SAN DIEGO, May 15, 2014 —On the heals of recent E Mails regarding the Obama administration’s creation of false Benghazi talking points, Judicial Watch has come forth with yet another hot potato E Mail discovery, this time related to the IRS’ handling of politically conservative groups applying for tax exempt status.
Although such IRS dealings were already confirmed in a May 14, 2013 report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration regarding activities that began “early in Calendar Year 2010,” questions about the extent of the scandal have been the subject of an ongoing House investigation.
Did local IRS chapters act on their own or were they marching to cues from Washington? Thanks to Judicial Watch, that question has now been answered.
A JW request under the Freedom of Information Act uncovered a plethora of documents revealing federal direction to pacify President Obama’s political opposition.
One such request came from Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich who made it abundantly clear that tea-party and other conservative organizations needed to be stifled through the arm of the Internal Revenue Service.
As chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, Levin and IRS officials deliberately singled out organizations the senator described as being “engaged in political activities.”
One of the uncovered nuggets was a March 30 letter from the senator which talks about “urgency of the issue” presumably referring to the impending presidential election.
Then-Deputy Commissioner Steven Miller promised Levin a host of “individualized questions and requests” aimed at organizations filing for tax exempt status.
Judicial Watch describes these documents as “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.”
Judicial Watch went on to say, “The emails confirm that IRS tea-party scrutiny was directed from Washington, D.C.”
They also described findings regarding other officials:
“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 Cincinnati IRS Exempt Organizations office. As for Sharon Camarillo, she was senior manager in the Los Angeles office.
Grodnitzk is connected to a Washington, D.C. Exempt Organization Technical unit (EOT). He responded to Paz by saying:
“EOT is working the tea-party applications in coordination with Cincy. We are developing a few applications here in D.C. 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.”
According to Judicial Watch, “Rob” is undoubtedly a reference Rob Choi, who at that time -directed rulings and agreements in the IRS Washington, D.C., headquarters.
There were even new revelations about former Tax Exempt Organizations Director Lois Lerner, infamous for taking the 5th moments after she declared her innocence before a House interrogation.
“Lerner omits that her office was ‘developing’ the applications for all tea-party groups,” Judicial Watch explained.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said, “These new documents show that officials in the IRS headquarters were responsible for the illegal delays of tea-party applications…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.”
Of course one can always argue that the actions of Democrats in Congress or others in Washington who zealously worked with the IRS for Obama’s reelection do not incriminate Obama himself. Still, when we consider the various incarnations of Obama’s comments on this matter between 2013-2014, it is difficult not to smell a rat.
Back in May of 2013 when the IRS story first hit the fan, President Obama expressed grave concern:
“The misconduct that it uncovered is inexcusable. It’s inexcusable, and Americans are right to be angry about it and I am angry about it. I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency—but especially in the IRS, given the power that it has and the reach that it has into all of our lives.”
He also promised the matter would be investigated.
As time went on, we didn’t hear much more from our President about the IRS . But we did hear that his administration was the victim of “an endless parade of distractions, political posturing, and phony scandals.”
Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly brought the matter up again in his Super Bowl Sunday interview. At that time, we were treated to “Obama’s Thoughts About The IRS 5.0.”
When asked about the IRS targeting Tea Party groups for political reasons, the President said,
“That’s not what happened.”
Obama did admit to “some bone-headed decisions,” but not to any kind of deliberate corruption. He then assured O’Reilly that there was “not even a smidgen of corruption.”
That’s an extraordinary statement! Although the matter was supposedly still under investigation, President Obama already knew that there was “not even a smidgen of corruption.”
How exactly could he have possibly known such a thing for an absolute fact? And what would he say now that Judicial Watch has proved otherwise?
Whether or not Obama was lying or was lied to, time will tell. Either way, the recent Judicial Watch documents prove that his words in the O’Reilly interview were utterly and completely false. They now join his health care promise that people will be able to keep their doctors and his misleading words about Ambassador Stevens being murdered because of a video. Since Obama already knew the truth about both Benghazi and health care, it takes either a very loyal fan or a very blind faith to dismiss the likelihood that he is also lying about the IRS.
How many more times can we expect to see Obama’s “other shoe” drop? It’s a difficult question to answer. Like everyone else, the man only has two feet. His shoe deficit is starting to rival our national debt.
This is Bob Siegel, making he obvious, obvious.
World Net Daily and Fox News contributed to the hard news portions of this article
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