Posted on 07/01/2014 8:32:18 PM PDT by smoothsailing
July 1, 2014
Patrick Howley
Ex-Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner tried to audit Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley after Grassley blocked President Obama’s nominee to head the Department of Justice (DOJ) tax division, an executive branch insider told The Daily Caller.
Grassley made it more difficult for the IRS and DOJ to work together to target conservative groups by blocking Obama’s political appointee Mary L. Smith from taking over the DOJ Tax Division, which prosecutes criminal cases for the IRS. Grassley held up the nomination in early 2010, just as Lerner and fellow IRS officials were mapping out their targeting strategy. The White House later withdrew Smith’s nomination.
The source confirmed to The Daily Caller that the White House and IRS officials “were very upset at Senator Grassley and Republicans for blocking a vote on Mary Smith’s nomination.”
The IRS relies on the DOJ Tax Division to prosecute both criminal and civil cases, and has entire legal teams devoted to making DOJ referrals. Placing a political appointee as assistant attorney general for the DOJ Tax Division was a top priority for the Obama White House.
Grassley made sure that no Obama political nominee got confirmed for the post, and kept in a “career,” or non-political, DOJ tax head for another two years.
“The Assistant Attorney General is not the kind of position that you probably would want someone learning on the job,” Grassley said at a Feb. 4, 2010 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, pointing out Smith’s lack of tax experience.
Lerner’s IRS underling Nikole Flax announced the agency’s new scrutiny of nonprofit groups in February 2010, the very same month that Grassley made his concerns known about Smith. Grassley’s opposition to Smith infuriated top officials at the IRS.
Smith was heavily touted by the administration for her Native American background. Smith worked on President Clinton’s re-election campaign and as Clinton’s Associate Counsel to the President and was a partner at the Chicago law firm Schoeman Updike Kaufman & Scharf when Obama nominated her for the position in 2009.
Grassley remained a thorn in the side of the IRS, scrutinizing the activities of Lerner’s Exempt Organizations division more closely than other lawmakers during Obama’s first term.
Lerner finally tried to drum up a criminal case against Grassley after accidentally receiving some of his mail.
“Perhaps we should refer to exam?” Lerner wrote to colleagues in 2012 after she received an invitation from a group asking Grassley to speak at a December 2012 event and offering to pay Grassley’s wife to attend. Lerner and Grassley were both invited to speak at the same event, hosted by an organization that had its name redacted from released congressional documents. Lerner felt that the group’s offer to pay for Grassley’s wife could be a potential criminal violation.
“We would need to wait for: (i) Grassley to accept and attend the speaking arrangement and (ii) then determine whether [redacted] issues him a 1099,” IRS official Matthew Giuliano replied to Lerner, thinking aloud about the circumstances they would need to make a criminal case against Grassley.
“We have seen a lot of unbelievable things in this investigation, but the fact that Lois Lerner attempted to initiate an apparently baseless IRS examination against a sitting Republican United States Senator is shocking,” said Republican House Ways and Committee chairman Rep. Dave Camp upon the publication of Lerner’s email regarding Grassley.
Never again unless the guilty ones get the book thrown at them in court, and HARD!!!
If these culprits get away with what they have done, the people of this country will only have contempt for government and matters will only get worse in the future.
May I speculate?
She 'accidentally' paid the person who does the hand delivery of the invitations to drop it off at her office first.
Her and her cohorts had to have been working on arrangements for this gig, so they could have simply heard, or had some insider provide them with a hot lead. All they needed was the written invitation to use as proof.
She accidentally received some of his mail like she accidentally lost her emails from her hard drive (which isn't even where they are kept).
Never again unless the guilty ones get the book thrown at them in court, and HARD!!!
If these culprits get away with what they have done, the people of this country will only have contempt for government and matters will only get worse in the future.
I’m honestly curious if there is even ONE honest and decent democrat in office. I mean it, they are all little fascists from where I sit and IF there is even one left that isn’t half baked, I don’t know why they are.
bookmark
I’d speculate that it’s simpler than that - just an ordinary screw-up that resulted in both invitations being sent to her. The real story here is that when given the chance to screw him, she took it.
This is why I’m not much of a believer in elaborate conspiracies...people love to shoot off their mouths and screw-ups happen. Just one unanticipated mis-step and the whole conspiracy comes apart.
Chuck Grassley may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he’s got a lot of friends and I don’t think you want to screw with him like this.
June 26
at 2:40 - 2:50 Cameron says that the group invited both Grassley and Lerner to an event and the invitation for Grassley mistakenly went to Lerner.
13:23 Minutes
Emails: Lois Lerner Sought IRS Audit Of Sen Grassley (R-IA) - Hannity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7IyN4Ajc-k
“an executive branch insider told The Daily Caller”
SO who is this insider and has he been interviewed by Issa??
popcorn....
That’s my question as well.
We have a domino. Give it a push.
after multitudes of criminal activities these politicians are considering giving this bitch immunity?
Hang her sorry ass along with anyone in the administration who tried to subvert our constitution.
That would be obammy.
HANG EM HIGH AND LEAVE EM TO ROT FOR ALL TO SEE.
Iceberg tip!
“And didn’t she threaten some other critter with an audit if he ran again for office?”
When she was at the FEC she allegedly threatened Salvi that if he did not promise to never run for office again that the FEC would prosecute him for election financing violations. Salvi was cleared of any wrongdoing, but he ended up losing to Durban.
Thanks for the ping... this one could explode...
Could -—should
Not a smidgen...
Not a smidgen...
IIOW she didn’t come up with this idea on her own!
Someone promoted her!
No wonder the emails are missing!
“IIOW she didn’t come up with this idea on her own!”
Wouldn’t think so ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3026030/posts?page=100
Former IRS commissioner Shulman’s wife works for liberal group fighting open campaign spending
Daily Caller ^ | 05/31/2013
EXCERPT
Shulman’s wife Susan L. Anderson is the senior program advisor for the Washington-based nonprofit organization Public Campaign, which claims that it “is laying the foundation for reform by working with a broad range of organizations, including local community groups, around the country that are fighting for change and national organizations whose members are not fairly represented under the current campaign finance system.”
https://twitter.com/slandersonwdc
OurFuture @OurFuture 20 Jun
Van Jones at #TakeBack12: “Our opponents want to repeal the 20th century.” #p2
Retweeted by Susan Anderson
Susan Anderson @slandersonwdc 20 Jun
Join me @ 14 and NY Ave in DC for #takeback12 Confront Karl Rove + American Crossroads. Rebuild the American Dream
http://www.ourfuture.org/institute/category/group/takeback12
//
Ms. Anderson also tweeted this link ... may now have been deleted.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/hustler-magazine-publisher-offers-1-million-for-d
Hustler publisher Larry Flynt offers $1 million to uncover dirt
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