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Now Lois Lerner’s Secret Comments Targeted

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A Washington watchdog that has been fighting for the public’s right to know the who, what, when, where and why of the IRS campaign to badger and bully tea-party and other conservative groups about the time they wanted to oppose Barack Obama’s re-election bid in 2012 is going back into court to try to unseal whatever explanation may or may not have come from Lois Lerner, who headed the tax-exempt division of the IRS then.

Judicial Watch confirmed Monday it has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in another case in which the depositions of Lerner and her aide, Holly Paz, were targeted.

“Both played key roles in the targeting of conservative nonprofit groups opposed to Obama policies in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election,” Judicial Watch explained.

The organization submitted its request in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Western Division, where a case already was underway by the NorCal Tea Party Patriots.

That’s a class-action lawsuit demanding that the public be given access to the depositions from Lerner and Paz, who both answered a number of still-unknown questions about how the program began, who ordered it to happen, and why. (Read more from “Now Lois Lerner’s Secret Comments Targeted” HERE)

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IRS ‘Targeting’ Focus Now Turns to Lois Lerner

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A formal apology and reported $3.5 million settlement by the IRS with tea party and other conservative organizations the federal agency targeted during the 2012 election may not be the end of the story.

Just as apologizing – even sincerely – to a highway patrol officer may not enable a driver to avoid a traffic ticket.

Several individuals and groups that were victimized by the IRS tax-exempt organizations division run by Lois Lerner are calling for the reopening of a criminal investigation into her activities.

WND reported Friday the IRS offered a “sincere apology” for the Obama administration’s manipulation of the feared federal agency to target conservative organizations when Barack Obama was seeking re-election.

“For such treatment, the IRS expresses its sincere apology,” the agency said in a proposed consent order to resolve a number of lawsuits against the government brought by the injured organizations. (Read more from “IRS ‘Targeting’ Focus Now Turns to Lois Lerner” HERE)

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Trump’s Justice Department Lets Lois Lerner off the Hook

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The Justice Department says it will not prosecute former IRS executive Lois Lerner for targeting conservative groups during the 2010 and 2012 elections.

In a letter to top Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, Assistant Attorney General Kevin Boyd said that after a careful review of the case, DOJ will not pursue charges against Lerner, who oversaw the IRS division that reviewed tax exempt organizations.

“After this process, the Department determined that reopening the investigation would not be appropriate based on the available evidence,” Boyd wrote Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Illinois Rep. Peter Roskam, the chairman of the subcommittee on tax policy.

In April, Brady and Roskam asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to review the Lerner case and to consider whether she should be charged with a crime. (Read more from “Trump’s Justice Department Lets Lois Lerner off the Hook” HERE)

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Top Tax-Writing Republicans Renew Call for DOJ to Investigate Lois Lerner over IRS Scandal

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Two top tax-writing Republicans in the House are calling on the Department of Justice to reopen its investigation into whether former IRS official Lois Lerner unlawfully targeted conservative organizations applying for tax-exempt status.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady and Tax Policy Subcommittee Chairman Peter Roskam sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions Wednesday, noting the Obama administration refused to review the information the committee gathered in its extensive investigation into the matter. According to the congressmen, there is clear evidence Lerner willfully partook in criminal activity during her tenure as the Exempt Organizations Division director, yet former President Barak Obama insisted there was “not a smidgeon of corruption” at the agency.

“On April 9, 2014, the House Committee on Ways and Means voted to send a letter to the Department of Justice referring former IRS Exempt Organizations Division Director Lois G. Lerner for criminal prosecution,” Brady and Roskam wrote. “As indicated in the attached letter, the Committee’s nearly three-year investigation uncovered evidence of willful misconduct on the part of Ms. Lerner. Despite this fact, and for what many believe were purely partisan reasons, the prior administration refused to review Ms. Lerner’s misconduct.”

The lawmakers cited evidence showing Lerner provided misleading information to Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration’s questions and the use of her personal email, which put taxpayers’ confidential information at risk of exposure, as reasons for reopening the investigation.

The DOJ announced in October, 2015, it would not pursue criminal charges against Lerner at the close of its two-year probe. The investigation faced challenges due to Lerner’s crashed hard drive, the absence of email archives and the destruction of over 400 electronic backup tapes, and it was unable to prove the IRS official “intentionally discriminated against an applicant based upon viewpoint” and cited line-employees’ “ignorance, inertia” and “negligence” for delays in tea party applications for r 501(c )(3) status. (Read more from “Top Tax-Writing Republicans Renew Call for DOJ to Investigate Lois Lerner over IRS Scandal” HERE)

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No Criminal Charges for Former IRS Official Lois Lerner

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The Justice Department won’t charge Lois Lerner, a former Internal Revenue Service official, over Tea Party groups’ applications for tax-exempt status, closing a nearly 2 1/2-year investigation with a determination that IRS officials bungled the matter but committed no crimes.

“Our investigation uncovered substantial evidence of mismanagement, poor judgment and institutional inertia, leading to the belief by many tax-exempt applicants that the IRS targeted them based on their political viewpoints,” Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik wrote to Congress on Friday. “But poor management is not a crime.”

The announcement ends a major phase of the IRS controversy, angering Republicans and Tea Party activists who had pressed for prosecutions.

[Listen to Joe Miller’s call to “Abolish the IRS”]

When the matter first erupted, it prompted bipartisan outrage and accusations that the IRS and Obama administration had pursued a vendetta against conservative groups. The truth proved to be more complex, and the investigations appear not to have revealed any direct involvement by White House officials.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee who is poised to become speaker of the House, said the Justice Department’s decision was a “deeply disappointing” response to what he called the “serious and unprecedented actions” taken by Ms. Lerner. (Read more from “No Criminal Charges for Former IRS Official Lois Lerner” HERE)

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IRS Scandal: Lois Lerner’s Secret, Personal Email Account Was Perfect Cover

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1440534101700Former top IRS official Lois Lerner – at the center of a well-orchestrated scheme targeting conservative organizations – used an alias while at the IRS.

In new documents just released, an IRS attorney has confirmed that Lois Lerner used another email to conduct IRS business – under the name of “Toby Miles.”

That revelation prompts this question: why would the director of the Exempt Organizations Unit use an alias – a secret, personal email account while at the IRS?

You don’t have to think very long to come up with the answer . . .

We know that Lerner used her official IRS email to participate in the orchestration of this targeting scheme – even plotting with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to fabricate evidence – to, as she put it, “piece together false statement cases” so the DOJ could launch criminal prosecutions of law-abiding citizens in the absence of any complaints or evidence of wrongdoing. (Read more from “IRS Scandal: Lois Lerner’s Secret, Personal Email Account Was Perfect Cover” HERE)

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Networks Ignore Major Story on Failure of Obama’s DOJ to Seek Contempt Charges for Lois Lerner

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Lois LernerLast week, the Department of Justice announced it would not be seeking contempt charges against Lois Lerner for refusing to testify to Congress on the IRS targeting scandal.

The Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks, so far, have refused to report on this big development in the Obama IRS scandal that they apparently just don’t want to talk about any more.

On April 1 Politico’s John Breshnan and Rachal Bade reported the following:

“The Justice Department will not seek criminal contempt charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner, the central figure in a scandal that erupted over whether the tax agency improperly targeted conservative political groups. Ronald Machen, the former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in a seven-page letter this week that he would not bring a criminal case to a grand jury over Lerner’s refusal to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in March 2014. The House approved a criminal contempt resolution against Lerner in May 2014, and Machen’s office has been reviewing the issue since then….Lerner cited her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself during congressional testimony on March 5, 2014, although then-Oversight Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said she had waived that right by giving an opening statement at a hearing 10 months earlier when she asserted her innocence. Issa wanted her charged by the Justice Department with criminal contempt of Congress for failing to answer questions about her role in the scandal.”

(See “Shocker! Obama’s DOJ Won’t Seek Contempt Charges for Lois Lerner, Networks Ignore”, originally posted HERE)

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“Most Transparent Administration Ever” Suffers Curious Epidemic of Disappearing Email Systems, Crashed Hard Drives and Lost Backup Tapes

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Remember when Barack Obama promised his would be the “most open and transparent administration ever“?

Hahahahahahahahahahaha. Good times, good times.

• Disappearing email systems:

A week before becoming Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton set up a private e-mail system that gave her a high level of control over communications, including the ability to erase messages completely, according to security experts who have examined Internet records.

• Crashed Hard Drives:

In one of the new[ly recovered] emails, Lerner apparently wrote, “No one will ever believe that both your hard drive and mine crashed within a week of each other.”

• Lost Backup Tapes:

…hundreds of former IRS official Lois Lerner’s previously “lost” backup tapes have been recovered, which could result in the recovery of a new trove of her emails. IRS Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) on Thursday that it took investigators just two weeks to recover 424 backup tapes that were previously said to be irretrievable.

• And more!

In a Monday ruling, Judge Royce C. Lamberth, senior judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, accused the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of lying to the court and displaying “apathy and carelessness” in carrying out the law… Judge Lamberth described the “absurdity” of the way the EPA handled a Freedom of Information Act request from the Landmark Legal Foundation and then the court case stemming from it — including late last week admitting it lied to the court about how it went about searching for documents.

• Oh, wait–there’s more!:

Freedom of Information Act requests have been routinely ignored-from the very start of Obama’s reign. An Associated Press report found the Obama administration has grown more secretive over time.


• Gee whillikers, I forgot about this one:

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog offered Congress fresh evidence Tuesday that the Obama administration is failing to meet its promises of transparency, accusing department officials of interfering with his independent investigations into employee wrongdoing.

• But it’s not a pattern!. Oh, wait. My bad. It is.

Given the number of IG and investigator vacancies, a suspicious person might think that the Obama administration was trying to hide waste and fraud in the various departments.

I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

That is, unless you’re a progressive, in which case, you’ll shriek the words, “But—Bush!” at the top of your lungs while spittle flies out of your mouth.

(“Most Transparent Administration Ever Suffers Curious Epidemic of Disappearing Email Systems, Crashed Hard Drives and Lost Backup Tapes“)

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Exposed: Justice Department Shut Down Search for Lois Lerner Emails

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The Department of Justice blocked an attempt to force the Internal Revenue Service to search for Lois Lerner’s missing emails at off-site storage facilities, according to a lawyer pushing to obtain the emails.

The IRS never looked for Lerner’s backup email tapes at the West Virginia storage facility where they were being housed. Treasury deputy inspector general Timothy Camus told Congress that the IRS never asked IT professionals at the New Martinsville, W.V. storage site for the backup tapes. Camus only found the backup tape for Lerner’s missing 2011 emails about two weeks ago.

But the Obama administration knew that emails were stored at off-site facilities, and even shut down a legal request to send somebody to go look for them.

“We said in court that there are off-site servers where all IRS emails are stored,” lawyer Cleta Mitchell told The Daily Caller.

Mitchell represents the voter-ID group True the Vote in its lawsuit against the IRS over improper targeting. Shortly after it was revealed last summer that the IRS was missing Lerner’s emails, Mitchell petitioned U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton for an independent forensic examiner to be appointed to investigate the missing emails. (Read more about the Lois Lerner emails HERE)

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Smoking Gun Lois Lerner Email Found, Discussed Faking Hard Drive Crashes; Criminal Probe Opened

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By Stephen Dinan. The IRS’s inspector general confirmed Thursday it is conducting a criminal investigation into how Lois G. Lerner’s emails disappeared, saying it took only two weeks for investigators to find hundreds of tapes the agency’s chief had told Congress were irretrievably destroyed.

Investigators have already scoured 744 backup tapes and gleaned 32,774 unique emails, but just two weeks ago they found an additional 424 tapes that could contain even more Lerner emails, Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told the House Oversight Committee in a rare late-night hearing meant to look into the status of the investigation.

“There is potential criminal activity,” Mr. Camus said.

He said they have also discovered the hard drives from the IRS’s email servers, but said because the drives are out of synch it’s not clear whether they will be able to recover anything from them.

“To date we have found 32,744 unique emails that were backed up from Lois Lerner’s email box. We are in the process of comparing these emails to what the IRS has already produced to Congress to determine if we did in fact recover any new emails,” Mr. Camus said. (Read more about Lois Lerner and the criminal probe HERE)


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Lois Lerner Email: ‘No One Will Ever Believe That Both Your Hard Drive and Mine Crashed Within a Week’

By Jason Howerton. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced on Thursday night that hundreds of former IRS official Lois Lerner’s previously “lost” backup tapes have been recovered, which could result in the recovery of a new trove of her emails.

IRS Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) on Thursday that it took investigators just two weeks to recover 424 backup tapes that were previously said to be unretrievable.

“To date, we have found 32,744 unique emails that were backed up from Lois Lerner’s email box. We are in the process of comparing these emails to what the IRS has already produced to Congress to determine if we did in fact recover any new emails,” Camus said, according to the Washington Times.

In one of the new emails, Lerner apparently wrote, “No one will ever believe that both your hard drive and mine crashed within a week of each other.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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