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Senators Demand Answers About IRS Use of Secret Cellphone Tracking Systems

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Two top senators are probing use by the Internal Revenue Service of secret cellphone tracking systems that are more often utilized by federal or local law enforcement agencies.

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen admitted this week that the agency does use the technology, known as cell-site simulators, or StingRays. The admission came after a report by The Guardian that indicated the IRS has spent more than $71,000 to upgrade a version of the device and to receive training from a company that manufactures the devices.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and ranking member Patrick Leahy on Thursday sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew demanding answers about the use of the technology by the IRS.

“We were surprised to learn that IRS investigators may be using these devices,” Mr. Grassley, Iowa Republican, and Mr. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, wrote in the letter. “While the devices can be useful tools for identifying the location of a suspect’s cell phone or identifying an unknown cell phone, we have previously expressed concerns about the privacy implications of these devices.”

Cell site-simulators work by mimicking cellphone towers to trick cellphones to connect to them, enabling investigators to obtain identifying information about the phones and their locations. Law enforcement officers often deploy the suitcase-sized StingRays by hauling them around in vehicles as they drive through neighborhoods looking for a suspect’s phone, scooping up data on the cellphones of any passers-by in the process. (Read more from “Senators Demand Answers About IRS Use of Secret Cellphone Tracking Systems” HERE)

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House Republicans Begin Impeachment Against IRS Chief

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House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz began the impeachment process against IRS Commissioner John Koskinen on Tuesday, accusing him of misleading the public and destroying documents that were sought under a congressional subpoena.

It was the latest move in the battle over the targeting of tea party groups at the tax agency.

Less than a week earlier, the Justice Department issued a report finding no criminal behavior in the decision by top IRS officials to subject conservative groups to intrusive scrutiny.

Among the specific charges leveled by Mr. Chaffetz and 18 of his fellow Republicans on the committee were that Mr. Koskinen, appointed by President Obama in December 2013 after the targeting scandal broke, misled Congress when he said he had turned over all of former IRS senior executive Lois G. Lerner’s emails and that he oversaw destruction of evidence when his agency got rid of backup tapes that contained the emails.

It was unclear how far the resolution would go in a Congress preoccupied with so many other fights and with little more than a year to go in President Obama’s tenure. (Read more from “House Republicans Begin Impeachment Against IRS Chief” HERE)

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IRS Possessed Stingray Cellphone Surveillance Gear, Documents Reveal

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The Internal Revenue Service is the latest in a growing list of US federal agencies known to have possessed the sophisticated cellphone dragnet equipment known as Stingray, according to documents obtained by the Guardian.

Invoices obtained following a request under the Freedom of Information Act show purchases made in 2009 and 2012 by the federal tax agency with Harris Corporation, one of a number of companies that manufacture the devices. Privacy advocates said the revelation “shows the wide proliferation of this very invasive surveillance technology”.

The 2009 IRS/Harris Corp invoice is mostly redacted under section B(4) of the Freedom of Information Act, which is intended to protect trade secrets and privileged information. However, an invoice from 2012, which is also partially redacted, reports that the agency spent $65,652 on upgrading a Stingray II to a HailStorm, a more powerful version of the same device, as well as $6,000 on training from Harris Corporation.

Stingrays are the best-known example of a type of device called an IMSI-catcher, also known as “cell-site simulators”. About the size of a briefcase, they work by pretending to be cellphone towers in order to strip metadata and in some cases even content from phones which connect to them . . .

Immense secrecy has so far surrounded these devices, but a picture is slowly emerging which shows widespread use. Various revelations by the American Civil Liberties Union and news outlets including the Guardian had shown that at least 12 federal agencies are already known to have these devices, including the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The IRS makes 13. (Read more from “IRS Possessed Stingray Cellphone Surveillance Gear, Documents Reveal” HERE)

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This Is How Often the IRS Improperly Held Information From Taxpayers

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The Internal Revenue Service improperly withheld information requested by taxpayers 12.3 percent of the time, according to a new government audit.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TITGA) reviewed the IRS’ compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and discovered that disclosure specialists at the agency failed to properly respond to all requests, actions that the watchdog said may have violated taxpayer rights.

TITGA looked at a statistically valid sample of 65 FOIA requests for their review and found eight cases—or 12.3 percent—in which the IRS improperly withheld requested information. Under the Freedom of Information Act, federal government agencies must make records requested by the public available unless a specific exemption is given while providing an initial response to the request within 20 business days.

The eight instances discovered by the watchdog were found to improperly withhold “information of examination and collection activity and other tax return information that the taxpayer or authorized Power of Attorney should have received.” When this number is projected to the entire population of 2,809 FOIA requests that the agency closed between Oct. 1, 2013, through Sept. 30, 2014, it equates to 346 FOIA requests that may have been erroneously withheld from the requester.

Additionally, the audit found that the agency withheld four (7.3 percent) of the 55 Internal Revenue Code (IRC) information requests that were reviewed. (Read more from “This Is How Often the IRS Improperly Held Information From Taxpayers” HERE)

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Grandmother: IRS Agent Sexually Assaulted Me While Conducting Audit of My Business; Feds Not Prosecuting

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garza-screen-cap-640x480IRS agent Samuel Garza committed multiple acts of sexual battery against her while conducting an audit of her business, a woman in her fifties who owns a convenience store in Fairview, Tennessee, testified at a dramatic two hour preliminary hearing in Williamson County General Sessions Court.

The Williamson County’s District Attorney’s Office told the court it has video and audio evidence that confirms the victim’s allegations and that Garza himself signed a sworn statement admitting guilt. . .

Garza, who was originally arrested September 3 on two charges of sexual battery by an authority figure, now faces two charges of sexual battery and one charge of aggravated assault. Presiding Judge M.T. Taylor, Jr. declined to lower bond for Garza, which now stands at $300,000. Bond was originally set at $200,000.

The victim testified that Garza choked her, touched her breasts, kissed her, pressed his erect penis against her buttocks in a grinding manner, and told her to touch his penis during the conduct of an official IRS audit despite her repeated pleas for him to stop.

If she did not cooperate, he told her, he would put her in jail and close down her business. (Read more from “Grandmother: IRS Agent Sexually Assaulted Me While Conducting Audit of My Business; Feds Not Prosecuting” HERE)

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Over $572 Million in Excess Obamacare Tax Credits Paid Out

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dollarsThe Internal Revenue Service paid out over $572 million in excess Obamacare tax credits and sent incorrect forms to over half a million individuals due to a computer programming error, according a new government report.

The report released by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration on Tuesday inspected the interim results of the IRS’s verification of Obamacare’s Premium Tax Credits, which were created to assist low or medium-income individuals and families to purchase health insurance in the marketplace.

Those who are eligible to receive tax credits under Obamacare can choose to have their credits paid either directly to their health insurance provider as a partial payment towards their monthly premiums—known as the Advance Premium Tax Credit—or can receive the tax credits as one lump sum on their annual income tax return.

According to the IRS, $11 billion worth of tax credits were paid in advance to insurers for fiscal year 2014. By March 26, 2015, the IRS processed around 1.4 million tax returns that showed $4.4 billion in credits, bringing the total to more than $15 billion for 2014. Individuals claimed more than $240 million in additional premium credits and received $572 million in excess advance payments, according to the agency.

The inspection also brought to light a computer programming error that led to more than half a million individuals receiving incorrect health insurance forms. (Read more from “Over $572 Million in Excess Obamacare Tax Credits Paid Out” HERE)

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Contempt Warning: Federal Judge Threatens to Hold IRS Chief in Contempt

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A federal judge threatened to hold IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in contempt Wednesday after the IRS failed to produce, as ordered, newly recovered emails of former IRS official Lois Lerner.

U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan had ordered the IRS on July 1 to turn over Lerner emails on a weekly basis in response to a lawsuit by the watchdog group Judicial Watch.

The lawsuit focused on the 2013 scandal in which the IRS acknowledged agents had improperly singled out Tea Party and other conservative groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections.

However at a U.S. District Court hearing in Washington Wednesday, Sullivan threatened to hold officials, including Koskinen, in contempt for not producing the documents as ordered every Monday.

“If there is further noncompliance, I will haul into court the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service to show cause why that person should not be personally held in contempt of court. I can’t make that any clearer,” the judge told Geoffrey Klimas, the Justice Department attorney representing the IRS, according to the minutes published on Judicial Watch’s website. (Read more from “Contempt Warning: Federal Judge Threatens to Hold IRS Chief in Contempt” HERE)

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IRS Used Instant Messaging System to Hide Internal Communications

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The IRS used a “wholly separate” instant messaging system that automatically deleted office communications, according to documentation released by the House Oversight Committee on Monday. The system appears to have been purposefully used by agency officials responsible for the targeting of conservative non-profits, in order to evade public scrutiny.

The system, known as “Office Communication Server” or OCS was used by IRS officials, including many in the Exempt Organizations (EO) Unit, which was headed by Lois Lerner.

As the Oversight Committee report states, the instant messaging system did not archive any communications, so it is not possible to know what employees of the EO unit discussed on it.

However, in an email uncovered by the Committee Lerner warns her colleagues about evading Congressional oversight:

“I was cautioning folks about email and how we have had several occasions where Congress has asked for emails and there has been an electronic search for responsive emails – so we need to be cautious about what we say in emails.”

(Read more from “IRS Used Instant Messaging System to Hide Internal Communications” HERE)

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Chaffetz Asks Obama to Fire IRS Chief Koskinen for ‘Obstruction’ of Congressional Probes

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The head of the top House investigative panel Monday called for the firing of IRS chief John Koskinen, arguing he has repeatedly “obstructed” congressional probes into the agency’s political targeting of taxpayers.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Affairs, made his request Monday in a letter to President Obama, arguing the president vowed in 2013 to “work hand-in-hand with Congress to fix the problem.”

However, Chaffetz argued that Koskinen, during his roughly two-and-a-half-year tenure, has obstructed such efforts by failing to testify truthfully, comply with subpoenas and preserve as many as 24,000 emails related to congressional investigations.

“Mr. Koskinen should no longer be the IRS commissioner,” Chaffetz said in prepared remarks for a Capitol Hill press conference announcing his request. “At best, Commissioner Koskinen was derelict in his duties to preserve agency records. At worst, he and the IRS engaged in an orchestrated plan to hide information from Congress.”

“The record is clear that the IRS and Commissioner Koskinen have been cooperative and truthful with the numerous investigations underway,” the IRS said in a statement. “The agency has produced more than one million pages of documents in support of the investigations, provided 52 current and former employees for interviews and participated in more than 30 Congressional hearings on these issues.” (Read more from “Chaffetz Asks Obama to Fire IRS Chief Koskinen for ‘Obstruction’ of Congressional Probes” HERE)

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“Bombshell Testimony”: The IRS Used This to Hide Information From Congress

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New testimony reveals that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) used “hundreds of attorneys” to hide critical information from Congress’s investigation of the IRS targeting of conservatives.

According to new congressional bombshell testimony today, the IRS set up a previously unknown “special project team” comprised of “hundreds of attorneys,” including the IRS Chief Counsel (one of only two politically appointed positions at the IRS).

The “special project” this team was given? Concealing information from Congress.

The IRS’s director of privacy, governmental liaison, and disclosure division, Mary Howard, testified that soon after the IRS targeting scandal was revealed, the IRS “amassed hundreds of attorneys to go through the documents [requested by Congress] and redact them” . . .

In other words, as soon as the IRS targeting scandal broke, the IRS set up a special team of hundreds of attorneys, including President Obama’s political head of the Chief Counsel’s office, to keep requests for publicly available information away from the person who would normally review those documents and turn them over to Congress and the public. That “special” team then overly redacted, delayed, and determined which documents it wanted Congress to see. (Read more from “The IRS Used This to Hide Information From Congress” HERE)

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