IRS Sued for Improperly Seizing the Medical Records of 10 Million Americans

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerAmid a firestorm about the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting conservative groups and wide concern that the tax service will be administering Obamacare, the IRS is also the subject of a class action lawsuit alleging that 15 of its agents improperly seized 10 million Americans’ medical records.

Attorney Robert Barnes filed the lawsuit in mid-March on behalf of a John Doe Company and individuals whose records were seized in California Superior Court, according to a report from the Courthouse News Service.

“This is an action involving the corruption and abuse of power by several Internal Revenue Service (‘IRS’) agents (collectively referred to as ‘Defendants’ herein) during a raid of John Doe Company, in the southern district of California, on March 11, 2011,” the complaint, quoted by Courthouse News, reads. “In a case involving solely a tax matter involving a former employee of the company, these agents stole more than 60,000,000 medical records of more than 10,000,000 Americans, including at least 1,000,000 Californians.”

The complaint explains there was no warrant authorizing the seizure of the medical records and the records were not germane to the IRS search. The complaint alleges that the seizure violated the 4th Amendment, according to the extensive quotes from the complaint complied by Courthouse News.

“These medical records contained intimate and private information of more than 10,000,000 Americans, information that by its nature includes information about treatment for any kind of medical concern, including psychological counseling, gynecological counseling, sexual or drug treatment, and a wide range of medical matters covering the most intimate and private of concerns,” the complaint reads.

Read more from this story HERE.

Eric Holder: Subpoenas For Hundreds Of Journalist Phone Records May Be Okay

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Photo Credit: AFP PHOTO/Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GettyAttorney General Eric Holder told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that he may be comfortable with subpoenaing the phone records of hundreds of journalists if warranted by the facts of a hypothetical case.

“In a hypothetical situation, we’re gonna go after and subpoena hundreds of phone lines, phone records for journalists. Does that offend you as an American?” Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) asked Holder.

“It would depend on the facts. You’d have to know what the facts were and why the actions were taken,” Holder responded.

But Holder insisted that his Justice Department “does not want to have its actions chill sources” or “have a negative impact on the newsgathering abilities” of reporters.

Holder was sharply questioned by members of Congress from both sides of the aisle about the Justice Department’s subpoena of Associated Press phone records as part of a probe into a national security leak. Holder revealed that he had voluntarily turned over his own phone records as part of the same investigation.

Read more from this story HERE.

Benghazi Fallout: Will Susan Rice be on the Chopping Block?

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Photo Credit: The CableInsiders with ties to the Obama administration tell The Cable that U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice has become the heir apparent to National Security Advisor Tom Donilon — a post at the epicenter of foreign-policy decision making and arguably more influential than secretary of state, a job for which she withdrew her candidacy last fall amid severe political pressure.

“It’s definitely happening,” a source who recently spoke with Rice told The Cable. “She is sure she is coming and so too her husband and closest friends.”

“Susan is a very likely candidate to replace him whenever he would choose to leave,” agreed Dennis Ross, a former special assistant to President Obama and counselor at the Washington Institute. “She is close to the president, has the credentials, and has a breadth of experience.”

Both sources said the timing of succession was uncertain. “I don’t believe Tom Donilon is about to leave but would be surprised if he were to remain for the whole second term,” Ross said. “But in answer to your question, [Rice’s appointment] is very logical.”

Rice’s candidacy for secretary of state imploded in November after she recited talking points about the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi on five Sunday talk shows that turned out to be erroneous.

Read more from this story HERE.

IRS Exec Got $42k in Bonuses in Three Years

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Photo Credit: ThinkstockLois Lerner, the senior executive in charge of the IRS tax exemption department and the federal employee at the center of the exploding scandal over the IRS targeting of conservative, evangelical and pro-Israel non-profits, was given $42,531 in bonuses between 2009 and 2011.

That figure was included in data provided by the IRS in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by The Washington Examiner. Lerner is director of the IRS exempt organizations division, which processes and approves or denies applications from groups seeking tax-exempt status.

Lerner received $17,220 for 2010, $14,691 for 2011 and $10,620 for 2012, the most recent year for which the IRS said data was available. Read more from this story HERE.

Sen. Lee: ‘We are No Longer Citizens but Subjects’

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Photo Credit: APAs all 45 GOP senators united Wednesday in a letter to President Obama demanding cooperation with congressional investigations into the IRS scandal, outspoken conservative Sen. Mike Lee said that the combined IRS and Benghazi affairs and the seizure of Associated Press source files prove the government is abusive and unresponsive.

“When an agency like the IRS can single out Tea Party groups; or the Department of Justice can monitor reporters’ conversations; or HHS regulators can openly extort the regulated; and there are no consequences — we are no longer citizens but subjects,” said Lee, the first Tea Party-backed senator to come to Washington.

And Lee said that the government is bad no matter who is in charge.

Read more from this story HERE.

Report: Boehner Trying to Move Gun Control Bill in the House

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House Republicans are not ruling out passing gun legislation this year, according to a key GOP lawmaker.

The collapse of gun control in the Senate last month led many on and off Capitol Hill to believe the issue would not be revived in this Congress.

But House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) told The Hill on Friday that he’s had “a lot of discussions” with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on guns. Goodlatte suggested the Speaker is more involved in the behind-the-scenes wrangling of how to move a gun bill than the Ohio Republican has let on in public.

“We are trying to improve the system to keep people who are barred under the law from owning firearms, from getting access to them. We don’t think the things that were proposed in the Senate do that. So we have not backed away from trying to figure out how to improve that, but we’ve made no decisions yet about what to do,” Goodlatte explained.

Goodlatte, serving his first year as the head of the Judiciary panel, pointed out that the National Instant Criminal Background Check System needs to be reauthorized before year’s end. The reauthorization could be the vehicle through which the GOP tackles the highly charged issue. Goodlatte, who has an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA), said earlier this year he wants to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Supporters Suggest Holder May Need to Take a Fall to Correct Course of Presidency

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerBy Jeff Poor. President Barack Obama may need to accept the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder as part of a plan to “get control” of the three scandals hounding the administration, historian Douglas Brinkley advised Tuesday.

Action is more important than rhetoric in times like these, Brinkley told “Hardball” host Chris Matthews on MSNBC.

“I think immediately he’s got to get control over these three issues,” Brinkley said. “I think he might have to look at accepting a resignation from Eric Holder possibly. I think in Benghazi — it’s drug on too long. Just come clean, talk straight about the talking points, what happened and move on. Look, it’s the cover-up that always gets you in problems, and you just don’t need this. It’s not been a good season for Barack Obama, and I think he has an opportunity to just — I’m sure his poll numbers are going to still stay high. People trust him. But he can’t let his integrity get dented and then do some big things. Don’t just talk about it. If you’re going to close Guantanamo, close it. If you want the Keystone pipeline to happen, then say it’s going to happen. There have been too many trial balloons.” Read more from this story HERE.

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Reid slams Obama admin: ‘I have trouble defending what the Justice Department did’

By Alex Pappas. Very rarely do you hear Harry Reid call out the Obama administration, but the Democratic Senate majority leader had tough words for both the scandal-plagued Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday.

“I have trouble defending what the Justice Department did,” Reid told reporters during his weekly press availability off the Senate floor, referencing the revelation that the DOJ had secretly obtained two months worth of telephone records of Associated Press employees in 2012.

“I really believe in the First Amendment,” Reid continued. “I think it’s one of the great things we have as a country. And I don’t know who did it or why it was done. But it’s inexcusable. And there’s no way to justify it.” Read more from this story HERE.

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By Mark Memmott. As his Justice Department faces bipartisan outrage for searching phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors, Attorney Gen. Eric Holder says he is not sure how many times such information has been seized by government investigators in the four years he’s led Justice.

During an interview with NPR’s Carrie Johnson on Tuesday, Holder was asked how often his department has obtained such records of journalists’ work.

“I’m not sure how many of those cases … I have actually signed off on,” Holder said. “I take them very seriously. I know that I have refused to sign a few [and] pushed a few back for modifications.”

On Morning Edition, Carrie added that Holder declined to say whether there will be a review of the Justice Department’s policy on searches of reporters’ records.

Tuesday, NPR and other media organizations joined in a letter sent to Holder by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. In it, the news outlets ask that the Justice Department: — “Immediately return the telephone toll records obtained and destroy all copies, as requested by The Associated Press.” Read more from this story HERE.

Jason Chaffetz: Impeachment Not Off Table

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Photo Credit: APRep. Jason Chaffetz says he’s not taking impeachment off the table when it comes to President Obama’s handling of the attacks in Benghazi.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported Monday that the Utah Republican had called the handling of Benghazi an “impeachable offense,” and that he had vowed to keep searching for answers from the White House.

Asked Tuesday on CNN what he meant by the comments, Chaffetz said it wasn’t what he was hoping for, but that impeachment was in the “realm of possibility.”

“It’s not something I’m seeking, it’s not the endgame, it’s not what we’re playing for,” he said. “I was simply asked if it was within the realm of possibilities, and I’d say ‘yes.’”

Chaffetz said that the version of events that he had heard from witnesses on the ground versus what the White House released were “two totally different things.”

Read more from this story HERE.

NAACP’s Julian Bond: It’s OK for IRS to Target ‘Racist’ Tea Party

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Photo Credit: Associated PressJulian Bond, with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said during a Tuesday interview on MSNBC that it’s only right and just that the federal government and the IRS target tea party groups.

Tea party groups are, after all, “overtly racist” and the “Taliban wing of American politics,” Mr. Bond said, Mediaite reported. The IRS ought to look over these groups’ shoulders, he said — at the same time condemning former President Bush, for what he alleged was that administration’s biased push for the IRS to investigate the NAACP.

The NAACP was investigated for improper political activities in 2004 after Mr. Bond made a speech that was highly critical of Mr. Bush, Mediaite reported. The group was later cleared of any wrongdoing. But Mr. Bond hasn’t forgotten, and said his group was “unfairly targeted,” Mediaite said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rush Limbaugh Offers to Sit Down With Obama

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Photo Credit: WNDBy Joe Kovacs. In the wake of news reports that President Obama is blaming Rush Limbaugh for the political gridlock in Washington, the radio powerhouse is now offering to sit down with the commander in chief to hold face-to-face discussions.

“In the spirit of doing whatever I can to move things forward in this country,” Limbaugh said Tuesday afternoon, “I would like to make myself available to the president of the United States to sit down and talk with him at a place of his choosing and discuss the problems facing the country, and maybe working together, since I am the opposition, since I am the obstacle, since I am the reason he can’t get things done.”

“I’ll be glad to sit down with him, any time, any place that he wants. Perhaps we can hash this out and come to a … mutual understanding or agreement of how to get things off the dime and to move things forward.”

On Monday, Obama reportedly met with top-name fundraisers including entertainer Justin Timberlake and his wife, actress Jessica Biel, as well as designer Tommy Hilfiger at the Greenwich Village home of producer Harvey Weinstein.

Obama complained about the lack of progress on his agenda, specifically blaming Limbaugh. Read more from this story HERE.
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Rush Limbaugh: I live in Obama’s head

By KEVIN CIRILLI. Rush Limbaugh taunted President Barack Obama on Tuesday, saying he lives “rent free” in the president’s head less than a day after Obama criticized the conservative radio host at a fundraiser hosted by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

“He simply cannot get me off his mind. I live rent free in his head. And he is using me as his convenient excuse for not being able to get anything done. He really thinks the Republicans would work with him if it weren’t for me,” the conservative radio host said on his program Tuesday, according to a show transcript.

Monday night Obama was in New York at a fundraiser that Weinstein hosted and celebrities like Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel attended. During Obama’s remarks at the fundraiser, Obama took a jab at Limbaugh. Read more from this story HERE.