Sunday, October 2, 2016

IRS Scandal Gets Worse

Democratic Senator Sought DOJ and IRS Prosecutions of Conservatives

It wasn’t just Obama’s Internal Revenue Service that sought to suppress conservative voices in order to help him retain the presidency in 2012.

We learned further of a dangerous enterprise involving a key Democratic Senator and the Obama Justice Department from 72 pages of Justice documents we released this week. They reveal email conversations between Department of Justice officials and the staff of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) regarding the criminal prosecution of Tea Party and other conservative groups for fanciful violation of IRS rules.

The conversations were in preparation for a briefing by Justice Department officials for Sen. Whitehouse’s staff and for a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism hearing on April 9, 2013. One internal agency email exchange indicates Sen. Whitehouse’s interest in seeking criminal prosecution of groups targeted by the IRS:

From: Erb, William (OLA)

Sent: Monday, April 08,  2013 4:54 PM

To: Raman, Mythill (CRM) [REDACTED] (CRM);Wroblewski, Jonathan (CRM); Hulser, Raymond (CRM); Smith, Jack (CRM);   Burton, Faith  (OLA);  Levine, Doug  (OLA);  Suleiman,  Daniel (CRM); Lenerz,  Daniel J. (CRM); Shatz, Eileen M. (TAX); OBrien, Paul (CRM); [REDACTED] (CRM); [REDACTED] (CRM); Cimino, Ronald A. (TAX)

Cc:  Buretta, John (CRM): Agrast, Mark D. (OLA); [REDACTED] (CRM)

Subject: RE: New Whitehouse question regarding Campaign Finance Investigation and Prosecution

Importance: High

All: New question from Sen. Whitehouse. Sen. Whitehouse is likely to ask AAAG Raman whether the Department of Justice is too deferential to IRS in deciding to prosecute 501(c) organizations that make fraudulent statements regarding their political activities in their IRS filings. Sen. Whitehouse is curious why, for example, if a 501(c) tax organization files were leaked, and they clearly showed that make false statements, why the Department of Justice wouldn’t prosecute the case by itself and not wait for the IRS. Looping in the Tax Division who also can help CRIM come up with a quick  response.  Thanks, Bill.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/weekly-updates/irs-scandal-gets-worse/

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