Posted on 04/22/2002 10:00:48 PM PDT by Kay Soze
IRS Official to Judicial Watch: Clinton Enemies Were Audited Carl Limbacher, NewsMax.com
Tuesday, April 23, 2002
An official with the Internal Revenue Service has admitted that legal opponents of former President Bill Clinton were singled out for tax audits, according to court documents made public this week. "What do you expect when you sue the president?" senior IRS official Paul Breslan told Judicial Watch, the Washington-based legal watchdog group that had filed 50-plus legal actions against the Clinton administration and subsequently found itself in the IRS's cross hairs.
Breslan's quote is cited in Judicial Watch's complaint against the tax agency, based on a host of what look to be politically inspired audits that make the worst abuses of the Nixon administration appear puny by comparison.
"There were literally six witnesses in the room when Breslan told us we should have expected an audit," Judicial Watch Chairman Larry Klayman revealed to NewsMax.com. "Four of them were lawyers."
The legal group became the target of an IRS audit in 1998, just four days after it filed an independent impeachment report against Clinton, based on years of investigation into everything from Chinagate to the Paula Jones case.
But Judicial Watch wasn't alone. Witnesses bearing damaging testimony against the president were a favorite target of the Clinton IRS. Those singled out for audits include:
Leak
The Jones case, which would eventually lead to Clinton's impeachment, was of particular interest to the IRS, which apparently leaked her confidential tax returns to the late New York Daily News reporter Lars Erik Nelson.
In a September 1997 column Nelson revealed details from Jones' filing to bolster claims that she was profiting from her sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton.
In a subsequent interview with NewsMax.com's Carl Limbacher (then with the Washington Weekly), Nelson insisted somewhat implausibly that a "friend" of Jones had come across her tax return during a visit to her home and decided to go public with the secrets.
Quite an Enemies List
As the Judicial Watch complaint notes, the Clinton IRS also went after organizations and even media companies it perceived as politically hostile, including:
The National Rifle Association, The Heritage Foundation, The National Review, The American Spectator, Freedom Alliance, National Center for Public Policy Research, American Policy Center, American Cause, Citizens Against Government Waste, Citizens for Honest Government, Progress and Freedom Foundation, Concerned Women for America and the San Diego Chapter of Christian Coalition.
Fox News Channel analyst Bill O'Reilly, a frequent critic of Bill and Hillary Clinton, has also pointed out how the IRS has repeatedly audited him.
The political nature of the Judicial Watch's audit seems particularly blatant.
"The IRS asked for our political affiliations in the first notice of audit," Klayman told NewsMax.
When he questioned why auditors wanted to know about the group's political ties, an IRS district director said the information had been deemed "relevant."
Worse still, each time Judicial Watch seemed to make legal headway against the White House, the IRS ratcheted up the pressure.
"When we would accomplish something big, like the criminal finding by Judge Royce Lamberth against Clinton in the Kathleen Willey Privacy Act case, our lawyers would get a call saying, 'We just want you to know that Judicial Watch is still on the IRS's radar screen,'" Klayman said.
"The same thing happened when we revealed the White House e-mail scandal," he added.
Shockingly, the IRS's intimidation tactics continue into the Bush administration, which has failed to sack Clinton's IRS Commissioner Charles Rosotti.
After Judicial Watch won the release of thousands of pages of documents from Vice President Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force last month, a badge-wearing IRS agent showed up at the group's offices.
A personal meeting between Klayman and Bush Justice Department Criminal Division chief Michael Chertoff, who led the Senate investigation into the Clintons' Whitewater abuses, failed to yield any interest in pursuing IRS abuses, which now threaten to tarnish the Bush administration.
When noted columnist Robert Novak inquired of the Justice Department about Judicial Watch's IRS complaint, he was told by a department official, "I don't know what we are going to do with this Klayman."
"When we were told that we were being audited because we sued Bill Clinton, we had no choice but to stand up and fight in court," Klayman said. "By leaving Charles Rossotti as IRS commissioner, Bush obviously is sending a signal that political audits are fine with him."
What ever happened to the Right to Redress Our Grievances Against the Government and it's officials?
Has any environmentalist group, like the Sierra Club, or Natural Defense Fund, that sued the Federal Government ever had the pleasure of an IRS Audit?
Has Shakedown Specialist Jesse Jackson ever had an audit?
Did Clinton ever get audited for deducting his boxer shorts as charitable donations?
Ned might miss you. Although, I notice he's taken the doves off his screen page.
Yep FiJC.... Pot or Kettle
.. Meet ..
BUSH/ASHCROFT REWARDED MIAMI INS DIRECTOR WITH PROMOTION TO REGIONAL DIRECTOR POSITION
That's the headline from the JW press release.
You posted the following on the thread, contradicting the headline:
Then, last night, you said the following about the very same headline:
So tell me, were you lying then, or are you lying now?
”Well, not only do you seem to be perpetually confused, but you are polemically delusional. ”
”And we needn't speculate on what kind of world that is. ”
”You seem to be a pretty questionable character yourself. ”
”*Yawn*”
”Someone sounds flustered...tisk, tisk, tisk. Apparently, some people here are still in Kindergarten and only know how to use playground logic. ”
”Do us all a favor and become a really good lurker”
”Yeah, well your profile page creeps me out”
”Why don't you go and write your next Banana Boat radio show? ”
”It is obvious that you are up way past your bedtime. Nighty-nite. ”
”Really honey, you are starting to worry me with your high blood pressure and all. ”
”You rabid George W. Bush defenders are about as loony as can be”
”Blah, Blah, Blah. I know that Klayman was probably independently wealthy before he started Judicial Watch”
”You perhaps need a good suing”
”WAHHH!!!!! ”
”This is just so funny to watch! Makes for a good study break”
”You, among others, are ruining this thread”
Not that this has anything to do with the topic of the thread, but reading this last comment of yours, after reading some of your other comments, leaves you with a bit of egg on your face wouldn't you say? Hmmmmm?
.. or is it ..
Just goes to show you what's important..... LOL. Heck the meaning of the Universe is too 'far out'.... Got to stay with something closer to the pocketbook.
But to say this is about Klyamans audit is a bit of a stretch... Heck there's everything from Brown, to all the gates, to personal attacks, studies of ones heritage, and on and on..... but very little about the IRS audit which if 'eWW' had gotten on with back in 1998 it would be over with by now.... and at a lot less money and not near the depth of info the IRS is demanding now. Hey enjoy...... but be careful of those pots or kettles...
To the ankle biters: Knock it off!
Are they black?
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