excerpt:
"ProPublica on Monday reported that the same IRS division that
targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny during the 2012
election cycle provided the investigative-reporting organization with confidential applications for tax-exempt status.
That revelation contradicts previous statements from the agency and
may represent a violation of federal guidelines. Lois G. Lerner, who
heads the IRS sector that reviews tax-exemption applications, told a
congressional oversight committee in April 2012 that IRS code prohibited
the agency from providing information about groups that had not yet
been approved.
Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee, and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) had asked Lerner in
March 2012 to provide a list of all organizations that the IRS had
subjected to special scrutiny.
Lerner replied that she could not legally reveal information about
groups that were not approved and that identifying targeted applicants
that were already approved would require additional work, specifically a
“manual review of each file.” She did not identify any of the
organizations.
Below is an excerpt of Lerner’s response:
“Section 6104(a) of the Code permits public disclosure of
an application for recognition of tax exempt status and supporting
materials only after the organization has been recognized as exempt.
Consequently, we cannot provide a list of organizations that have
received [additional scrutiny] from the IRS, until those applications
have been approved.”
ProPublica reported that the Lerner’s division released “nine pending
confidential applications of conservatives groups” in response to a
request from the investigative-reporting organization for the
applications of 67 nonprofits in November 2012. "
Soros's Open Society Funded Propublica
excerpt:
"It was an unusual way to deliver bad news, even in a town known for
its selective leaks, Friday-night news dumps and wag-the-dog
distractions.
The Internal Revenue Service, apparently determined
to get out ahead of an inspector general report critical of its handling
of tax exemptions for Tea Party groups, came up with a plan: Lois
Lerner, the official responsible for the tax-exempt division, would
publicly apologize in response to a question at the American Bar
Association conference in Washington.
Details of the now-infamous
planted question emerged Friday after acting IRS commissioner Steven
Miller admitted the gambit under questioning from members of the House
Ways and Means Committee.
STORY: IRS chief denies politics drove Tea Party screening
It
was the day after Lerner had testified to Congress last week, failing
once again to disclose the extent of the Tea Party targeting even under
direct questioning. The damning inspector general report would come out
any day, and Lerner and Miller wanted to figure out a way to disclose
the news publicly.
Miller testified about the thought process
behind the release strategy Friday. "Now that the (inspector general)
report was finalized, now that we knew all the facts, now that we had
responded in writing and everything was done, did it make sense for us
to start talking about this in public," he said.
The plan, he said, was to simultaneously notify Congress, but that never happened."
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/06/18/194248/irs-cases-were-referred-to-group.html#storylink=cpy
By David Lightman and Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Washington Bureau - Tuesday, June 18, 2013
WASHINGTON — 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.
The lengthy interview with John Shafer, a senior manager
in the screening department of the IRS division in charge of tax-exempt
designations, was shared with reporters by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.
Staffs
from several congressional committees have been interviewing employees
in the Cincinnati-based IRS office that handles applications for exempt
organization status.
Cummings’ aim was to refute assertions by the chairman of the
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa,
R-Calif., that the special scrutiny was part of a Washington-based
conspiracy. Cummings, the top Democrat on the committee, said the
transcript of five hours of interviews on June 9 “debunks conspiracy
theories about how the IRS first started reviewing these cases.”
Issa said he was “deeply disappointed” in Cummings. He said Cummings
“has wrongly argued that questions about IRS conduct are somehow not
legitimate. His own previous release of excerpts from this very same
transcript undermines his claims that the committee is somehow trying to
keep some specific revelation from public view.”
The IRS
transcript helped fill in blanks about information that was generally
known but not well understood. For example, Shafer confirmed that his
boss, Holly Paz, was present when a Treasury Department auditor queried
him about treatment of tea party applications. “I wasn’t sure why she
was there,” he said. Shafer said her presence did not change his
answers.
Shafer described himself as a conservative Republican and
explained how applications that met criteria that the IRS has since
called inappropriate were selectively screened. The criteria included
buzzwords such as constitution, Bill of Rights and other tea party
themes referring to the Founding Fathers. These words caused
applications to be pulled aside and sent to what’s called Group 7822. He
did not say how the criteria were developed or by whom.
He said
the tea party cases were called “emerging issues” by agency officials,
apparently because they had received media attention.
“Each case
is again reviewed and the determination is made on the facts and
circumstances within that case,” he said. Asked what caused an emerging
issue, “I 100 percent do not know, OK?” he answered. “What I would do is
go into the electronic system and I would transfer these cases to Group
7822.”
Other Blogs on the IRS Scandal
Democrats Justify Using IRS to Target Political Opponents
Targeting Conservatives: An IRS Political Timeline
"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.
