Clinton Uses IRS To Punish Critics
by Larry Klayman Judicial Watch
Imagine you founded an organization dedicated to the preservation of basic principles upon which this country has thrived. Issues like individual freedom, personal responsibility, and ethics in journalism. Not horrible terms, and not even so much because you wanted to antagonize those who didn’t share your view; rather, because you firmly believed in these principles as a means by which an orderly society should function.
Imagine then if you lived under a government which didn’t share your principles, and because they didn’t, they decided -- as arbitrarily as you would choose a movie -- that they would send an investigatory body like the IRS into your offices to interrogate you without cause. Try to envision a group of these detached individuals camped in your office, rifling through your personal papers, admitting to you that it was a political inquiry, and then making claims to be compiled into formal charges against you. What you’ve just heard is what the Western Journalism Center went through with its own government -- the Clinton Administration.
Perhaps one of the most startling and disturbing accounts of the Nixon Presidency, beyond Water-gate itself, was Nixon, on tape, discussing with chilling detachment, plans to use the IRS to threaten political opponents. In 1974, this was a landmark and most egregious breach of the public trust. Today, despite the Clintons’ systematic testing of Americans’ threshold of tolerance, the song does, and must, remain the same.
The story of the Western Journalism center started with a simple, if bulky, White House document and ended in a $10 million lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch against the IRS for abuse of power. Like any good story, it takes the requisite twists and turns, often leaving the viewer or reader befuddled as to how people placed in a position of trust can bring themselves to act as they do.
The Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce, a 331-page manifesto and brainchild of Associate White House Counsel Jane Sherburne and the DNC, was circulated to select reporters in a tortured effort to describe how the “right wing” conveyed “fringe” stories into mainstream American media. In essence, this document was an effort to “alert” friendly journalists that such a “conspiracy” was being promulgated by certain groups dissatisfied with the moral lapses of the Clinton White House. In short, it was an enemies list.
Joseph Farah, an award-winning journalist and former editor of The Sacramento Union, founded the Western Journalism Center in 1991. A credentialed publisher of numerous periodicals that specialize in investigative reporting, WJC’s efforts have been the focus of articles in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Investors Business Daily, and dozens of other publications.
Armed with its breadth of prior success, WJC began investigating the circumstances surrounding Vince Foster’s death -- circumstances widely reported to be, at minimum, slightly unusual. Taking out ads in The Washington Times, New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, WJC raised major questions and inconsistencies about Foster’s death -- echoing the sentiments of journalist Christopher Ruddy, whose services WJC retained in furtherance of their investigation.
These ads met with considerable success and attention -- and set off what has inexcusably become old saw to the Clinton Administration -- paranoia followed by brutal, systematic effort to silence its critics through intimidation.
In December 1994, Associate White House Counsel Sherburne prepared a memorandum that outlined strategies to use against individuals and organizations perceived to be adversaries of the Clinton Administration. The memo also assigned staff members to carry out these strategies -- and specifically identified the Western Journalism Center for having investigated Foster’s death. WJC was the only news organization targeted for action.
In July 1996, after absorbing months of swirling rumors of a pending audit, Joe Farah answered a knock on his door at the Western Journalism Center. Thomas Cedarquist, an IRS official and one of his chief defendants in Judicial Watch’s lawsuit on behalf of WJC, strode in and announced that, having seen the WJC’s work on 60 Minutes, he had arbitrarily decided (as this Administration does) that WJC was a political (not a non-profit) organization. Cedarquist confirmed he and others in Washington were going to challenge WJC’s tax-exempt status and audit their 1995 tax returns.
Farah was asked about his affiliation with Christopher Ruddy, a thorn in the side of the administration, and why WJC chose to work with him. Nearly every query posed to Farah was related to a story or developing story concerning the White House -- an IRS search completely devoid of concern for money. Rightfully exasperated, Farah questioned the tactics of the agency and received the following rejoinder from Cedarquist: “Look, this is a political case, and the decision will be made at the national level.”
Over the course of the investigation of WJC, nearly 20 conservative organizations -- including the Heritage Foundation, NRA and Citizens Against Government Waste -- felt the close, touch of the Clinton audit machine.
Even more oddly, the media who knew of the Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce never saw any pattern developing that would signify an orchestrated White House effort -- much less actually troubled themselves to report it. Meanwhile, the WJC’s offices were being broken into, with, mysteriously, nothing stolen. Their phone messages were apparently being monitored, and some of these developments happened to coincide with WJC breakthroughs in Clinton investigations.
The scrutiny of the WJC by the IRS lasted nine months. WJC employees lost their jobs and livelihoods. Finally, in October 1996, Farah exposed these corrupt practices in a piece in The Wall Street Journal, and the tide began to turn.
Margaret Milner-Richardson, IRS commissioner and close friend of first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, abruptly resigned. The New York Post attributed her departure to political audits of conservative organizations. Some began to probe these rampant abuses, and the audit of the Western Journalism Center was “concluded” -- a verdict of “no wrongdoing” rendered in May 1997.
Under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights enacted by Congress, Farah requested his case file from the IRS so he could review its contents. In keeping with the Clinton Administration standard practice, these rights were trampled in a terse refusal to turn over the documents -- the IRS frivolously citing “government privilege” as a means of keeping Mr. Farah from seeing justification for what had nearly bankrupted his organization.
But Farah would not be deterred. On behalf of WJC, Judicial Watch, a public interest watchdog group, filed a $10 million lawsuit against Ms. Richardson, Mr. Cedarquist, numerous unidentified agents involved in this case and the IRS itself. We are determined to ensure that Mr. Farah sees justice in this case, and that every American is free to express his or her First Amendment-protected views without vicious, detached harassment from its own government.
For all the baying we hear from the left of the travesties of Richard Nixon, they and this White House have elevated abuse of power to a new art form that, if unchecked, will perpetuate itself to unfathomable lows in the future. Nixon was an amateur compared with the criminal enterprise that continues to be run out of this White House. By this standard, citizens who elected their government will have no protection from those assigned to protect them. That is the blasphemy we must examine, and do our level best to stop.