Help Free Republic over the hump.
Please Contribute Today!
Posted on 07/31/2013 4:47:38 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross
Embattled Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner and an attorney in the Federal Election Commission’s general counsel’s office appear to have twice colluded to influence the record before the FEC’s vote in the case of a conservative non-profit organization, according to e-mails unearthed by the House Ways and Means Committee and obtained exclusively by National Review Online. The correspondence suggests the discrimination of conservative groups extended beyond the IRS and into the FEC, where an attorney from the agency’s enforcement division in at least one case sought and received tax information about the status of a conservative group, the American Future Fund, before recommending that the commission prosecute it for violations of campaign-finance law. Lerner, the former head of the IRS’s exempt-organizations division, worked at the FEC from 1986 to 1995, and was known for aggressive investigation of conservative groups during her tenure there, too.
“Several months ago . . . I spoke with you about the American Future Fund, a 501(c)(4) organization that had submitted an exemption application the IRS [sic],” the FEC attorney wrote Lerner in February 2009. The FEC, which polices violations of campaign-finance laws, is not exempted under Rule 6103, which prohibits the IRS from sharing confidential taxpayer information, but the e-mail indicates Lerner provided that information nonetheless: “When we spoke last July, you had told us that the American Future Fund had not received an exemption letter from the IRS,” the FEC attorney wrote.
The timing of the correspondence between Lerner and the FEC suggests the FEC attorney sought information from the IRS in order to influence an upcoming vote by the six FEC commissioners. The FEC received a complaint in March 2008 from the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party alleging that the American Future Fund had violated campaign-finance law by engaging in political advocacy without registering as a political-action committee. The American Future Fund responded to that complaint in June 2008, telling the commission that it had applied for tax exemption in March of that year and was a “501(c)(4) social-welfare organization that was organized to provide Americans with a conservative and free-market viewpoint and mechanism to communicate and advocate on the issues that most interest and concern them.” According to the e-mail correspondence, a month after receiving the American Future Fund’s response, the FEC general counsel’s office — which is prohibited under law from conducting an investigation into an organization before the FEC’s six commissioners have voted to do so — contacted Lerner to investigate the agency’s tax-exempt status.
The FEC general counsel’s office, in its recommendation on the case, apparently didn’t tell the agency’s commissioners about how it had obtained the information about the group’s tax-exempt status. Recommending that the commissioners prosecute the American Future Fund, the general counsel’s office wrote, “According to its response, AFF submitted an application for tax-exempt status to the Internal Revenue Service . . . on March 18, 2008.” The footnote to that sentence reads, “The IRS has not yet issued a determination letter regarding AFF’s application for exempt status. Based on the information from the response and the IRS website, it is likely that the application is still under review.” In fact, an FEC lawyer knew that the organization had yet to obtain tax-exempt status because Lerner provided the confidential information.
The general counsel’s report was issued in September 2008, but it was over five months before the six FEC commissioners voted, in late-February 2009, on whether to prosecute the American Future Fund for violations of campaign-finance laws. (The typical lag time between the submission of a general counsel’s recommendation and a commission vote is about a month, according to a source familiar with the workings of the commission.) As the vote approached, on February 3, 2009, the FEC lawyer went back to Lerner for an update on the status of the American Future Fund’s application. “Could you please tell me whether the IRS has since issued an exemption letter to the American Future Fund? Also if the IRS has granted American Future Fund’s exemption, would it be possible for you to send me the publicly available information and documents related to American Future Fund?”
Despite the recommendations of the general counsel’s office, the six FEC commissioners split on whether to pursue the American Future Fund’s case and voted six-to-zero to close the case.
House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp and ranking member Charles Boustany are calling on the IRS, in the wake of these revelations, to provide all communications between the agency and the FEC between 2008 and 2012. “The American public is entitled to know whether the IRS is inappropriately sharing their confidential tax information with other agencies,” Camp and Boustany write in a letter they will send to acting IRS administrator Danny Werfel on Wednesday.
The FEC enforcement attorney also inquired about the tax-exempt status of another conservative organization, the American Issues Project. “I was also wondering if you could tell me whether the IRS had issued an exemption letter to a group called the American Issues Project? The group also appears to be the successor of two other organizations, Citizens for the Republic and Avenger, Inc.” Also sought were “any information and documents that would be publicly available in relation to the American Issues Project, Citizens for the Republic, or Avenger, Inc.”
There could be a Ron Brown Redux at any moment.
FREEPER ACTION ALERT When the Tea Party began heating up---holding massive rallies, and showing up at townhalls to protest Obamacare the arrogant, self-entitled Obamatons surely went ballistic. Does not take much imagination to know the WH con artists were thinking up demonic ways to stop the Tea Partiers who stood in their path.
SIGNIFICANT Remember that the Obamatons also took over the census. When Rahm Emanuel landed at Treasury, he had all the tools at his disposal to target individuals, tea parties, patriot groups, and so on.
=======================================
NOW HEAR THIS---CONTACT YOUR CONGRSSMAN AND THE LOCAL MEDIA WITH THIS MESSAGE: All of the Treasury factotums doing Rahm's bidding need to be identified and brought before Congress to testify under oath. We need to know the specifics WRT Emanuel's activities at Treasury including dates and times when Emanuel consorted w/ the IRS.
===========================================
TALKING POINTS--WSJ REPORT--On Jan 20, 2009 Timothy Geithner was appointed Obama's Secy of the Treasury. But within three weeks, the obama White House tightened its grip on Treasury. Obama put his COS, Rahm Emanuel, in charge of Treasury---Rahm Emanuel's dual role was an unusual move.
When he got to Treasury, White House COS Rahm Emanuel was so involved in the inner workings of the Treasury that the phrase "Rahm wants it" had become an unofficial mantra among subservient govt staffers, prostrate in obeisance, scurrying to accede to Rahm's wishes, according to Treasury government officials. Reported by WSJ / 05/31/09
More here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124113406528875137.html
=================================================
MOMENTS TO REMEMBER Obama was fond of saying "Tea Parties are a threat to democracy."
Valerie Jarrett ominously warned, they "would not forget" which Americans dd not worship Obama.
Obama told hispanics, "we will reward our friends and punish our enemies."
Good
Compilation of who she is and what she’s done.
IMO it needs its own thread so it can more easily be distributed by those who have contact information !
That would be a good place to intern Valerie Jarrett, Lois Lerner, Todd Jones, and all of the other federal government felons. They should be banned from having cell phones or computers--give them some decks of playing cards, chess sets, Parcheesi and Monopoly games to while away the time, with regular monthly mail service to and from the US.
Obama has taken us from a representative republic to a banana republic in one administration.
I definitely would not share a cab with her.
Absolutely. .it’s unethical as hell.
Perhaps a permanent vacation at the seaside resort island of ‘Alcatraz’ ... with no outside communication or visitation? The escort to this permanent vacation spot would be by Seal Team 6 .... maybe they’d do subsequent guard duty as well. I think this sort of ‘vacation’ would result in the first case of direct ‘death by Narcissism’ .... lack of adoration and power would eat them up from the inside like parasitic worms.
Amen brother. I would like to see people go to jail for this and have "phony scandal" tattooed to their forehead.
In October of 2008 the heads of many major media companies were told that if they reported on Obama’s ineligibility they would be annihilated by the FCC, through anti-monopoly measures against the parent companies. Doug Hagmann has witness statements and physical evidence which he says traces the threats back to George Soros, David Axelrod, and Rahm Emanuel. The “conservative” media has been emasculated. First on eligibility and then on other critical issues as well. Sarah Palin says she was gagged from talking about how dangerous Obama is. Well, so was everybody else in the conservative media.
Obama’s threat machine shut down the opposition candidate and the major media, and they went after the grassroots folks also, by harassing groups like the Tea Party and this group, and by spying on and tampering with the computers of citizen investigators.
Two things that leave me cold when I look at this coup: the systematic nature of the attack, and the total inability of the people to get protection and justice from ANYBODY within this corrupt, lawless system of governance and information dissemination.
This HAS been a coup, as you say. Larry Sellin overheard one of the 2012 R Presidential primary candidates explain to a questioner why nobody would touch Obama’s eligibility problem: because it goes WAY deeper than anybody wants to delve. That person apparently knew this was a coup, and that the crimes and corruption are all-pervasive. We’re now seeing bits and pieces of what bottom-feeding scum in Congress, the bureaucracy, courts, and media have known all along: that we and our Constitution are under attack from our own government.
The only thing phony about this scandal is the prosecution of the crimes.
Thanks Liz. Review is always Great!
From the article:
The FEC general counsel’s office, in its recommendation on the case, apparently didn’t tell the agency’s commissioners about how it had obtained the information about the group’s tax-exempt status. Recommending that the commissioners prosecute the American Future Fund, the general counsel’s office wrote, “According to its response, AFF submitted an application for tax-exempt status to the Internal Revenue Service . . . on March 18, 2008.”
The footnote to that sentence reads, “The IRS has not yet issued a determination letter regarding AFF’s application for exempt status. Based on the information from the response and the IRS website, it is likely that the application is still under review.” In fact, an FEC lawyer knew that the organization had yet to obtain tax-exempt status because Lerner provided the confidential information.
The general counsel’s report was issued in September 2008, but it was over five months before the six FEC commissioners voted, in late-February 2009, on whether to prosecute the American Future Fund for violations of campaign-finance laws. (The typical lag time between the submission of a general counsel’s recommendation and a commission vote is about a month, according to a source familiar with the workings of the commission.)
~~~~~~~
The 16-pg email was signed by 4 people on Sept 30, 2008:
Thomasenia Duncan, General Counsel
Ann Marie Terzaken, Assoc General Counsel for Enforcement
Julie McConnell, Asst General Counsel
William A Powers, Attorney
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 18, 2008
Secrets of the American Future Fund
http://iowaindependent.com/4203/secrets-of-the-american-future-fund
In March, an ad run by AFF in the race between Democrat Al Franken and Republican Sen. Norm Coleman for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat caused the state’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party to file a formal complaint with the FEC alleging that the group violated federal election law and that its ads constitute blatant electoral advocacy.
“The American Future Fund is a shadowy nonprofit organization,” the complaint said. “It purports to be exempt from tax under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. But its notion of ‘promoting the social welfare’ is to send valentines to electorally troubled Republican Senate candidates. The Commission should take immediate steps to enforce the law and expose this group’s secret financing to light of day.”
Under federal election law, the organization is prohibited from engaging solely in “express advocacy,” which would include asking voters to vote for or against a certain candidate. But so long as the ad hasn’t been coordinated with a campaign and doesn’t outright say “œvote for” or “vote against,” it is not considered express advocacy, according to Paul S. Ryan, FEC program director for the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington, D.C.-based organization.
“An organization that is careful about how it writes the script of its ad can fly under the radar or stay outside of the net of campaign finance activity,” he said.
The ad in question didn’t ask voters to vote for Coleman, but rather asked voters to “call Norm Coleman and thank him for his agenda for Minnesota.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sept 10, 2009
Des Moines-based American Future Fund Thursday launched a multi-state television ad campaign, coinciding with the president’s national health care address, hoping to convince conservative Democrats to oppose health care reform legislation.
This ad campaign will not be the first time the group has had a presence in Minnesota. One of the races it focused on during the 2008 campaign was the Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging AFF violated federal election law by failing to register and report as a political committee. The FEC ruled in AFF’s favor.
http://iowaindependent.com/19656/american-future-fund-goes-after-blue-dogs
*********************************************
July 31, 2013
AFF Responds To Evidence Of Targeting By The IRS And FEC
http://americanfuturefund.com/aff-responds-to-evidence-of-targeting-by-the-irs-and-fec
*********************************************
Decoding the Dispute Between the FEC and Its Lawyers Over Sharing Information with DOJ
By Brian Svoboda on July 8th, 2013
http://www.lawandpoliticsupdate.com/2013/07/decoding-the-dispute-between-the-fec-and-its-lawyers-over-sharing-information-with-doj-2/
If we don’t fight back soon, there will be nothing left to fight for. We could learn something from the Egyptians.
BTTT!
E-mails Suggest Collusion Between FEC, IRS to Target Conservative Groups
Article and comments, esp # 22.
.
“...all in DC know it and yet do all they can to avoid the issue??....”
They are frozen in the NSA PRISM database. They are ALL dirty except for a very small handful. Odongo has em right where he wants em....and they all know it. We have, in essence, a one-party country right now...and that party is based on communism and fascism. It’s utterly disgusting.
They should all be in jail right now. And zero should hang.
I’ll take “Cower in the corner” for $100 million Alex.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.