As usual, the headline in the left-leaning media and the article that follows never tells the full story. The Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker has been a target of the left for years now and the recall election that failed has made the left even more bitter. First an excerpt from TheHill.com
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) did not violate campaign finance laws during recall elections against him, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided in an opinion released Thursday.
Wisconsin’s highest court ruled on Thursday that Walker did not illegally collaborate with conservative groups during 2011 and 2012 recall campaigns.
The ruling ends a significant legal challenge against Walker just three days after his entrance into the GOP’s 2016 presidential field. It halts any continuing investigation or legal discovery that could tarnish the Wisconsin governor’s image heading into next year.
The justices involved with the case split 4-2.
Justice Michael Gableman wrote in the court’s majority decision that the campaign finance law at issue in the case is “unconstitutionally overbroad and vague.”
“To be clear, this conclusion ends the John Doe investigation because the special prosecutor’s legal theory is unsupported in either reason or law,” he said. “Consequently, the investigation is closed.”
A twitter reaction sums it up well:
Read this absolutely brutal smackdown by WI Sup. Ct, at end of opinion striking down John Doe/Walker investigation. pic.twitter.com/HZXHh4vsxF
Last year’s predawn raids against Wisconsin conservatives and subsequent legal harassment from prosecutors suggest a police state.
In the predawn hours of October 3, 2013, armed deputies raided the homes of R.J. Johnson, Deborah Jordahl, and several others in a paramilitary style blitz across Wisconsin. The detainees weren’t terrorists bent on mass murder or the overthrow of the government. The agents weren’t looking for contraband narcotics or illegal firearms. In fact, no one was quite sure what they wanted, but agents got it all; computers, phones, business records, files, and communications dating back years. Deputies told the raided subjects to keep quiet or there would be consequences, as a pedophile might tell his prey.
The targets represent only a fraction of political activists sucked into Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm’s “John Doe”—a grand-jury-type mechanism Wisconsin prosecutors prefer for its secrecy. Chisholm accuses them of “illegal talking” by coordinating messaging, which is supposedly forbidden under Wisconsin’s prolix campaign finance code. The investigation, which Chisholm has expanded 18 times, has engulfed advocates, large and small, for years on end. His favorite tactic is bulk intimidation. Alongside raids and gag orders, he employs kitchen-sink subpoenas, many of which are eventually quashed at great legal expense. When he fails to get sufficient obeisance, he serves arrest warrants and sends people to jail on nonexistent charges. One judge reviewing a John Doe prosecutor’s actions stated, “The conduct described is nothing that we as Wisconsinites should be proud of, bottom line . . . . Mr. Landgraf was behaving badly, probably for political reasons.”
More:
Chisholm’s John Doe represents the worst kind of legal thuggery, rife with personal enmity, conflicts of interests, and professional skullduggery. Unfortunately victims are left with little practical recourse. The laws, judicial doctrines, and disciplinary structures that shield Chisholm and his cohorts should be reformed to prevent this type of abuse from ever happening again.
Only Conservatives Faced Chisholm’s Intimidation
Chisholm’s jihad against Walker’s allies has been clouded from the start. His personal antipathy for Walker is publicly known. His wife is a union steward reportedly brought by to tears by Walker’s union-busting Act 10. Both Chisholm and his wife have apparently attended anti-Act 10 union rallies. And according to whistleblower Michael Lutz, Chisholm considered it his “personal duty” to stop Walker
The 'progressive' Democrats are used to abusing their power and never being held accountable. Whether is is the GAB, IRS or any of the alphabet agencies of BIG government the 'progressives' think their ends always justify their means.
Judicial Watch puts some more pieces of the IRS scandal into place. The Obama administration's extensive effort to target his political opponents starting before the 2010 elections using the alphabet agencies of government is obvious.
Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released new Department of Justice (DOJ) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) documents that include an official “DOJ Recap” report detailing an October 2010 meeting between Lois Lerner, DOJ officials and the FBI to plan for the possible criminal prosecution of targeted nonprofit organizations for alleged illegal political activity.
The newly obtained records also reveal that the Obama DOJ wanted IRS employees who were going to testify to Congress to turn over documents to the DOJ before giving them to Congress. Records also detail how the Obama IRS gave the FBI 21 computer disks, containing 1.25 million pages of confidential IRS returns from 113,000 nonprofit social 501(c)(4) welfare groups – or nearly every 501(c)(4) in the United States – as part of its prosecution effort. According to a letter from then-House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, “This revelation likely means that the IRS – including possibly Lois Lerner – violated federal tax law by transmitting this information to the Justice Department.”
Judicial Watch continues.
The new IRSdocuments include a October 11, 2010 “DOJ Recap” memo sent by IRS Exempt Organizations Tax Law Specialist Siri Buller to Lerner and other top IRS officials explaining an October 8 meeting with representatives from the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and “one representative from the FBI” to discuss the possible criminal prosecution of nonprofit organizations for alleged political activity:
On October 8, 2010, Lois Lerner, Joe Urban [IRS Technical Advisor, TEGE], Judy Kindell [top aide to Lerner], Justin Lowe [Technical Advisor to the Commissioner of Tax-Exempt and Government Entities], and Siri Buller met with the section chief and other attorneys from the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, and one representative from the FBI, to discuss recent attention to the political activity of exempt organizations.
The section’s attorneys expressed concern that certain section 501(c) organizations are actually political committees “posing” as if they are not subject to FEC law, and therefore may be subject to criminal liability. The attorneys mentioned several possible theories to bring criminal charges under FEC law. In response, Lois and Judy eloquently explained the following points:
Under section 7805(b), we may only revoke or modify an organization’s exemption retroactively if it omitted or misstated a material fact or operated in a manner materially different from that originally represented.
If we do not have these misrepresentations, the organization may rely on our determination it is exempt. However, the likelihood of revocation is diminished by the fact that section 501(c)(4)-(c)(6) organizations are not required to apply for recognition of exemption.
We discussed the hypothetical situation of a section 501(c)(4) organization that declares itself exempt as a social welfare organization, but at the end of the taxable year has in fact functioned as a political organization. Judy explained that such an organization, in order to be in compliance, would simply file Form 1120-POL and paying tax at the highest corporate rate.
Lois stated that although we do not believe that organizations which are subject to a civil audit subsequently receive any type of immunity from a criminal investigation, she will refer them to individuals from CI who can better answer that question. She explained that we are legally required to separate the civil and criminal aspects of any examination and that while we do not have EO law experts in CI, our FIU agents are experienced in coordinating with CI.
The attorneys asked whether a change in the law is necessary, and whether a three-way partnership among DOJ, the FEC, and the IRS is possible to prevent prohibited activity by these organizations. Lois listed a number of obstacles to the attorneys’ theories:
[REDACTED]
She pointed to Revenue Ruling 2004-6, which was drafted in light of the electioneering communication rules before they were litigated.
Just prior this meeting, the IRS began the process of providing the FBI confidential taxpayer information on nonprofit groups. An IRS document confirms the IRS supplied the FBI with 21 disks containing 1.25 million pages of taxpayer records:
The coordination of the agencies with the administration and the Democrats in Congress is really no surprise, but does pose a final question.
The DOJ documents also include a July 16, 2013, email from an undisclosed Justice Department official to a lawyer for IRS employees asking that the Obama administration get information from congressional witnesses before Congress does:
One last issue. If any of your clients have documents they are providing to Congress that you can (or would like to) provide to us before their testimony, we would be pleased to receive them. We are 6103 authorized and I can connect you with TIGTA to confirm; we would like the unredacted documents.
“These new documents show that the Obama IRS scandal is also an Obama DOJ and FBI scandal,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The FBI and Justice Department worked with Lois Lerner and the IRS to concoct some reason to put President Obama’s opponents in jail before his reelection. And this abuse resulted in the FBI’s illegally obtaining confidential taxpayer information. How can the Justice Department and FBI investigate the very scandal in which they are implicated?”
*Obama's IRS also illegally leaked confidential tax documents of their political opponents to the liberal press during the 2012 election cycle.
The same IRS office that deliberately targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year.
The IRS did not respond to requests Monday following up about that release, and whether it had determined how the applications were sent to ProPublica.
In response to a request for the applications for 67 different nonprofits last November, the Cincinnati office of the IRS sent ProPublica applications or documentation for 31 groups. Nine of those applications had not yet been approved—meaning they were not supposed to be made public.
ALL 9 of the groups are not only conservative, but one of the illegally leaked applications was for the Karl Rove lead Crossroads GPS, the largest and most hated group among them. Smaller and lesser known conservative groups confidential applications were also illegally leaked as Propublica reuports:
Applications were sent to ProPublica from five other social welfare groups that had told the IRS that they wouldn’t spend money to sway elections. The other groups ended up spending more than $5 million related to the election, mainly to support Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Much of that money was spent by the Arizona groupAmericans for Responsible Leadership. The remaining four groups that told the IRS they wouldn’t engage in political spending were Freedom Path, Rightchange.com II, America Is Not Stupid and A Better America Now.
The IRS also sent ProPublica the applications of three small conservative groups that told the agency that they would spend some money on politics: Citizen Awareness Project, the YG Network and SecureAmericaNow.org. (No unapproved applications from liberal groups were sent to ProPublica.)
That is right, NONE of the unapproved applications for liberal groups were leaked. The public and the press were eager to dismiss the targeting of conservatives by the Obama administration, BIG government and the Democrat party.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Sunday defended his decision to single out a key GOP group in a 2010 letter to the IRS.
Obama's IRS Targets Conservative Groups-Leaks Info
IRS cases were referred to ‘Group 7822’
The Internal Revenue Service diverted applications for tax-exempt status from tea party and like-minded organizations to a special track known as Group 7822 for special scrutiny, according to transcripts of an interview by congressional interrogators with a key IRS official.
A conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, said it obtained an email chain from the Internal Revenue Service in which the department provided confidential tax information to the Federal Election Commission.
The watchdog group obtained the exchange from a freedom of information request made shortly after congressional investigators began prodding the agency on whether it inappropriately shared confidential tax information about a conservative group applying for tax-exempt status.
Lois Lerner Warned IRS Employees to Hide Information from Congress
A newly released email from former IRS employee Lois G. Lerner, sent just as the tea party targeting scandal was erupting, warned colleagues to “be cautious” about what information they put in emails because it could be turned over to Congress.
Targeting Conservatives: An IRS Political Timeline
President Obama spent months in 2010 warning Americans about the 'threat' to democracy posed by conservative groups, right at the time the IRS began targeting these groups.
The House Ways and Means Committee has voted to 23-14 along party lines to refer former head of tax exempt groups at the IRS Lois Lerner to the Justice Department for prosecution. Although the details about exactly what charges will be have not yet been released, lawmakers are arguing Lerner has not been truthful with Congress or the IRS inspector general and leaked confidential tax information.
Last time a referral like this happened, it was to Major League Baseball player Roger Clemens, who was pursued by the Department of Justice for lying to Congress but was exonerated in court.
This is a test for the Department of Justice and the Obama administration. What's more important? Baseball and steroids? Or the most powerful federal agency abusing its power to target innocent conservative groups?
Last summer President Obama called the targeting "outrageous" and promised to hold people responsible and accountable for what happened. If the Justice Department refuses to pursue charges against Lerner, it's fair to say one reason is because they don't want information leading back to the administration coming out in court.
Tomorrow the House Oversight Comittee will vote on whether to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress.
A conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch,
said it obtained an email chain from the Internal Revenue Service in
which the department provided confidential tax information to the
Federal Election Commission.
The
watchdog group obtained the exchange from a freedom of information
request made shortly after congressional investigators began prodding
the agency on whether it inappropriately shared confidential tax
information about a conservative group applying for tax-exempt status.
Leaking Information about conservatives isn't new for Obama's IRS
Lois Lerner, then-IRS director of Exempt Organizations, who was quoted in the emails has since retired.
Judicial
Watch said the IRS sent the FEC annual tax returns, request forms for
tax-exempt status, and articles of organization. The watchdog received
the information from the FEC. It said the IRS had not yet complied with
its request for information.
Sharing taxpayer returns would violate federal law.
The White House Lied and blamed a few 'rogue agents in the Cincinnati office'
The House Ways and Means subcommittee
on Oversight released a portion of the email exchange in July
questioning whether the IRS had shared confidential information.
Congressional investigators had since requested more information. The
exchange between Lerner and the FEC dates back to 2009.
“These extensive emails and other materials provide a disturbing window
into the activities of two out-of-control federal agencies: the IRS and
FEC,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement
accompanying the release. “And there is the very real question as to
whether these documents evidence a crime.”
The IRS's targeting of conservative groups needs to be ignored by the left and the Obama sycophants in the media. Another textbook case of cognitive dissonance by the leftists. Keep repeating phony scandal, or they were all targeted just the same.
A version of this article appeared September 11, 2013, on page A18 in
the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Lois
Lerner's Own Words. Excerpted:
Congress's investigation into the IRS targeting of conservatives has
been continuing out of the Syria headlines, and it's turning up news.
Emails unearthed by the House Ways and Means Committee between former
Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner and her staff raise doubts
about IRS claims that the targeting wasn't politically motivated and
that low-level employees in Cincinnati masterminded the operation.
In a February 2011 email, Ms. Lerner advised her staff—including then
Exempt Organizations Technical Manager Michael Seto and then Rulings
and Agreements director Holly Paz—that a Tea Party matter is "very
dangerous," and is something "Counsel and [Lerner adviser] Judy Kindell
need to be in on." Ms. Lerner adds, "Cincy should probably NOT have
these cases."
That's a different tune than the IRS
sang in May when former IRS Commissioner Steven Miller said the agency's
overzealous enforcement was the work of two "rogue" employees in
Cincinnati. When the story broke, Ms. Lerner suggested that her office
had been unaware of the pattern of targeting until she read about it in
the newspaper. "So it was pretty much we started seeing information in
the press that raised questions for us, and we went back and took a
look," she said in May.
Earlier this summer, IRS lawyer Carter Hull, who oversaw the review of
many Tea Party cases and questionnaires, testified that his oversight
began in April 2010. Tea party cases under review are "being supervised
by Chip Hull at each step," Ms. Paz wrote to Ms. Lerner in a February
2011 email. "He reviews info from TPs, correspondence to TPs etc. No
decisions are going out of Cincy until we go all the way through the
process with the c3 and c4 cases here." TP stands for Tea Party, and she
means 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.
The emails also put the targeting in the context of the media and
Congressional drumbeat over the impact of conservative campaign spending
on the 2012 elections. On July 10, 2012 then Lerner-adviser Sharon
Light emailed Ms. Lerner a National Public Radio story on how outside
money was making it hard for Democrats to hold their Senate majority.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had complained to the
Federal Election Commission that conservative groups like Crossroads GPS
and Americans for Prosperity should be treated as political committees,
rather than 501(c)(4)s, which are tax-exempt social welfare groups that
do not have to disclose their donors.
The I.R.S. scandal hits the press and the left needs to provide cover for Barack Obama. Lois Lerner headed the division of the I.R.S. that targeted conservative groups. Lerner's previous testimony and the Obama Administration's story doesn't appear to be completely honest. Denials and distractions are in order. What talking points will the Left use?
Surprising headlines from foxnewsradio.com ? Not so surprising to find out it is empty-suit
leftist Alan Colmes's posting. It starts....
"Sarah Jones at PolticusUSA
makes the case that Republican blocking of Obama appointees keeps Bush
appointees in place and that is what can be wrecking havoc."
Alan Colme's first sentence sends us out into the LEFTIST Blogosphere to PoliticusUSA- Real Liberal Politics. The Obama propaganda machine relies heavily on Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS) to push most of their 'message' Five years into Obama's presidency, the dear leader's agenda and 'legacy' is to be protected at ANY cost. The leftist spin machine churns out the progressive pablum for consumption by the collective. Intellectual dishonesty is a hallmark of the 'new left'. Only reality can inoculate an individual from BDS, thus explaining the pandemic in the left wing.
The POTUS does not appoint lower level employees to jobs. Lois Lerner WAS NOT APPOINTED by Bush to her Job.
Lois G. Lerner Selected as Director of IRS Exempt Organizations Division
IR-2005-148, Dec. 22, 2005 WASHINGTON — Lois G. Lerner has been selected as the director of the
Exempt Organizations Division of the Internal Revenue Service. In this
position, she will be responsible for administering and enforcing the
tax laws that apply to more than 1.8 million organizations recognized by
the IRS as exempt from tax.
“Protecting the integrity of tax-exempt organizations is an important
part of our enforcement program,” said IRS Commissioner Mark W.
Everson. “Lois’s background, including her work for the Federal Election
Commission, qualifies her for this new assignment.”
Before this appointment, Lerner had been the director of the Exempt
Organizations Rulings & Agreements Division, where she was
responsible for the EO determinations letter program, public guidance
and technical assistance for IRS agents conducting examinations of
tax-exempt organizations. Lerner came to the IRS in 2001 from the
Federal Election Commission, where she was Associate General Counsel for
Enforcement and Acting General Counsel. She replaces Martha Sullivan,
who will retire from the IRS at the end of December.
“Lois is an integral part of the EO team and has successfully
increased the IRS presence in the exempt community,” said Steven T.
Miller, Commissioner of the IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities
Division, of which EO is a part. “Her integrity, skills and judgment are
exceptional and will allow us to continue to provide improved service
and enhanced enforcement of the tax laws.” Lois G. Lerner Selected as Director of IRS Exempt Organizations Division
The site called 'Daily Progress' phrases it like this:
By RACHAEL BADE | 5/22/13 3:15 PM EDT @Politico
Excerpted:
"House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa
said embattled IRS official Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment
rights and will be hauled back to appear before his panel again.
The
California Republican said Lerner’s Fifth Amendment right to avoid
self-incrimination was voided when she gave an opening statement this
morning denying any wrongdoing and professing pride in her government
service.
“When I asked her her questions from the very beginning, I did so so she
could assert her rights prior to any statement,” Issa told POLITICO.
“She chose not to do so — so she waived.”
Lerner triggered the IRS scandal on May 10 when she acknowledged that
the agency wrongly targeted conservative groups applying for a tax
exemption. Her lawyer told the House committee earlier this week that
she would exercise her Fifth Amendment.
She appeared before Issa’s committee this morning under the order of a
subpoena and surprised many by reading a strong statement to the panel.
“I have not done anything wrong,” she said. “I have not broken any
laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not
provided false information to this or any other committee.”
