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It could take years for Congressional committees to get all the documents demanded about the IRS scandal under mandatory subpoenas, IRS’ new Commissioner John Koskinen testified. The new IRS Commissioner displayed the slippery style of a snake-oil salesman while testifying March 26 before Congressman Darrell Issa’s Committee on Oversight and Government. Koskinen’s excuses were especially surprising because similar demands for documents are imposed upon private companies all the time by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. Your author has worked as a lawyer on teams responding to such massive governmental document requests. Any time there is...

Over the past two years, investigations conducted by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel have uncovered a whole slew of shady tactics being used in operations conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. During their research, The Journal reporters found ATF agents prey on mentally ill teenagers (including ATF agents pressuring at least one young man to get a squid tattooed on his neck) to "help" with gun stings and found agents lost a fully automatic rifle on the streets of Milwaukee after it was stolen out of an unsupervised government vehicle. Careless actions from agents also resulted in thousands of...

March 14, 2014 Issa pens scathing letter to Cummings as IRS feud escalates Chad Pergram Republican Rep. Darrell Issa has penned a personal, scathing letter to his Democratic counterpart on the House oversight committee, escalating the public feud between the two high-ranking lawmakers amid the committee's investigation into IRS targeting. The letter to Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., top Democrat on that committee, was obtained by Fox News. In it, Issa countered, point by point, a series of claims that Cummings and two legal experts made earlier this week about whether former IRS official Lois Lerner could be held in contempt...

--SNIP-- The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings, said in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner that Republicans have already botched any plans they might have for contempt actions against Lerner, who headed an IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status. Cummings, citing opinions from two legal experts and “Supreme Court case law,” said Republicans cannot pursue contempt charges against Lerner because of how the committee’s chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, abruptly adjourned a hearing with the former official last week. The letter said Issa “failed to take the basic — but Constitutionally required — steps necessary to hold...

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa said he is incensed about allegations the CIA spied on the Senate Intelligence Committee, calling it “treason.” “I think Senator Feinstein is as outraged as anyone and I share her outrage. I think the violation of the Constitutional separation of powers should be an offense of the highest level—virtually treason,” Issa told Breitbart News on Tuesday. “Spying on the executive branch—spying on Congress or violating the separation of powers as to the Supreme Court or as to Congress is effectively treason. Treason—it’s written up in the Constitution,” Issa said of Feinstein’s revelations, adding, “I...

The issue at hand is essentially the CIA covertly monitoring the Senate Intelligence Committee as the Senate investigated the CIA. The problem stems from an obvious oversight issue where the CIA takes illegal action to monitor the Senate as they investigate. However, there’s something more within the behavior of the people involved. Dianne Feinstein is clearly outlining the CIA is violating the law. As a consequence the CIA claim to be following instructions from the Obama administration and the White House. That alone represents a big issue – However, the way CIA Director John Brennan is responding to the charges...

I totally see what hubby Richard Blum sees in Dianne - access to the ability to receive multi million dollar no-bid contracts for real estate leases to Fed agencies.   One thing you can say about Democrats. Nothing embarrasses them. Well, it would embarrass them if it could be proved they slipped up and did or said something that could be identified as sensible or honest – but they don't have anything to worry about there. Certainly Senator Dianne Feinstein won't be troubled or see the duplicity inherent in her vociferous complaints against the CIA. NBC News' Katie Hunt...

II. Executive Summary In February 2012, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform began investigating allegations that the Internal Revenue Service inappropriately scrutinized certain applicants seeking tax-exempt status. Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code permits incorporation of organizations that meet certain criteria and focus on advancing “social welfare” goals.1 With a 501(c)(4) designation, such organizations are not subject to federal income tax. Donations to these organizations are not tax deductible. Consistent with the Constitutionally protected right to free speech, these organizations – commonly referred to as “501(c)(4)s” – may engage in campaign-related activities provided that these activities do not...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Now, this clash that took place on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform with Issa and Elijah Cummings, exactly what I feared and predicted and mentioned at the time has indeed happened. Here is the Washington Post and their headline, and they're just enraged here. This is the Lois Lerner hearing. Lois Lerner was supposed to show up and answer specific questions about why she had, in e-mails, referred to the Tea Party and Tea Party activities in such disparaging and critical ways. The IRS is not supposed to single out groups for punishment. The...

Darrell Issa seen plowing ahead with IRS probe amid new evidence By JOHN BRESNAHAN and LAUREN FRENCH | 3/7/14 2:00 PM EST Updated: 3/7/14 3:53 PM EST Not even a trove of new evidence will stop Darrell Issa from going after Lois Lerner’s testimony. The House Oversight Committee Chairman is plowing forward with plans to hold the former IRS official in contempt of Congress - possibly as early as next week - despite word from the tax agency that it plans to hand over a broad set of documents spanning Lerner’s entire career at the IRS. Republicans have long sought...

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell appeared on Fox News’ “The Kelly File” last night and chastised the networks for skipping the substance of the latest congressional hearing on the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups. Bozell’s comments came after Lois Lerner, the IRS official at the center of the scandal, once again refused to answer questions during a congressional hearing, instead choosing to use her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Rather than discussing the merits of the latest hearing, all three networks chose instead to play up the verbal confrontation between Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD),...

March 6, 2014 Oversight lawmaker: Holding Lois Lerner in contempt is ‘where we’re moving’ Patrick Howley The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is moving in the direction of holding ex-IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress sooner rather than later, committee member Rep. Jim Jordan told The Daily Caller.“I think that’s where we’re moving,” Jordan said. “I think that’s where this is headed.”Jordan added that he feels holding Lerner in contempt is “the right thing to do.”An Oversight Committee staffer confirmed that a contempt charge is being considered.Lerner invoked the Fifth Amendment on each question Issa asked...

Republicans are inching toward a vote to hold former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress after fireworks erupted at a House hearing on the tea party targeting on Wednesday. Lerner, former head of the IRS tax-exempt unit and a lightning rod for Republicans in the nine-month-old scandal, invoked her Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer self-incriminating questions at a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing — as she did at a May hearing last year. Across the Capitol campus, Speaker John Boehner threatened to hold her in contempt if she continues to refuse to testify. “I’ll wait...

VIDEO: 4 minutes - Rep. Marcia Fudge's oral presentation of the privileged resolution on House floor. The chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus is calling House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) to be stripped of his gavel for his behavior at a contentious IRS hearing on Wednesday. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) told Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday that Issa’s conduct in the hearing — which included cutting off the microphone of Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the ranking Democrat — amounted to “an affront to the expectations of the American people.” Fudge also said Issa should apologize on the House...

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Same song, different verse. More of the same. All of these adjective phrases aptly describe what happened in Congress yesterday. Darrell Issa had requested Lois Lerner return to his committee and testify about the IRS targeting of conservative groups for political purposes. As it was last year, her answer was the same. She came, she sat, and when she was asked a question, she respectfully declined to answer on the advice of her attorney. She specifically stated she was exercising her Fifth Amendment rights. After a few short minutes, Darrell...

Hissy fit! Moments ago, embattled ex-Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner appeared before Darrell Issa's House Oversight Committee. She was supposedly there to answer questions about the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups.  You may remember that President Obama has dismissed this entire scandal because he claims there wasn't "even a smidgen of corruption" involved. That's weird, because Lois Lerner promptly invoked her rights under the 5th Amendment and refused to answer any questions. For the record, the 5th Amendment is the one that deals with not offering testimony that might incriminate yourself.  You'd think that would be hard to do if...

A House committee is planning a showdown next week with a former Internal Revenue Service official who declined to answer questions last year about agency targeting of tea-party groups. The former official, Lois Lerner, appeared at a contentious hearing House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last May, soon after news broke that the IRS had targeted grassroots conservative groups for special scrutiny as they sought tax-exempt status. At the hearing, Ms. Lerner made an opening statement asserting her innocence of any wrongdoing, then sought to invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. She declined to answer questions from committee members...

The following Republicans voted Tuesday to raise the government's borrowing limit: John Boehner, R-Ohio. Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy,R-Calif. Chief Deputy Whip Pete Roskam, R-Ill. Ken Calvert, R-Calif. Dave Camp, R-Mich. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. Hal Rogers, R-Ky. Dave Reichert, R-Wash. Chris Collins, R-N.Y. Howard Coble, R-N.C. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. Mike Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. Pete King, R-N.Y. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J. Buck McKeon, R-Calif. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa. Gary Miller, R-Calif. Ed Royce, R-Calif. John Runyan, R-N.J. John Shimkus, R-Ill. Chris Smith, R-N.J. David Valadao, R-Calif. Frank Wolf,...

The Republican leading the investigation into the Benghazi terror attack said the “failure” didn't lie with Hillary Clinton and that her “legacy” was “mostly intact” for a 2016 presidential run. The show of support for the former secretary of State by House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is among the surprising revelations in the new book “HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton,” by The Hill's Amie Parnes and Politico's Jonathan Allen. Issa made the comments in a December 2012 interview, at a time when Republicans were still focusing their anger on inaccurate administration talking points they claimed...

Tuesday on the Fox News Channel, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) reacted to the the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) new report that the Affordable Care Act will reduce full-time employment by about 2.5 million jobs by 2024. Issa had an ominous warning that unfortunately more jobs will be lost before Republicans can hopefully take back the Senate in the mid-term elections and fix it...