Posted on 07/17/2013 9:21:15 AM PDT by jazusamo
Top House committee chairmen said Wednesday that they have learned that the IRS sent some tea party groups’ applications for tax-exempt status through special scrutiny at the direction of agency officials in Washington, in a revelation that appears to confirm political targeting.
The committee chairmen released partial excerpts of interviews with IRS employees that show they were prepared to rule on some of the tea party groups’ applications, but Lois Lerner, an official at the root of the investigation, overruled them and instead created the complex and intrusive inquiries that have become the center of a Washington scandal.
Carter Hull, a tax law specialist with 48 years of experience at the IRS, said he was told to send some of the applications to the IRS‘ chief counsel’s office. The chief counsel is one of two political appointees in the IRS.
Mr. Hull told congressional investigators the IRS was trying to grapple with how to respond to the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Citizens United case, which left the door open for interest groups to play a bigger role in political activities.
Part of the IRS‘ answer was to single out some tea-party-affiliated groups’ applications as test cases.
Some of those test cases still haven’t been decided, three years after they were filed, Mr. Hull said.
“That’s a very long time period,” he told investigators.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Obama had his very own man at Treasury (controlling the IRS)
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CONNECTING THE DOTS: Obama's stranglegold on Treasury via COS Rahm Emanuel's dual role
THE TARGETING PAPER TRAIL BEGINS: Soon as they occupied the WH, Obama and the Chicago con artists (a) took control of the US Census; (b) Obama placed his COS Rahm Emanuel in control of the US Dept of the Treasury (the IRS). Read on.
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THE SMOKING GUN---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, WH 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
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Contact Congress Toll Free 1-(866) 220-0044 : 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.
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MOMENTS TO REMEMBER Obama was fond of saying "Tea Parties are a threat to democracy."
Obama told hispanics, " we will reward our friends and punish our enemies."
Valerie Jarrett ominously warned, they "would not forget" which Americans did not worship Obama.
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Contact Congress Toll Free 1-(866) 220-0044---Taxpayers demand Congress call govt employees at Treasury (IRS), who were underlings of Obama COS Rahm Emanuel...to testify under oath, including the number of times Emanuel consorted with the IRS. The WJS reported Emanuel's unusual arrangement----his dual role as WH COS and Treasury head.
CONTACT FOX NEWS --- 1-888-369-4762
Thanks!
IRS: Chief counsel didn’t learn of Tea Party targeting until 2013
By Bernie Becker - 05/15/13 02:04 PM ET
The IRS said Wednesday that its chief counsel did not participate in an August 2011 meeting on the agency’s treatment of groups seeking tax-exempt status.
A new report from Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration says that staffers met with the chief counsel, just over a month after a separate official told employees to stop flagging cases based on names like “Tea Party” and “patriots.”
In a statement, the IRS said that the chief counsel, William Wilkins, was not involved in overseeing applications for 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status, and that Wilkins “did not learn about specific groups being singled out by name until earlier this year.”
The August 2011 meeting, the IRS added, “involved staff attorneys several layers below Wilkins,” and the chief counsel did not discuss tax-exempt applications with Treasury’s general counsel.
As the IRS’s lead lawyer, Wilkins sits in one of only two presidential appointees at the agency. The president also appoints the IRS commissioner.
The chief counsel’s office also contains some 1,600 lawyers, the statement said, and reference to “chief counsel” could mean that an IRS staffer talked to any of those attorneys – and not necessarily Wilkins.
White House officials have stressed that the president and West Wing officials had no involvement in the IRS targeting of conservative groups.
The Treasury inspector general report found that inefficient management at the IRS played a role in allowing the agency to request unnecessary information and to use inappropriate criteria to single out groups seeking tax-exempt status.
Obama has been a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago -- a UCC congregation -- for more than 20 years. The church has been in the headlines for several months now as the congregation lead by the controversial Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
WilmerHale was retained after church officials interviewed several firms, according to partner William Wilkins. "We were so interested in the case we offered to do it pro bono," Wilkins says.
And Sarah Ingram. Don’t forget about her just becaused they transferred her.
[June 3, 2013] Congress Probing Chief Counsel’s Office in Washington in IRS Scandal
kcvl: Do you have a source for this post about Wilkins’ WH visits?
IRS chief counsel William Wilkins, one of subjects of Congress’s invesetigation into the agency’s targeting of tea-party groups, visited the White House nine times since 2010, according to the administrator’s visitor access records.
In April 2012, Wilkins attended a small meeting with President Obama in the Roosevelt Room, though records do not indicate the subject of the meeting. The private events on the president’s schedule for that day, aside from the presidential daily briefing, are an 11:00 a.m. meeting with senior advisers and a 4:45 p.m. meeting with former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. It is unclear which of these meetings Wilkins attended, if either, or if his meeting with the president simply did not appear on Obama’s public schedule.
Wilkins also visited the White House in previous years, attending what appears to be a large event on December 15, 2012; the following day, December 16, he was present at a small meeting with then–deputy director of the National Economic Council Jason Furman, who is now the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. In August 2011, Wilkins also met with Jamal Pope, who identifies himself as a special assistant for White House initiatives at the Department of Commerce. Wilkins’s other visits were for large events that extended to all administration appointees. Knowing what Wilkins discussed in his meetings with the president and with administration officials Furman and Pope would shed light on whether the Obama administration directed the IRS to discriminate against conservative groups.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3027364/posts?page=69#69
Sorry, I thought I linked it...
Thanks. Did you read Liz’ post 21:
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, WH 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
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Liz: This date may be (become) significant
Oct 1, 2010
President Obama announced Friday that his brash and hard-charging chief of staff Rahm Emanuel would resign effective immediately, marking the most significant departure to date from the president’s inner circle.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/01/rahm-expected-leave-white-house-chicago-mayor-run/
An online organization chart at irs.gov of the IRS Office of Chief Counsel from December 2010. This chart is of interest since the timeline for the IRS targeting controversy started in 2010. I used this chart to analyze the number of White House visits for all attorneys in the chart.
Analysis of White House visits by Sarah Hall Ingram showed IRS Healthcare Counsel Catherine E. Livingston attended 139 of Ingram‘s 165 White House meetings, and 80 of former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman‘s 157 White House meetings.
Additional analysis of White House visitor records show Livingston attended 435 White House meetings — over 200 more meetings than attended with Shulman or Ingram.
Most attorneys in the organization chart have not visited the White House ever according to White House visitor logs. A few visited once or twice.
In their leadership roles the IRS Chief Counsel William J. Wilkins attended 9 meetings and General Counsel of the Treasury George W. Madison attended 50 meetings. As previously reported, Schulman visited the White House 157 times.
http://watchdoglabs.org/blog/2013/06/06/irs-healthcare-counsel-logged-435-white-house-visits/
Course, Rahm said he "quit" b/c he had just "discovered" he wanted to be Mayor (cackle).
I will never forget his presser shortly thereafter when he announced he had already "raised" $10 million for his campaign.
Mmmmmmm....Time forgot to print the rest
of the four-letter word that comes after "bull."
Keep beating those anti-IRS drums, please! LOUDER!
Pile on, investigative reporters, pile on! HIGHER!
The more anti-IRS stories there are out there, the better chance We the People have to replace the income tax with the FairTax and abolish the IRS!
The IRS scandal will get bigger with time... It took years for Watergate to catch on.
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