Issa: DoJ Called My Aides Looking to Minimize IRS Scandal, Apparently Thinking He Was Talking to Democrats
The administration official calling House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) office last week had an odd request.
Could the Justice Department get some help leaking information about the IRS’s scrutiny of conservative groups? asked Brian Fallon, a top spokesman for Attorney General Eric Holder.
Apparently thinking he had reached the office of Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), Fallon said the department wanted congressional staffers to get documents to selected reporters so that [DoJ] officials could comment on them “before the majority” did.
Apparently the Holder flack was “audibly shaken” after the Issa staffer said that the Oversight Committee would have to look at documents first. He put the call on hold, came back, and said there had been a “change in plans.” Why, no documents were going to get released! He was just calling to say, hey guys! Can’t we all just get along? Stop hatin’ so much!
It almost sounds — I say almost sounds — as if DoJ isn’t really interested in investigating the IRS for reals. It’s almost — almost, I tell you! — as if they are just playing the role of partisan hack.
Speaking of which . . .
Breitbart News says IRS targeted company for audit
The company that runs the conservative Breitbart.com news site says the IRS has selected the network for an audit, in a move company executives suggest is politically motivated.
Breitbart News Network, a California-based company which runs several conservative websites, says the IRS recently audited its 2012 financial information.
“The Obama administration’s timing on this is exquisite, but try as they might through various methods to silence us, we will only get more emboldened,” Stephen K. Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart News Network, said in a written statement.
You know, everybody always talks big at the beginning of an episode where a legal process is being dishonestly invoked to squelch dissent. The real measure is what happens a year from now, after the full weight of the government has been brought to bear.
Don’t worry, Breitbart.com! If the IRS gets carried away, you can count on DoJ to come to your rescue collude with Democrats to spin the evidence.
Nice, huh?
Patterico (9c670f) — 9/9/2014 @ 8:13 pmI hope Breitbart tells the IRS all their hard drives crashed and they can’t provide anything. Then plead the fifth and walk away. Like a boss.
Edoc118 (c37322) — 9/9/2014 @ 8:17 pmAmerica and Justice is like tacos with powdered sugar
and it’s sad
happyfeet (a785d5) — 9/9/2014 @ 8:22 pmIt’s really unbelievable how corrupt the political organization known as the Democratic party has become. It’s now no more than a criminal syndicate. And that’s demeaning to criminals.
Hoagie (4dfb34) — 9/9/2014 @ 8:32 pmTry maple syrup on your tamales, don’t think about it, try it.
ropelight (90dc89) — 9/9/2014 @ 8:33 pmDoesn’t this DOJ under Holder qualify as a “continuing criminal enterprise”?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/9/2014 @ 8:37 pmHere you go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wznjAhZ0eWc
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 9/9/2014 @ 8:39 pmthey make tamales dulce here
i had em just the once though
happyfeet (a785d5) — 9/9/2014 @ 8:53 pmThere was another DOJ attorney representing the IRS in civil litigation over the targeting until recently, Andrew Strelka, who apparently worked with Lois Lerner in the Exempt Organizations Division and was involved in the targeting activity.
Appearances of conflicts and smidgens of corruption are nowhere to be found here. Carry on.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 9/9/2014 @ 8:58 pmGot a jury summons for next month in downtown L.A.
What’s the point? Laws don’t matter.
malclave (1db6c5) — 9/9/2014 @ 9:02 pmbelieve it or not
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/9/2014 @ 9:03 pmto Toensing diGenova
Holder’s stand up guy
To me, he’s a goddam chinless crooked vulture
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/9/2014 @ 9:04 pmYou can’t work for Prom Queen unless you have beady rodent-like eyes and a weak chin.
Case in point.
http://thisistwitchy.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/tommy-vietor.jpg
Steve57 (685cca) — 9/9/2014 @ 9:47 pmNo one cares.
Ag80 (eb6ffa) — 9/9/2014 @ 10:07 pmBrian Fallon been tradin his food stamps for some choom choom sound like
happyfeet (a785d5) — 9/10/2014 @ 1:47 amcompare and contrast:
http://watchdog.org/169549/appeal-partisan-wisconsin/
this too is a political suppression, disguised by legal trappings
narciso (ee1f88) — 9/10/2014 @ 6:01 amI’m telling you guys, our entire government has been turned into a corrupt criminal conspiracy by leftists intent only on maintaining power. This goes for many cities and states too. I live outside Philadelphia and I watch the total “in your face” corruption of city employees, labor unions, political operatives and even police. The Democrats have run Philly since 1952 and they have run it into the ground with only consideration for their own power and making as much money for themselves as possible without doing any real labor. We have double and triple dippers getting pensions from two or three different departments and nobody thinks a thing of it. Just try and build a new restaurant or gas station in Philly between the Pipefitters Union, the Carpenters Union, the Electricians Union, and many more then throw in the corrupt city officials and bureaucrats with their palms open and forget about it.
I hate to say it because I know a lot of you guys are lawyers but man have lawyers screwed up this society. Everybody’s suing everybody any more. Every law passed by the legislature is challenged, every citizen a target. And the really sad thing is that it seems the courts themselves have lost all common sense. The judges don’t even have the brain power to throw some of these stupid suits out. A lot could be cured with Looser Pays.
Hoagie (4dfb34) — 9/10/2014 @ 6:29 amThe description of the Initial letter from the IRS informing Briebart & co of the audit appears to be the standard letter. The paragraph requesting a description of activities is also a standard paragraph. The IRS has a standard format in the letter with a drop down menu to insert various paragraphs which the agent assigned to the case will chose which items to include in the standard letter.
The item that I find unusual is the timing of the audit. A 2012 tax return for a calendar year taxpayer would be due either march or april 2013 (depending on whether corporation or partnership), and would likely have been filed in the summer of 2013 due to likely extension being filed. The Audit cycle for returns usually starts approx 15-18 months after the return has been filed. That means that the earliest 2012 returns would typically start being audited would be the fall of 2014.
So it would appear that the return was selected for examination 3-6 months earlier than the normal audit procedures would have dictated.
A CPA (debac0) — 9/10/2014 @ 6:37 amUnfortunately we are no longer a nation of citizens who are equal under the laws of Man. It is becoming obvious that large numbers of the population are finally starting to realize this and are ignoring or abrogating the rules which govern us as a society. The worst offenders are the rule-makers we hire and the enforcers of those rules.
Well, as the old Chinese curse would have it, we are all living in interesting times.
PPs43 (6fdef4) — 9/10/2014 @ 6:56 amA CPA,
To me that’s nearly proof of malfeasance. I work in government (in, I said, not for!) and those who get work done on time are uncommon to rare. Those who get things done ahead of schedule are extremely rare. Either something was moving the schedule forward in some management-directed fashion, or it was one of those extremely few who haven’t yet been worn down by the drag of the rest of the machinery.
Do you believe in coincidence?
Dan (00fc90) — 9/10/2014 @ 6:57 amAnd that’s my whole point, PPs43 and Dan. Two set of rules have somehow evolved and become common. One for the elites: law makers, academics, media etc. and one set for the rest of us. Plus there’s a subset of rules: those that apply to straight, white, Christian males and those that apply to everyone else. We have whole groups who are somehow excluded from being expected to behave in a civil and responsible manner. If you’re black, Hispanic, illegal, a Moslem, handicapped, a woman, a gay person or even just a “poor 99%er” you’re exempt from social norms and expectations. I may as well throw in leftists since they seem to get away calling people all kinds of outrageous things which would not be tolerated, perhaps prosecuted, if I said them.
Hoagie (4dfb34) — 9/10/2014 @ 7:50 amHaven’t we already experienced a rogue Administration that cynically abused the institutions of government to screw their political enemies? Why, yes we have, and the unindicted co-conspirator orchestrating the blatantly illegal activities of his shadowy henchmen from the apparent safety of the Oval Office was eventually forced to resign the presidency in disgrace.
More than a little ironic too, that words missing from the audio record (the 70s equivalent of missing emails from a crashed hard-drive) finally pulled the mask from a smirking and arrogant president’s face and revealed the ugly profane crook hiding there in plain sight all along.
Now, with the lessons of history fresh before us, let’s ask 2 key questions:
1. Knowing the history of Nixon’s fall, did Barack Obama really think he could get away with using the IRS to screw the TEA Party?
2. Where was President Barack Obama on the night Islamic terrorists attacked the US Diplomatic Compound and the CIA Annex in Behghazi – where was the Commander-in-Chief on that terrible night while American lives hung in the balance?
ropelight (192dd7) — 9/10/2014 @ 8:52 amKnowing the history of Nixon’s fall, did Barack Obama really think he could get away with using the IRS to screw the TEA Party?
he has gotten away with about everything else, he will keep getting away with stuff until he is stopped.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 9/10/2014 @ 9:35 amWhat it would take to stop Barack Obama is the same thing that stopped Nixon: pull the mask from his smirking, arrogant face and reveal the ugly profane crook hiding there in plain sight all along.
ropelight (192dd7) — 9/10/2014 @ 3:02 pmIf the effin MFM wasn’t deep-throating Teh One, this would be a lead story on every national news program and newspaper. The DOJ who was supposed to have investigated this, without actually interviewing the victims, is working in overt conspiracy with the Dems on the committee to actively subvert the truth. The do so with impunity.
JD (61a2fb) — 9/10/2014 @ 3:31 pmOn second thought, a new Wall Street Journal poll found that 37% of registered voters said they didn’t know who Eric Holder is.
ropelight (192dd7) — 9/10/2014 @ 3:31 pmAs JD would say – what if Buuush did this…
EPWJ (fa0e23) — 9/10/2014 @ 3:36 pmI’ve dubbed him Steadman, because that’s what who looks like.
narciso (ee1f88) — 9/10/2014 @ 3:51 pmI’ll brt more of the WSJ’s registered voters know who Steadman is than know who Holder is.
ropelight (192dd7) — 9/10/2014 @ 3:57 pmNot a smidgen of corruption, I tell you. Not a smidgen.
Funeral Guy (afbf7b) — 9/10/2014 @ 11:15 pmYou’re an actual attorney with the power to wrack people who break the law in the here and now.
So why aren’t you? If scumbag mayors can mayor gays and people like you can indict the pale, why are you sitting on your fanny?
Indict them. Use the law for us for once.
Curtis (bd5f4e) — 9/10/2014 @ 11:47 pmWhy not? The left always thinks that the can make failed policies of the past work. Just look at communism. Obama is mostly ignorant of history.
Also, though Nixon tried to use the IRS against his enemies, he was unsuccessful. Even then the IRS was populated with democrats.
Tanny O'Haley (f5a155) — 9/11/2014 @ 12:23 am