Author Topic: House Panel: IRS' Lerner Targeted Rove Group, Should be Prosecuted  (Read 1262 times)

Dos Equis

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"Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department will decide whether to prosecute Lerner. The Justice Department had no comment Wednesday."

lol

House Panel: IRS' Lerner Targeted Rove Group, Should be Prosecuted
Wednesday, 09 Apr 2014

Former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner engaged in an "aggressive and improper pursuit" of Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, a nonprofit political group advised by Republican Karl Rove, according to the House Ways and Means Committee.

Lerner's intervention should be investigated by the Justice Department as a crime because she treated Republican-leaning groups unfairly, the committee said in a letter published after a two-hour closed session today. Some of the information in the letter had been kept secret until now under taxpayer-privacy laws.

"This is so important that the public has a right to know," Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican, told reporters after the party-line vote to send the letter. "What do we have as Americans if we don’t have our constitutional rights?"

Lerner, who retired last year, has denied wrongdoing and said she committed no crimes. Democrats dismissed the letter as political theater and said Camp could have taken his concerns directly to prosecutors without the rare step of going public.

But House speaker John Boehner supported the measure, saying "abuses and criminal acts that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

"If Lois Lerner continues to refuse to testify, then the House will hold her in contempt," he said in a statement. "And we will continue to shine the light on the administration's abusive actions and use every tool at our disposal to expose the truth and ensure the American people get the answers they deserve."

Under section 501(c)(4) of the U.S. tax code, groups such as Crossroads must be operated exclusively for social welfare. IRS rules say they can’t make politics their primary purpose.

Crossroads GPS, which doesn't have to disclose its donors, pumped more secret money into the 2012 election than any other group, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based group that tracks political spending.

The nonprofit group spent about $71 million of the $180 million it raised on TV ads and other activities it was required to report to the Federal Election Commission.

It also distributed about $35 million in grants that year, according to its tax forms. The largest grant recipient was Americans for Tax Reform, whose president is Grover Norquist, the tax documents show.

Crossroads applied for nonprofit status in September 2010, telling the IRS that its involvement in politics would be "limited." Approval or denial of that application would be public. As is allowed under the law, the group operated under 501(c)(4) while its application is pending.

The Ways and Means letter uses Lerner's e-mails to argue that she circumvented the agency’s procedures to deny Crossroads tax-exempt status, select them for an audit and interfere in the agency’s appeals process.

According to the documents released today, the IRS was working on a letter denying Crossroads tax-exempt status when the scrutiny of tea party groups became public in May 2013.

"The evidence shows that without Lerner's intervention, neither adverse action would have been taken against Crossroads," the letter said. "The committee has found no record of Lerner pursuing similarly situated left-leaning groups, despite receiving similar public complaints."

Crossroads GPS President Steven Law said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday that the committee "confirms that there was an organized high-level effort within the IRS to subvert the agency's own standards and procedures in order to harass law-abiding conservative advocacy groups like Crossroads GPS."

Lerner vaulted from obscurity as the IRS's director of exempt organizations in May 2013 when she disclosed that the tax agency had given extra scrutiny to some tea party groups seeking tax-exempt status solely because of their names. The ensuing controversy forced leadership changes at the Internal Revenue Service, triggered congressional investigations and made Lerner the target of House Republicans' ire.

Until today, the investigations have focused on the IRS's treatment of smaller tea party groups. The agency's inquiry into Crossroads had been kept secret under confidentiality laws.

Lerner's attorney, William Taylor of Zuckerman Spaeder in Washington, said in a statement today that "the timing of today’s vote is odd. We have not heard from the House Ways and Means‎ Committee. Nor has the committee previously issued a report of its findings."

Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department will decide whether to prosecute Lerner. The Justice Department had no comment Wednesday.

Pressed during a hearing Tuesday by Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Holder wouldn’t provide details about the status of the Justice Department’s IRS inquiry.

"I am not going to talk about an ongoing investigation," he said. "You don't understand the nature of what it is that we’re doing. You can't, because you’re not a part of the investigation."

Rep. Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means panel, said Republicans were taking an unnecessary action for political gain.

"It now seems clear that Republican members of the Ways and Means Committee have decided that they do not want to be left behind in the Republican campaign to declare this a scandal and keep it going until November," Levin of Michigan was prepared to say in the meeting, according to remarks distributed to reporters. "Making this committee an arm of any campaign committee does a deep disservice to the proud traditions and legacy of this committee."

The Justice Department has already been investigating the IRS controversy. No charges have been filed.

The laws Lerner may have violated include one that prohibits false statements, another that prohibits the use of official positions to deprive people of their rights and a U.S. tax code section that limits disclosure of taxpayer information.

The letter said Lerner misled investigators about when she became aware of the scrutiny of tea party groups. It also cited her use of a private e-mail address to which she sent some taxpayer information. If someone other than her accessed this information, that may be a crime, the letter said.

Separately, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is scheduled to vote Thursday on whether Lerner should be held in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer lawmakers’ questions.

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California, who released a March 11 report criticizing Lerner's actions and has held repeated hearings on the IRS controversy, is chairman of the oversight committee.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/House-IRS-LoisLerner-criminalcase/2014/04/09/id/564602#ixzz2yQxiMGmX



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Re: House Panel: IRS' Lerner Targeted Rove Group, Should be Prosecuted
« Reply #3 on: April 10, 2014, 10:35:49 AM »
House Republicans vote to hold former IRS official in contempt
Posted by
CNN Capitol Hill reporter Lisa Desjardins

Washington (CNN) – The Republican-led House Oversight Committee voted 21-12 Thursday to charge former IRS official Lois Lerner with contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about the agency's targeting of conservative and other groups. The vote sets up a full debate on the House floor, followed by possible court battle over the Fifth Amendment and a potential standoff with the Justice Department.

"This is not something that I take lightly,” said Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa of California. “We cannot tell the American people we have done all we can do to get to the truth in this investigation if we give a pass to a critical witness like Ms. Lerner.”

Issa has spent nearly a year investigating why the agency used conservative political terms like "Tea Party" and “patriot” to flag some applications for tax-exempt status.

“What is this about?” asked Rep. John Mica, Republican of Florida, “This is about one of the most fundamental abuses I have seen in my lifetime. About trying to skew an election.”

Republicans believe that Lerner personally tried to block conservative groups, including Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS, from getting tax-exempt status when she ran the IRS division in charge of making tax-exempt decisions. The Republican investigation has sought to determine if White House officials were involved as well.

Democrats point out that liberal groups were also flagged by the IRS, with the the term "progressive" appearing on a watch list.

Lerner’s attorney responded quickly to the vote, calling it a political maneuver.

“The vote is the latest event in the majority’s ‎never-ending effort to keep the IRS story alive through this fall’s mid-term elections,” said William Taylor in a written statement.

At the meeting, some of the most fiery debate was not about the investigation, but instead about Lerner’s own Constitutional rights.

But some of the most fiery debate at the meeting was not about the investigation, but instead about Lerner’s own Constitutional rights.

“Ms. Lerner has invoked her Consitutional right to remain silent under the Fifth Amendment and that’s it,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York, “The end.”

The contempt charge hinges on Lerner’s refusal to testify before the committee, but Lerner did so while invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Democrats pounded away at that Thursday, comparing the Republican contempt motion to McCarthy-era intimidation tactics and insisting it has no legal standing.

“This contempt (charge)...this will be laughed out of court,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch, Democrat of Massachusetts.

Lerner’s attorney agreed and was blunt in his written statement.

“Ms. Lerner did not waive her Fifth Amendment rights by proclaiming her innocence,” he wrote. “There is ‎not a court in this country that will hold Ms. Lerner in contempt of Congress."

Republicans fired back, saying Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment right by giving the committee a brief statement asserting her innocence.

“Lois Lerner did not remain silent,” said Rep. Cynthia Lummis, Republican of Wyoming.

The party-line vote Thursday pushed the debate to the full House floor where Republicans could hold a contempt vote as soon as the last week of April.

If the full House passes a contempt resolution, the charge would next go to the U.S. attorney for Washington D.C., who would decide whether or not to convene a grand jury on the matter. Issa said a federal judge could rule on whether Lerner’s Fifth Amendment right protects her in this case or not.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/04/10/house-republicans-vote-to-hold-former-irs-official-in-contempt/