singled out groups because of their political beliefs, in defiance of the law. The other settlement, in a class-action lawsuit in Ohio, includes a “generous” payout to more than 400 groups snared, according to a lawyer involved.
The amount of the settlement was not released.
Meanwhile, John Koskinen remains head of the IRS, despite a long documented record of stone-walling and obstruction of justice. If the Trump administration is really sincere about fixing this proglem so that it won’t happen again, why has Trump not fired him?
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Bob, re: “why has Trump not fired him?”
The only answer that tracks I can think of ; FEAR
Orion:
If I may, If you mean Kosikinen, I believe that his time as head of the IRS ends in November 2017 (?) and a new trump chosen head will be installed.
I can only suppose that although he has been a gigantic obstructive organ that it has been decided that since Learner was going to get to slide then why fire Kosikinen and create what some consider an unnecessary upset within the IRS? Remember we are talking about the political realm within the government and it does not operate as things operate in the real world. In the real world both Learner and Kosikinen would have at least been fired and at most indicted.
Q: What is a “Proglem”?
The only way this type of behavior will stop is when jail time is handed out.
The left has been suggesting jail time for politicians who “they” believe have lied on the AGW issue. Wiat for them to apply the same standard.
I may have a very long wait!
Related, the insidiousness of the Left and their un American rhetoric:
https://lawnewz.com/high-profile/dnc-chair-tom-perez-makes-glaring-constitutional-error-in-law-school-speech/
This is a prime example of how the Leftist operator plants the seeds of Leftist change into our system of governance as per the Constitution. Just like how Obama would kind of just touch the edges of the rejecting of the Constitutions fundamental construct, “You didn’t build that”, The apology tour, officially embracing and legitimizing radicals within the White House, ensuring the nuclear arming of Iran through an agreement based in executive actions and not through ratification of the Congress, etc, etc.. A sub current of Leftist philosophy being poured into the public’s brain, and as per design, just like “Social Justice”, it sounds so reasonable.
Here Tom Perez does not quite say that the Electorial college is not part of the Constitution as is described in the article, instead he says that the Electorial college “Does not have to be there in the Constitution”. Of course the Electorial college system devised by the Founders ensured that Hillary would never be president and the Left / Democrats understand that their path to eternal power through pure numbers nationally lies in the elimination of the Electorial college.
Perez stealthily sows the seeds of hopeful change, just like Obama, they are well indoctrinated in the technique. Especially since there is strong discussion of a Constitutional Convention in the air. And there is an example of the double edged nature of a Convention. Whether there is a Constitutional Convention or not there is being constructed in the consciousness of the dim witted and Constitutionally ignorant the thinking that “Hey, our system is unfair, we are a Democracy, why isn’t who gets the most votes the president!?”.
The answer is that we are a Democratic Republic and not a direct Democracy as recognized by the Founders, where states have rights and states have there say as to who will be empowered to become the president of The United States. What ensures that? The Electorial College.
Keep watching Perez who is the head of the DNC and listen to just exactly what he is speaking about and the imagery he attempts to craft in the minds of the susceptible.