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.

“I was cautioning folks about email and how we have had several occasions where Congress ask asked for emails and there has been an electronic search for responsive emails — so we need to be cautious about what we say in emails,” Ms. Lerner wrote in an April 9, 2013, message.

The message came less than two weeks after the IRS’s internal auditor shared a draft report with the agency accusing it of targeting tea party and conservative groups. A month after the email, Ms. Lerner would plant a question at a conference to reveal the scandal, just before the inspector general’s report was made public.

The email was turned over to the House oversight committee last week, more than a year after lawmakers sought it as part of their investigation into the IRS targeting.

Republicans said the email shows Ms. Lerner was aware Congress was probing the agency and that she was preparing to intentionally hide agency discussions from lawmakers.

Ms. Lerner’s emails have become a major scandal in and of themselves after the IRS revealed that her computer hard drive crashed in 2011, causing the agency to lose thousands of her messages.

The IRS went back and tried to recover some of the messages by asking others on the email chain to dig through their mailboxes, but the agency acknowledged some messages may be permanently lost.

Some Republicans have questioned whether the IRS took enough steps to try to recover the emails from the hard drive in 2011.

Read More at the Washington Times:
 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/9/gop-lerner-warned-irs-employees-hide-information/#ixzz370hQu61s
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Lois Lerner Invokes the 5th Amendment



IRS agents testify before Congress. The orders came from Washington.


 The IRS's evolving Story on targeting conservatives. 


 Part of the targeting involved leaking confidential information about conservative groups  to the press


The Democrat Party used the agencies of the government to silence and intimidate it's political opponents.

Read More:
 Senate Dems Have as Much to Explain as the IRS 
Key Senate Democrats publicly pressured the IRS to target groups that held differing political views.
IRS Office That Targeted Tea Party Also Disclosed Confidential Docs From Conservative Groups

Emails Show Lois Lerner Fed True the Vote Tax Information to Democrat Elijah Cummings

JW Obtains Records: IRS’ Lerner Disclosed Confidential Information about Tax Status of Conservative Groups to FEC
 The videos in my blog also have links to many articles on the IRS scandal

NYC: Shootings Increase After Stop And Frisk Discontinued

A quick story about ending stop and frisk in the bad neighborhoods of New York City and the possible results, shootings have increased...... 

PERVAIZ SHALLWANI
June 25, 2014 9:25 p.m. ET NYPD Studies Frisk-Decline Consequences

Review to Probe Uptick in Violence After Stop-and-Frisk Cutback

The New York Police Department is analyzing years of data to determine if the decline in the number of stop, question and frisks is having an impact on crime in the city, Commissioner William Bratton said Wednesday

The study comes as overall crime continues to decrease, but as the department grapples with an uptick this year in violence, particularly shootings, in certain neighborhoods.
"We have a very comprehensive analysis under way right now," Mr. Bratton said after an unrelated event at police headquarters. "At this juncture, we really don't know. Once that study is completed over the next several weeks, we'll have a better idea of that." 

Mr. Bratton has said in the past that he doesn't believe there is any correlation between the decreasing number of stops and shooting increases, but ordered the study anyway.
A law-enforcement official said the commissioner ordered the study earlier this week during a weekly meeting with NYPD three-star chiefs and top officials to discuss crime numbers. 

The NYPD is laying out its annual plan to deal with summer crime. Precincts that have been plagued by gun violence will be flooded with new recruits who graduate on Monday.
The official, who has direct knowledge of the meeting, said Mr. Bratton was concerned about the recent uptick in shootings and went around the room asking for solutions.
Unsatisfied with the answers, he ordered a study that looks at noticeable trends contributing to the uptick and if there is any correlation to the drop in 250 reports—the form officers fill out after conducting a stop. 

Some criminologists welcomed comprehensive analysis.
With the decreasing number of stops, "one should expect some increase in crime numbers," said Richard Rosenthal, a criminology professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, who published a 2014 study that said it was difficult to determine the relationship between stops and crime. 

"Crime has not shot up" citywide, he added, "so that suggests to me that the relationship between crime and stop-and-frisk may be pretty weak." 

The stops are a controversial tactic that Mayor Bill de Blasio has promised to change.
A federal court judge found that the NYPD was unconstitutionally using tactic to target minorities, particularly African-American and Hispanic men. The court installed a monitor to oversee changes and the decision is pending approval. 

The tactic's use peaked at more than 686,000 stops citywide in 2011 under former Commissioner Raymond Kelly, before it began significantly decreasing in the years after.
According to most recently available quarterly reports, police officers conducted 14,261 stops from Jan. 1 to March 31 of this year, compared with 99,788 for the same period in 2013, according to the NYPD. 

"Twenty years of crime data make it clear that stop-and-frisk is not the key to making our city safer," said Christopher Dunn, the New York Civil Liberties Union associate legal director. 

According crime numbers compiled through Sunday, the NYPD has received 48,754 reports for major crimes across the city—a 2.5% decrease from the same period last year. The number of shooting incidents has increased 11%.
A particular cause for concern is the increase in shootings in recent weeks, police officials said. 

In the past 28 days through Sunday, shooting incidents increased to 114 from 98, a 16% increase from the same period last year.

 Learn more about part of the problem, teen 'crews
and the video from the story follows