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IRS Will Monitor 99 Churches on Behalf of Freedom From Religion Foundation to Avoid Another Lawsuit

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0 (91)Here’s some funny business (and not the ‘haha’ kind) going on between the IRS and the Freedom From Religion Foundation. After the IRS presented a letter to the Justice Department that states 99 churches “merit high priority for examination,” the FFRF dropped their lawsuit against them.

The IRS also held private talks with the FFRF, purportedly, to assure them that the monitoring of churches will definitely happen.

Justice Department attorney, J. Christian Adams, explains on Fox News:

“They want them to convert theology to political. They want them to convert them to politics and say, “hey that’s not theology that’s political and you shouldn’t be talking like that.” And they wan to use the IRS as a weapon against christianity, against faith.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Lerner Emails: Conservative 'Crazies' and 'A–holes' will 'Take Down' America

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By Guy Benson.

Lois Lerner — faithful, impartial public servant:

BtzUmO-IgAAsW1H

That screen grab comes from an email exchange between retired IRS official Lois Lerner and a colleague just after the 2012 election. Ms. Lerner describes overhearing some women discussing the state of the nation in dire terms, prompting her correspondent to blast “whacko” and “scary” right-wing radio shows. Lerner posits that America may be “through” if “that many a–holes” exist, later adding that the US shouldn’t worry about foreign terrorists because “our own crazies” will “take us down.” Granted, certain quarters of the conservative radio universe are too conspiratorial and apocalyptic for many people’s taste. But the same holds true at the other end of the ideological spectrum. Lerner and her friend weren’t talking about the Left, though. They were hand-wringing over, and insulting, conservatives — whom Lerner clearly despises…

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst

Lois Lerner Called Conservatives ‘A–holes,’ Fantasized About Working At Obama Group

By Chuck Ross.

New emails released by the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday provide more evidence that ex-IRS official Lois Lerner is not fond of conservatives.

“So we don’t need to worry about teRroists [sic]. It’s our own crazies that will take us down,” Lerner wrote in a Nov. 9, 2012 email exchange with an IRS colleague.

Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp revealed the emails in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.

Lerner’s disdain for the right is central to an investigation into whether she targeted conservative groups who were seeking tax-exempt status. Republicans have accused the former director of the IRS’s exempt organizations division of possible criminal wrongdoing in targeting the groups.

“This email shows that Ms. Lerner’s mistreatment of conservative groups was driven by her personal hostility toward conservatives,” Camp wrote.

Read more from this story HERE.

IRS Strikes Deal With Atheist Group to Monitor Content of Sermons

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Photo Credit: LifeNews

Photo Credit: LifeNews

The next time your pastor delivers a pro-life sermon or urges the congregation to stand up for pro-life values in the political or public arena, he could be taken to task by the IRS.

Alliance Defending Freedom asked the Internal Revenue Service Tuesday to release all documents related to its recent decision to settle a lawsuit with an atheist group that claims the IRS has adopted new protocols and procedures for the investigation of churches.

ADF submitted the Freedom of Information Act request after learning of the IRS’s agreement with Freedom From Religion Foundation in a press release the group issued on July 17 concerning its lawsuit Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Koskinen, which accused the agency of failing to investigate churches the way the atheist group would like.

“Secrecy breeds mistrust, and the IRS should know this in light of its recent scandals involving the investigation of conservative groups,” said ADF Litigation Counsel Christiana Holcomb. “We are asking the IRS to disclose the new protocols and procedures it apparently adopted for determining whether to investigate churches. What it intends to do to churches must be brought into the light of day.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Ted Cruz Has A Great Solution For The Border Crisis – And It Involves Abolishing The IRS

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Photo Credit: IJ Review

Photo Credit: IJ Review

By Jennifer Van Laar.

Senator Ted Cruz spoke to over 3,500 people in Denver this weekend and proposed a two-birds-with-one-stone solution to tax reform and border security.

“The simplest road to tax reform is to abolish the IRS and move to simple flat tax (sic),” said Cruz.

As for what to do with 110,000 out of work IRS agents, Cruz said “we can always put them on our southern border. Seeing so many IRS agents would scare off anyone who wanted to come to America,” he told the crowd.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: John Partipilo / The Tennessean

Photo Credit: John Partipilo / The Tennessean

Ted Cruz’s father sparks revival spirit during tea party rally

By Brian Wilson.

The father of conservative firebrand U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz roused a crowd of tea party supporters with stories of his journey to the United States and his call for constitutional conservatism.

Rafael Cruz, pastor of Purifying Fire Ministries in suburban Dallas, received multiple standing ovations throughout his speech, delivered at a We the People rally organized by the Nashville Tea Party at the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel on Saturday afternoon.

The Cuban native spent much of his lecture analyzing the merits of Declaration of Independence and accusing the federal government of straying from it. He also said how his beliefs are inspired by the same wellsprings as his son, the Texas senator who has enthused some conservatives enough to call on him to run for president.

“That passion has been like fire in him, and let me tell you, that fire has been as alive 32 years ago as it is today,” Cruz said. “That’s why I know he’s not going to compromise in Washington.”

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WATCH: Rep. Gowdy Slams IRS Commissioner for Dragging Feet on Congressional Investigation

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) on Wednesday slammed IRS Commissioner John Koskinen for failing to help answer questions about Congress’s investigation into the IRS targeting scandal, and instead arguing that he can’t do anything while the Inspector General’s investigation into the IRS is ongoing.

Koskinen appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, where he said several times that he was unable to help answer some of Congress’s questions because of the IG investigation. But Gowdy said there are no rules prohibiting Koskinen from helping more.

“I find this confounding,” Gowdy said. “I find it vexing, that once the IG is involved, nobody else can do anything. That is not supported by the law.”

Koskinen said it’s his personal view that he should not interfere with the IG once it starts an investigation. “Our policy is… that if the IG starts an investigation, the agency will not themselves run a competing investigation to try to get there first,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Investigators: IRS Tech Experts Say Lerner’s Hard Drive Only 'Scratched,' Not Destroyed

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Fox News.

House investigators said Tuesday that the computer hard drive of ex-agency official Lois Lerner — a key figure in the IRS targeting scandal — was only “scratched,” not irreparably damaged, as Americans have been led to believe.

GOP-led Ways and Means Committee investigators, in their quest to recover missing Lerner emails, learned her hard drive was damaged but recoverable by talking to IRS information-technology experts, after the government originally refused to make them available, according to the committee.

“It is unbelievable that we cannot get a simple, straight answer from the IRS about this hard drive,” said committee Chairman Dave Camp.

The Michigan Republican said the new information also raises more questions about potential criminal wrongdoing at the IRS because the committee was told no data was recoverable and the physical hard drive was recycled and potentially shredded.

In addition, learning that the hard drive was only scratched also raises questions about why the IRS refused to use outside experts to recover the data.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst

Lois Lerner’s Hard Drive Was ‘Scratched’ Then ‘Shredded’

By Patrick Howley.

Ex-IRS official Lois Lerner’s computer hard drive was “scratched” and the data on it was still recoverable. But the IRS did not try to recover the data from Lerner’s hard drive, despite recommendations from in-house IRS IT experts to outsource the recovery project.

The hard drive was then “shredded,” according to a court filing the IRS made to House Ways and Means Committee investigators.

The IRS claims that it lost Lerner’s emails from 2009 to 2011 including emails to and from the White House, when her computer crashed in the midst of the agency’s conservative targeting program. The IRS also claimed in a transcribed interview that many other IRS employees who worked under Lerner in her Washington, D.C. department and its Cincinnati-based affiliate also experienced computer crashes that deleted their emails, bringing the total number of crash victims to “less than 20.”

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IRS Seeks Help Destroying Another 3,200 Hard Drives

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Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Days after IRS officials said in a sworn statement that former top agency employee Lois G. Lerner’s computer memory had been wiped clean, the agency put out word to contractors Monday that it needs help to destroy at least another 3,200 hard drives.

The Internal Revenue Service solicitation for “media destruction” services reflects an otherwise routine job to protect sensitive taxpayer information, but it was made while the agency’s record destruction practices remain under a sharp congressional spotlight.

Congressional investigators of the IRS targeting of conservative groups have been hampered by the unexplained destruction of emails and other records of Ms. Lerner, the former head of the IRS tax-exempt division and a central figure in the scandal.

The loss of Ms. Lerner’s hard drive also raised broader questions about why the tax agency never reported the missing records to the National Archives and Records Administration, as required by the Federal Records Act.

While those questions remained unresolved, IRS officials signaled plans to destroy tens of thousands of additional electronic records.

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Unbelievable: IRS Says Hard Drive that Lost Emails Destroyed

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US-POLITICS-IRS-LERNERThe IRS said Friday that Lois Lerner’s computer hard drive was destroyed three years ago, ending any chance of retrieving her lost emails.

In court papers, the IRS said the hard drive was destroyed after two sets of trained technicians tried to retrieve the data. The tax agency said it was standard procedure to destroy old data storage equipment that may have contained confidential taxpayer information.

The IRS says Lerner’s computer crashed in 2011, destroying an untold number of emails. At the time, Lerner headed the division that handles applications for tax-exempt status.

Lerner is a central figure in congressional investigations into the handling of applications by tea party and other conservative groups.

Read more from this story HERE.

Tea Party Groups' Suit Against IRS Moves Forward

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tea_party_gunsA federal judge has allowed a lawsuit by 10 tea party groups to move forward against the Internal Revenue Service, rejecting a request by the federal government to dismiss all the allegations that the agency subjected conservative groups to additional, often burdensome scrutiny.

In her ruling Thursday, Judge Susan Dlott allowed two of the tea party groups’ claims — including that the IRS discriminated and retaliated against them based on their views in violation of their free speech rights — to survive to trial.

The Cincinnati-based Dlott did dismiss a third claim, ruling the tea party groups could not pursue allegations of privacy violations on behalf of their individual members. The individuals themselves have to do that, she said.

Edward Greim, the lead attorney for the tea party groups, said Friday he is pleased the case will move forward.

“If the government is right in this case, it means that from now on, no matter who the president is, the IRS can pick out a group of people that disagrees with the president and pull those people out, delay them, harass them, target them, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it,” Greim said. “And our position is very simple: That cannot be true and that’s not the republic that we live in.”

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DOJ: We Heard About IRS Missing Emails On The News

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Gary Cameron

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Gary Cameron

James Cole, deputy attorney general in the Department of Justice, testified Thursday that the DOJ heard about the destruction of IRS officials’ emails in the news, even though DOJ has formally been investigating the IRS for more than a year.

“I think we learned about it after that, from press accounts,” Cole told House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan at a hearing Thursday on the DOJ’s response to the wave of computer crashes at the IRS that wiped out seven different employees’ hard drives. (RELATED: Meet The Seven IRS Employees Whose Computer Crashed). DOJ has allegedly been conducting a widely-mocked investigation into the IRS conservative targeting scandal for more than a year, and recently announced that a new investigation is underway into the IRS missing emails.

Read more from this story HERE.