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Obama administration defies IRS court order

The Obama administration announced this week that it is withholding all of the more than 2,000 documents demanded by the court in connection with the IRS scandal and the possibility that the IRS divulged confidential taxpayer information to the White House.

Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew, Obama’s former White House Chief of Staff, took the documents that were set to be released and now refuses to ever turn them over. His rationale? Lew cannot release information about improper disclosures of confidential taxpayer information because that would be an improper disclosure of confidential taxpayer information.

Does anyone with any brains actually believe Lew and the Obama administration in this? I certainly don’t. The real reason they are are withholding the documents is because those documents will prove that the Obama administration used confidential taxpayer information for political purposes, and they must prevent that fact from being proven at all costs.

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.

 
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"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

10 comments

  • Edward

    Hmm…

    It seems to me that if there is confidential taxpayer information in each and every one of the 2,000 requested documents, then confidential taxpayer information was definitely being exchanged between the IRS and the White House.

    The legal phrase is spoliation of evidence, and it means that it can legally be concluded that the missing, hidden, or withheld documents contain evidence of wrongdoing. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoliation_of_evidence )

    More than that, since confidential taxpayer information is among the “nearly 2,500 pages of documents that chronicle investigations into the confidential taxpayer information that the White House exchanged with the IRS,” then they have chronicled the taxpayers (or some of them) whose privacies were violated. Since this information is in all 2,000 withheld documents, then there were either a lot of violated taxpayers or the few that were violated had been thoroughly chronicled over and over again.

    It is clear that the wrong was being committed, otherwise there would be no need to include any actual taxpayer information in the documents — for that matter, there would not be any taxpayer information to include. No need for presumption of guilt, guilt was stated by the declaration of withholding.

    Guilt has been admitted. Q.E.D.

    (On the other hand, I have had a terrible time with my mathematical proofs and theorems, so please tell me where I went wrong.)

  • PeterF

    The evidence will come flooding out once they feel the steel bracelets and we get to see a perp-walk. But I’m not going to hold my breath. I expect a stonewall attempt for two years in the hopes that the clock will run out. This is already old news to the mainstream media. (whatever happened to that Gruber A-hole?) This week they’ve got some wonderful race riots to point the cameras at, no time for “old” scandals…

  • David M. Cook

    Liars, cheats, crooks and criminals! That’s the best description of the Obama administration. Future historians will not be very kind to our Crook-in-Chief and his crooked minions.

  • Pzatchok

    What will they do when the republicans take over and actually, finally get their hands on the information?

    Granted the republicans will have to do a total house cleaning and replace everyone who even smells like a left leaning democrat first.

    Go after the low level office flunkies first. They will rat out their bosses faster than you can say ‘lets make a deal’.
    Even the left can’t find 500 lawyers to spend all their time defending 500 average office scrubs.

  • Max

    The DEA went up to the door and knocked and told the man “I have a search warrant to come in to look for drugs”
    The man says “you can’t come in, I have drugs in here”
    This could never work as a defense, unless you are a multibillion dollar drug company.

    The wrongdoing is obvious, so the true question is Obama above the law or subject to it?
    I wouldn’t put any faith in the Republicans finding out what’s going on, they have more to lose from the tea party then the Democrats. It would not surprise me to learn that Obama and the IRS did what they did with the full blessing of the Republican progressive party. They will do their part in the cover-up.

  • Scott

    Since I’m typing this note on 12/8 and the thread started 12/3, that’s – gosh – already 5 days! This sort of ancient history should be expunged from the record to make room for more interesting and exciting news…like, “2ND NIGHT OF BERKELEY PROTESTS TURNS VIOLENT!” Like, you know, “Happening NOW” stuff.

  • Edward

    “so the true question is Obama above the law or subject to it?”

    I suppose that depends upon whether the Attorney General is as honest as Elliot Richardson, who refused to dismiss Archibald Cox as Nixon had ordered (William Ruckelshaus is another hero in that story, as he also resigned rather than corrupt the DOJ).

    If AG Holder is unwilling to uphold the law and the Constitution, as he and the rest of the government have been unwilling to do, then Obama is above the law and may perform any actions of a dictator, monarch, or tyrant that he wishes.

    If Holder or the rest of the government suddenly grow a pair (between the lot of them) or suddenly become upstanding, law abiding citizens, then Obama becomes subject to the law. (I tried holding my breath, but I passed out without this subjugation of the president happening.)

  • Edward

    Scott,

    Despite this topic being 5 days old, some of us still have thoughts on this topic, and it isn’t as though the topic has suddenly become irrelevant. A tyranny that dictates arbitrary law to We the People will adversely affect us for as long as this tyranny lasts, not just for a few days.

    My vote (as though votes count on BtB) is in favor of keeping this post for as long as we are willing to continue responding with our own comments.

    Plus, I am still waiting for a critique on my logic from my comment, above (as opposed to the reality on the ground, which tells us, as Max pointed out, that no matter how logical I am, we are now living in a “nation of men, not laws,” meaning that the law is applied differently, depending upon whether you are a friend that Obama rewards or an enemy that he punishes).

    If Robert chooses to post a comment on the shameful Berkeley riots that happened over the weekend, then I may choose to also comment, and you could, too. Despite your comment, above, I still don’t know whether you are for or against the violence, such as the hitting of someone’s head with a hammer and the throwing of bricks, pipes and other objects at the police; the destruction of property, such as damaged cars and broken store windows; the looting, such as the Radio Shack; or the blocked traffic, such as happened on the freeway.

    Rather than proving their point, supposedly that they think the police need to be constrained, they are making a better case for harsher police methods in order to prevent future evil riotous deeds from happening to innocent people and their property. They are making it clear that they do not believe in laws being applied to themselves or orderly living for those around them. We can only wonder at what civics and civility Berkeley students are learning at the university.

    Oops, I forgot to wait for Robert to post his own commentary on this disrespectful behavior.

  • I have not posted much on the riots in Ferguson or the resulting lawlessness in other cities because I actually don’t consider it news. The protestors are made up of a handful of malcontents and do not really represent a larger community. Why give them the publicity they crave?

  • Scott

    I should have realized “tongue-in-cheek” sarcasm might mistakenly be taken literally. My point was – in plain English – that this administration is well aware of the fact that the majority of the legacy MSM and low information voters are easily or willingly diverted from a complex legal story to a simple headline grabber. Remember Hillary’s now famous retort to a troubling question about her handling of Benghazi ; “What possible difference now does it make?” i.e., it’s ancient history – move on!

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