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Issa Questions Lerner About IRS Motives; She Pleads the Fifth Again (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Carolyn KasterLois Lerner, former director of IRS exempt organizations, invoked her Fifth Amendment rights again Wednesday before a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the IRS targeting American citizens for their political beliefs.

“On the advice of my counsel, I respectfully exercise my Fifth Amendment right and decline to answer that question,” Lerner said in response to a slew of questions by Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) regarding the IRS targeting of tea party and conservative groups.

Issa read a statement that Lerner made on Oct. 19, 2010 that said, “The Supreme Court dealt a huge blow, overturning a 100-year-old precedent that basically corporations couldn’t give directly to political campaigns. And everyone is up in arms because they don’t like it. The Federal Election Commission can’t do anything about it. They want the IRS to fix the problem.”

“What exactly ‘wanted to fix the problem caused by Citizen United,’ what exactly does that mean?” Issa asked Lerner.

“My counsel has advised me that I have not waived my constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment, and on his advice, I will decline to answer any question on the subject matter of this hearing,” Lerner said.

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Lois Lerner to Finally Testify Before Congress According to Rep. Darrel Issa

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Photo Credit: PoliticoLois Lerner, the former IRS official involved with the Washington scandal regarding the alleged targeting of conservative groups, will finally testify before the United States Congress in the coming week. The announcement about Lois Lerner’s participation in the investigation was revealed by Rep. Darrell Issa who is a Republican from California, according to a UPI report on Sunday.

Lerner is the former government official who refused to testify under subpoena back in May of last year regarding her participation in the alleged misconduct of targeting conservative groups that had been seeking tax-exempt status from the IRS. The scandal arose when it was learned by the United States Treasury Department’s inspector general that many groups with the terms “Tea Party” or “patriot” in their names were given special review before the tax exemption was given.

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Congress Recalling Former IRS Official Lois Lerner, Who Took the Fifth: ‘If We Have to Hold Her in Contempt, So Be It’

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Photo Credit: APCongress has recalled a former Internal Revenue Service official at the heart of the agency’s targeting scandal even after she invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) this week ordered Lois Lerner, the former head of the IRS’ tax-exempt division, to return before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee he chairs to testify on the alleged targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.

Lerner revealed the scandal last year when she admitted that the IRS had singled out dozens of conservative groups for additional review.

The former IRS official is being represented by William Taylor III of Zuckerman Spaeder LLP., who has asked that Congress reconsider its decision to recall Lerner, saying she fears for her life.

Taylor claims Lerner has received “numerous death threats,” according to Politico.

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IRS is Overwhelmed by Identity Theft Fraud

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Photo Credit: DREW ANGERER FOR THE GLOBERashia Wilson bought a $92,000 Audi, proclaimed herself a millionaire, and announced on her Facebook page that she was “the queen of IRS tax fraud,” as prosecutors told the story.

But even more than her flamboyance, it was the seeming ease of her crime that was most stunning: She and an accomplice were alleged to have hijacked the identities of other taxpayers to get fraudulent refunds. They used stolen Social Security numbers, a computer, and basic knowledge of how to file a tax return, according to the government.

After the Florida mother of three was caught and pleaded guilty last year to crimes totaling at least $3 million, her defense attorney, Mark O’Brien, made his own plea. He said in court that he hoped the “IRS will figure out a way to prevent this from happening in the future, so someone with a sixth-grade education can’t defraud them so easily.”

Across the country, the theft of taxpayer identities has taken off, while receiving far less attention than the loss of credit card information. Even some drug dealers, always with an eye out for easy profits, have turned to taxpayer identity theft after hearing how uncomplicated it was to scam the IRS. A medical assistant at a nursing home stole the identities of hundreds of patients. A prison guard stole the identities of inmates and filed false returns under their names.

All told, in just the first six months of last year, 1.6 million taxpayers were affected by identity theft, compared with 271,000 for all of 2010, according to a recent audit by the Treasury Department’s inspector general. While the IRS said it discovered many of the incidents, the cumulative thefts have resulted in billions of dollars in potentially fraudulent refunds, according to an array of government reports.

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Caddell Bombshell: GOP Establishment Wants the IRS to Go After the Tea Party

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Photo Credit: APBy Rush Limbaugh.

RUSH:…Pat Caddell said yesterday on Fox News that the reason Republican leadership has not pushed for a higher-level investigation of the IRS for targeting the Tea Party is because they want the IRS to go after the Tea Party. When you have 71% who want an investigation, 64% who believe it is a sign of corruption, including nearly a majority of Democrats, the reason is the establishment Republicans want the IRS to go after the Tea Party…

They want them to go after the Tea Party because the Tea Parties are an outside threat to their power hold. I’m telling you, the lobbying-consultant class of the Republican Party and Republican leadership, who have been attacking the Tea Party and alienating them, they want the IRS to do this. That’s why there hasn’t been any establishment Republican pushback on the IRS. It’s almost safe to say the Republican establishment might be willing to lose a couple of elections if it meant getting rid of the Tea Party; because it’s clear, folks, they don’t want to win any elections the Tea Party can claim any credit for.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You gotta hear Pat Caddell. I mentioned this, but I want you to hear Pat Caddell say it. It was last night on the Fox report on the Fox News Channel, talking about the IRS targeting Tea Party groups.

CADDELL: The reason is, the establishment Republicans want the IRS to go after the Tea Parties. Got it? They want to go after the Tea Parties because the Tea Parties are an outside threat to their power hold, and I’m telling you, the lobbying, consulting class of the Republican Party and Republican leadership who have been attacking the Tea Parties and alienating them, they want the IRS to do this.

RUSH: That is a serious charge. That is a very, very serious charge, that the Republican establishment is aligned with Obama and is okay with Obama using the IRS to investigate the Tea Party. But it’s believable, because we know the Republican establishment, the political class in Washington, is spreading the word that they are not gonna criticize Hillary, it isn’t gonna happen, and we shouldn’t, either…

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RINO’s Continue Suicidal March Against Tea Party:

Photo Credit: Greg NashRepublican leaders must keep Tea Party on the run

By Juan Williams.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel (R-Ky.) are now in position to end the Tea Party’s death grip on the Republican Party’s political future.

Last week, Boehner and McConnell faced down the Tea Party’s threat to cripple the government when they supported raising the nation’s debt ceiling. That move prevented GOP political suicide.

If the nation’s credit rating, stocks and the recovery went down the sewer because of Republicans’ refusal to raise the debt ceiling, the GOP’s chances in the midterm elections would have been severely damaged.

Having successfully defied the Tea Party on the debt ceiling, now it is time for Boehner and McConnell to use that momentum to pass three bills: An extension of unemployment benefits for people suffering long-term joblessness; a minimum wage hike; and, most important of all, immigration reform.

The Tea Party caucus in the House and the Tea Party star in the Senate – Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) — are never going to love Boehner or McConnell. Both Congressional leaders have tried for years to accommodate Tea Party passions but they can never do enough.

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Miller Calls Out Begich for Promoting IRS Tyranny

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Photo by Joshua DoubekJoe Miller called out Mark Begich today for the Senator’s support of new IRS rules that would grant the agency even more power to shut down the political speech and the political involvement of tea party and other conservative groups.

“After all we have learned about the egregious acts by the IRS against Americans’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, that Mark Begich would come out in support of granting the agency even more power to target political groups demonstrates he is no longer willing to offer even the pretext of protecting the rights of all Alaskans,” said Miller.

While President Obama initially labeled the IRS targeting of tea party and other conservative groups as “outrageous and unacceptable,” in a recent interview he stated there was not “a smidgen of corruption” found in the actions of the agency. However, the public learned that the subsequent DOJ investigation of the IRS is being conducted by a high-dollar campaign contributor to the President. Apparently, there is no known public record of any of the targeted tea party groups being interviewed in this supposed months long “investigation.”

“If Mark Begich is willing to not only condone, but advocate the use of the IRS in this capacity, he has shown he does not want to represent all Alaskans and no longer deserves to hold his office,” said Miller.

Miller concluded, “We have to ask ourselves, what kind of nation do we want to be? One in which the President unilaterally changes laws and uses executive agencies to spy on Americans and to shut down political speech, or one in which our constitutional liberties are secure and all are free to engage equally in the political debate? We must protect against this abuse of power, whether it is exercised against the political right or left.”

Vulnerable Dems Seek More Aggressive IRS Crackdown on Conservative Groups for 2014 Elections

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Photo Credit: AP/Jacquelyn MartinEven with so many unanswered questions still surrounding the Internal Revenue Service targeting scandal, Democrats are demanding the tax agency be even more aggressive in monitoring spending from outside groups going into the 2014 midterm elections.

“There are two things you don’t want in political money, in the fundraising world and expenditure world,” Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) told The Hill newspaper. “You don’t want secret money, and you don’t want unlimited money, and that’s what we have now.”

Pryor is considered among the most endangered Senate Democrats up for re-election this year.

But that’s no reason to attack the First Amendment rights of citizen groups, said Washington attorney Cleta Mitchell, who is suing on behalf of several conservative organizations given extra scrutiny by the IRS in the 2012 election cycle.

“It is absolutely outrageous that these elected officials are distressed about having a citizens group discuss their voting records – and then calling on the IRS or any agency of government to ‘protect’ them from having to explain, justify or defend their voting records in Congress,” Mitchell told TheBlaze.

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‘Caught Red-Handed’: Sekulow Details New ‘Smoking Gun’ IRS Emails (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsJay Sekulow, chief counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice, testified before a House committee yesterday on the IRS scandal. He’s representing 41 of the conservative groups that say they were illegally targeted by the IRS.

During his testimony, he pointed to emails sent by former IRS official Lois Lerner that appear to contradict the administration’s assertions that the targeting was not a coordinated effort from Washington.

The emails were released by the House Ways and Means Committee as part of its probe of the IRS scandal. Sekulow explained that the emails show Lerner in contact with the IRS’ chief counsel and other top lawyers at least a year before the scandal became public. He said that Lerner wrote about coming up with new rules to restrict non-profit groups.

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ACLJ Chief Counsel: Very Possible IRS Targeting Impacted 2012 Election (+video)

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Photo Credit: APBy Tony Lee.

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law & Justice, said it was “very well possible” that the IRS’s targeting and harassment of conservatives and Tea Party groups impacted the 2012 presidential election between President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

Testifying before a House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs hearing Thursday to discuss the IRS’s targeting of conservatives, Sekulow, whose organization is representing some Tea Party groups that were targeted, was asked by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) whether he felt that the targeting changed or impacted the 2012 election.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Not a Smidgen of Corruption? Cleta Mitchell Rattles Off A Litany Of IRS Criminal Offenses

By Debra Heine.

As I was watching the explosive IRS targeting hearing, this morning, I was reminded of Speaker Boehner’s words from eight and a half months ago. “My question isn’t about who is going to resign. My question is who’s going to jail over this scandal?”

Since then, the Obama administration has gone from an initial “outrage” phase to a “phony scandal” phase, to the current old news/”what difference does it make” phase in which they think enough time has passed that they can push IRS rules on 501 (C) (4) groups that codify into law the what the IRS did to target Obama’s political opponents. And now the president feels comfortable enough to say, there’s not “a smidgen of corruption” in the IRS scandal that targeted his political opponents. That a president would say such a thing while there is an ongoing DOJ investigation, (albeit a sham investigation) should set anyone’s spidey sense a-tingling, I don’t care who you are.

“This scandal is not over,” said Washington Attorney Cleta Mitchell, who’s representing about a dozen of the targeted tea party groups. She rattled off a number of criminal offenses that have been committed in what she called, “this very ugly episode”:

“The lying has not stopped. There are lies upon lies in this ugly episode. The Commissioner of the IRS lied to Congress in March 2012 when he said there was absolutely no targeting, Mitchell declared, making sure to note that, “lying to Congress is a crime.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: CNS News Witness at IRS Hearing: ‘I Will Not Retreat; I Will Not Surrender’

By Melanie Hunter.

King Street Patriots founder Catherine Engelbrecht, one of many conservatives who claim they were unfairly targeted by the IRS when applying for tax-exempt status, told Congress Thursday that she is “more determined ever than before to stand before you and to all of America and say that I will not retreat.”

“Know this,” she said, “my experiences at the hands of this government in the last five years have made me more determined ever than before to stand before you and to all of America and say that I will not retreat. I will not surrender. I will not be intimidated, and I will not ask for permission to exercise my constitutional rights.”

Engelbrecht said shortly after founding and leading True to Vote and King Street Patriots, she was visited by law enforcement agencies and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), even though outside of filing their tax returns, she and her husband never dealt with any government agency in nearly two decades of running their small business.

“We had never been audited. We had never been investigated, but all that changed upon submitting applications for the non-profit statuses of True the Vote and King Street,” she told the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama on IRS Scandal: ‘Not Even a Smidgen of Corruption’

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Photo Credit: APPresident Obama, in an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, tried to put behind him the scandals that have hung over his second term, suggesting his administration did not mislead the public on the Benghazi attack and going so far as to say the IRS targeting scandal had “not even a smidgen of corruption.”

Obama addressed concerns over Benghazi, the launch of HealthCare.gov and the IRS, during the interview Sunday before the Super Bowl. He adamantly rejected the suggestion that the IRS was used for political purposes by singling out Tea Party groups seeking tax exemption.

“That’s not what happened,” he said. Rather, he said, IRS officials were confused about how to implement the law governing those kinds of tax-exempt groups.

“There were some bone-headed decisions,” Obama conceded.

But when asked whether corruption, or mass corruption, was at play, he responded: “Not even mass corruption — not even a smidgen of corruption.”

Read more from this story HERE.