Free Republic

We live in a dangerous world. For the 70,000 officers at Homeland Security and the 40,000 officers within the Department of Justice, proper training and equipment are vital to their daily law enforcement duties. Over a nearly two-year period - the last years of the Obama administration (FY2015 - FY2016), these law enforcement agencies spent $138 million on new guns and ammunition. That seems reasonable. What’s curious, however, is that traditionally administrative agencies spent more than $20 million. Four notable examples: 1) The 2,300 Special Agents at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are allowed to carry AR-15’s, P90 tactical rifles,...

The IRS says it will not accept electronic tax returns that do not disclose whether the filer had health insurance coverage during the year. It also says it will suspend paper returns that do not have the disclosure. The IRS' move, which will bolster compliance with Affordable Care Act rules, comes as the Trump administration takes other steps to undercut the law. The IRS is warning tax professionals that it will block or suspend processing of 2017 income tax returns that do not comply with Obamacare rules requiring filers to disclose their health insurance status. The new move to tighten...

An internal audit commissioned by the Clinton Foundation in 2011 revealed that the Clinton's family charity may have misled the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) when it claimed, under penalty of perjury, that it was enforcing a policy against conflicts of interest. [Snip] In short, auditors warned the Clinton Foundation it was likely involved in multiple conflicts of interest violations. That warning was ignored for the entire time Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State as tens of millions of dollars continued to pour into the foundation's coffers. The Clintons knew. The Obama White House knew. Top-ranking members of Congress knew as...

As Las Vegas police continue to search for a motive behind the deadliest mass shooting in American history, details continue to surface about the past of the 64-year-old shooting suspect. A spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Stephen Paddock worked as an agent for the Internal Revenue Service in its auditing department and was also a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. The spokesperson said Paddock worked as a mailman for the USPS for two years from 1976-1978 and then worked for the IRS for six years until 1984. After that,...

Obama Administration Used Confidential Taxpayer Information to Push Obamacare It’s Government Gone Wild Time In Washington, DC Judicial Watch Sues Justice Department for Mueller Russian Special Counsel Budget Obama Administration Used Confidential Taxpayer Information to Push Obamacare Your Judicial Watch uncovered yet another Obama IRS scandal – and one that includes the massive Health and Human Services (HHS) running Obamacare AND the Obama White House directly! We received two productions of documents, 77 pages and 108 pages , from the IRS revealing that the Obama IRS coordinated with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Obama White...

Despite a hack of its database that exposed the personal information of 145 million of its customers, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) granted a no-bid $7.5 million contract to Equifax. Under the terms of the contract the company will handle the personal information of millions of taxpayers. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) called the contract "bad on so many levels. What kind of fool trusts a firm that has just experienced a huge data breach to handle more of the same kind of data? On top of this, the 'no-bid' process evades procurement guidelines calling for competitive bids from multiple firms....

The IRS award of a $7.25 million no-bid contract to Equifax after a hack of the data services company that exposed personal information of as many as 145 million Americans “just doesn’t add up,” according to Sen. Chuck Grassley. “Given recent Equifax breach the IRS needs 2make clear &demonstrate that taxpayer information is safe if doing biz w Equifax,” the Iowa Republican said in a post on Twitter Wednesday morning. “Not only was I surprised, but I was sitting with a senator in Judiciary (Committee) today that was told that by another senator and he said, ‘You got to be...

IRS officials on a scheduled visit to Congress Wednesday bore the brunt of GOP criticism of the agency for Wednesday's revelation that it awarded Equifax a $7.25 million no-bid contract to maintain taxpayers' confidentiality. "This is an abject failure," said Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind. "This is beyond abject failure, it's a management failure."

It’s no secret that the Internal Revenue Service was used as a political weapon by the Obama administration – just talk to any of the thousands of people affected by the agency’s obstruction of conservative, Christian and tea party organizations at the time Obama was seeking re-election. Now, government documents have been obtained through a Judicial Watch lawsuit that show the scope of the abuse was much broader, including one revealing the White House used the IRS to pressure Americans to support Obamacare. “So now we have more evidence of more Obama IRS abuses targeting innocent Americans – all in...

The Internal Revenue Service will pay Equifax $7.25 million to verify taxpayers' identities and help prevent fraud under a no-bid contract issued last week, according to a report in Politico. The contract comes as lawmakers lash out at the company over the major security breach that exposed personal information of millions of Americans. Politico said the credit agency will "verify taxpayer identity" and "assist in ongoing identity verifications and validations" at the IRS.

The Internal Revenue Service was involved in a $5 million push to pressure Americans to buy Obamacare coverage, according to documents obtained from the watchdog group Judicial Watch. Under former president Obama, the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House's Behavioral Sciences Team created a $5 million program to target and pressure those who refused Obamacare and either decided to pay a penalty instead or were exempt from being forced to purchase coverage. "Attached are drafts of the letters that IRS will send to selected taxpayers who paid a penalty for failure to have coverage or who...

SHUT IT DOWN The Mueller investigation is so out of control that the IRS clashed with the Special Counsel’s team all summer over the broad scope and the Manafort raid according to a new report by CNN. The IRS is now sharing information with Mueller’s team about Trump campaign associates. Mueller’s team is looking at everything tax related which includes real estate and banking. The IRS is concerned because Mueller is going back 11 years in his search. ELEVEN YEARS. After being at odds for months, the two camps came to an agreement after consultation from officials at the Treasury...

The Internal Revenue Service has begun to share information on key Trump campaign officials with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. The sharing comes after months of stand-off between the two entities, CNN reports. That clash was prompted by concerns about how far-reaching and broad Mueller's requests to the IRS were. But, one source told CNN, the IRS's criminal division is now sharing information with Mueller's investigation. A number of Trump campaign staff have been the focus of the records requests, most notably former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. The information...

The Trump Justice Department has once again cleared former IRS senior executive Lois G. Lerner of criminal liability stemming from the tea party targeting. In a letter to top Republicans, Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd said they re-reviewed the case and concluded there isn’t enough evidence to charge Ms. Lerner, who was at the center of the targeting. Mr. Boyd said the new review included lawyers who only recently joined the department and weren’t part of the Obama administration’s earlier decision. “After this process, the Department determined that reopening the investigation would not be appropriate based on the available...

One of President Trump’s major campaign promises was to Drain the Swamp. It appealed to voters, long worn and tired of the almost constant corruption and misuse of government powers and public money. And the president really did start off well. His Executive Orders on lobbying were seen as a sweeping move that should have been done a long time ago. But as more cases of corruption are being allowed to slip by, it begs two questions: Is the President serious about this? And is it even possible to do? The latest disappointment is the former IRS’s Exempt Organizations Unit...

Assistant Attorney General Kevin Boyd announced that the Trump Administration will not be pursuing charges against former IRS executive Lois Lerner for discriminating against conservative organizations seeking tax-free status from the Agency. While conceding that Lerner's refusal to testify on the grounds it would be self-incriminating was, in effect a "smoking gun," Boyd insisted that "the prosecution of a government functionary for carrying out the wishes of the president would be excessively punitive and set a dangerous precedent. A person entering the ranks of an administration shouldn't have to be second-guessing every decision—is it right, is it wrong, is it...

(snip) But the September 8 letter from the Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Justice Department said it would not even reopen the investigation because officials require “proof beyond a reasonable doubt that a government employee intentionally discriminated against an applicant for a tax-exempt status based on viewpoint.” (snip)

The Justice Department says it will not prosecute former IRS executive Lois Lerner for targeting conservative groups during the 2010 and 2012 elections. In a letter to top Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, Assistant Attorney General Kevin Brady said that after a careful review of the case, DOJ will not pursue charges against Lerner, who oversaw the IRS division that reviewed tax exempt organizations. “After this process, the Department determined that reopening the investigation would not be appropriate based on the available evidence,” Boyd wrote Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, the chairman of the House Ways and Means...

The Trump administration has no plans to charge former IRS official Lois Lerner over her role in the Tea Party targeting scandal, the Justice Department said Friday in response to calls by Republican lawmakers to revisit the case. In a letter to the lawmakers, the Justice Department said that "reopening the criminal investigation would not be appropriate based on the available evidence." This past April, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., had asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to take a "fresh look" at the case. Despite numerous hearings and inquiries into the...

The Justice Department says it will not prosecute former IRS executive Lois Lerner for targeting conservative groups during the 2010 and 2012 elections. In a letter to top Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, Assistant Attorney General Kevin Brady said that after a careful review of the case, DOJ will not pursue charges against Lerner, who oversaw the IRS division that reviewed tax exempt organizations. “After this process, the Department determined that reopening the investigation would not be appropriate based on the available evidence,” Boyd wrote Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, the chairman of the House Ways and Means...