Embattled IRS chief counsel met with Obama 2 days before agency changed targeting criteria

The Daily Caller ^ | 07/22/13 | Patrick Howley

[MissesBush]

The Obama appointee implicated in congressional testimony in the IRS targeting scandal met with President Obama in the White House two days before offering his colleagues a new set of advice on how to scrutinize tea party and conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.

IRS chief counsel William Wilkins, who was named in House Oversight testimony by retiring IRS agent Carter Hull as one of his supervisors in the improper targeting of conservative groups, met with Obama in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on April 23, 2012. Wilkins’ boss, then-IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman, visited the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on April 24, 2012, according to White House visitor logs.

On April 25, 2012, Wilkins’ office sent the exempt organizations determinations unit “additional comments on the draft guidance” for approving or denying tea party tax-exempt applications, according to the IRS inspector general’s report.

Ads by GoogleBetween 2010 and 2012, the IRS sent letters demanding groups’ training materials, personal information on groups’ donors and college interns, and even the content of a religious group’s prayers.

Wilkins’ meeting with Obama on April 23 was attended by 13 people.

Wilkins, who is one of only two Obama appointees at the IRS, is a former lobbyist with the firm WilmerHale, where he spent his time “counseling nonprofit organizations, business entities, and investment funds on tax compliance, business transactions, and government investigations.” At the firm, Wilkins defended Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Chicago-based United Church of Christ from a 2008 investigation into whether Wright violated his church’s nonprofit status by speaking in favor of Obama. Wilkins successfully defended Wright’s church pro bono.

The White House did not return a request for comment.

[MissesBush]

These IRS abuses have come all the way from the Cleveland IRS office to within inches of Obama's lap with this revelation. Where's the MSM on this? Oh that's right--they're too busy telling us how horrible a person George Zimmerman is, how evil Stand Your Ground is and how racist America is. They're also too busy still trying to put the leaking of Plame's identity into the Bush Oval Office. Okay, so I'm being facetious in the latter instance, but the point remains--the media was obsessed with trying to tie the Oval Office into the leaking of Plame's meaningless identity, something not even remotely illegal by the Identities Act, but lost interest in the IRS story when it started to get too close to their Zombie Lord Obama.

[Jacquerie]

When was the last time Obama answered an unscripted question?

2008?

Until Obama issues a press release admitting to his crimes, said crimes will merely serve as precedent for future crimes.

[The Great RJ]

The targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS was planned and orchestrated in the White House by Obama campaign operatives...my bet would be Valerie Jarret or David Axelrod were at the heart of this. The purpose was to suppress Tea Party groups who were so successful in the 2010 election. In addition to the IRS Tea Party groups were smeared by a willing media who branded them as racists, kooks, gun nuts etc. using White House talking points.

[Noob1999]

...........Wilkins’ meeting with Obama on April 23 was attended by 13 people................

Maybe Jack Bauer should be called in to interrogate Wilkins to find out who the other twelve were, and what was discussed. Pronto!

[JustTheTruth]

Assuming he plays smart, this guy Wilkins is set for life. I sense a BIG promotion coming in his direction from “the One.”

[Whenifhow]

Similar thread
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3045862/posts

[Cheerio]

The best thing the Congress could do is to abolish the IRS.

But they won't have the time - they are too busy trying to jam down our throats an AMENSTY law that will help non-citizens of the USA get bennies, and for the rest of their working day they spend cowering under their desks for feat the media will criticize them for something.

[Godzilla]

Coincidence? I think not.