For an agency that is so vigilant when is comes to politically-motivated shakedowns and zeroing in on patriotic groups it doesn’t like, it sure is absent minded when it comes to its own business.
From Fox News.
The IRS said Friday that it has lost emails from five other employees involved in congressional probes into the agency’s targeting of conservative groups, leading one top Republican to declare “this pattern must stop.”
The announcement comes after the agency said in June that it could not locate an untold number of emails to and from Lois Lerner, who headed the IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status. The revelation set off a new round of investigations and congressional hearings.
On Friday, the IRS issued a report to Congress saying the agency also lost emails from five other employees related to the probe, including two agents who worked in a Cincinnati office processing applications for tax-exempt status.
Speaking of Cincinnati: IRS employees in Cincinnati were warned not to talk to the press “or risk losing our jobs.” As a matter of fact, a Cincinnati IRS employee testified that it was quite clear the orders came from D.C.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, whose committee has been investigating the scandal, said the disclosure is yet another example of the Obama administration changing its story on the scandal.
“The IRS’s ever-changing story is practically impossible to follow at this point, as they modify it each time to accommodate new facts,” Issa, R-Calif., said. “This pattern must stop.”
Well, what the hell are you going to do about it, besides blow hot air during Congressional hearings? Get a search warrant. Scrutinize the IRS internet servers. They can be retrieved. Emails are stored on the server, not the hard drive, unless you copy them for your own records.
Under Obama’s direction, the IRS didn’t have any trouble defining his preference of sympathetic leftwing groups over Tea Party/GOP organizations. Any request from groups with “patriot”, Tea Party”, or “conservative” in their name was automatically placed at the bottom of the pile or discarded entirely. IRS employees testified to that fact, and much more.
At least some emails avoided the IRS memory hole. According to 2012 emails obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, top Internal Revenue Service Obamacare official Sarah Hall Ingram discussed confidential taxpayer information with senior Obama White House officials.
Lois Lerner, then head of the IRS Tax Exempt Organizations division, also received an email alongside White House officials that contained confidential information. More emails uncover Lerner’s role in the conspiracy, including proof that she gave confidential taxpayer information to the FEC, violating federal law.
J. Christian Adams, the former DOJ attorney who blew the whistle on Holder’s refusal to prosecute the Black Panthers for voter intimidation, was himself targeted by the IRS for critical articles he published in Pajamas Media.
The IRS engaged in the deliberate suppression, harassment, and intimidation of patriotic and conservative groups, and those who focus on the Constitution and criticize government spending.
They did it with Obama’s blessing. They can lie, deny, and spin all they want. No one, except the toadies at MSNBC, are going to swallow it.
Related posts:
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2014/07/10/lerner-warned-irs-employees-to-hide-incriminating-emails/
Related articles:
Confessions of an IRS agent (UncleFed)
IRS Scandal Echoes a Long History of Political Harassment (Time)
Clinton Administration IRS Targeted CWA for Harassment (CWFA.org)