Documents released last week by a government watchdog group confirm that former President Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) improperly targeted conservatives in order to help him win the 2012 presidential election.
Evidence revealed by Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton is pouring in to expose underhanded techniques used by the Obama administration to stay in office by keeping his political opponents down.
“We continue to undercover the details of the Obama IRS’s arbitrary and capricious behavior toward those presumed to be ‘enemies’ of President Obama,” Fitton divulged in a piece published by Breitbart.
Evidence stacking up …
Improperly using political influence to financially harm Obama’s opposition – for political gain – the IRS admitted its unethical maneuverings … with the confessions being surfaced via hundreds of recently publicized pages.
“Last week, we released 695 pages of new documents containing admissions by IRS officials that the agency used ‘inappropriate political labels’ to screen the tax-exempt applications of conservative organizations,” Fitton announced. “Other records reveal that the IRS was going to require 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations to restrict their alleged political activities if they opted for ‘expedited consideration’ of their tax-exempt applications.”
His group was able to get its hands on the previously confidential information through a strategic lawsuit that utilized a revealing piece of legislation.
“The documents were produced after a revelation by the IRS that it had located ‘an additional 6,924 documents of potentially responsive records’ relating to a 2015 Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit about the Obama IRS targeting scandal,” Fitton continued. “These new records are the first batch of nearly 7,000 documents that had been hidden from JW, Congress, and the American people. (Our FOIA lawsuit seeks records about the IRS’ selection of individuals and organizations for audits based upon applications requesting nonprofit tax status filed by Tea Party and other 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations Judicial Watch v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:15-cv-00220).”
Even though the IRS did its best to conceal its covert scheme, legal experts at Judicial Watch were able to glean enough information to expose the crooked dealings of the government agency.
“Of the 695 pages of documents released by the IRS, 422 (61 percent) were completely blacked out,” Fitton divulged. “Again, this new material was not in the ‘Congressional Database,’ which the IRS created in 2013 to house records responsive to congressional inquiries into the IRS scandal. Nevertheless, we extracted some key info – such as a June 20, 2013, memo from Karen Schiller, then-acting director, EO (Exempt Organizations) Rulings and Agreements, suspending use of the controversial ‘Be on the Lookout’ (BOLO) and ‘Touch and Go’ (TAG) lists.”
Schiller revealed exactly what was going on behind closed doors to identify who would be targeted for financial hardship by the IRS.
“EO Rulings and Agreements is undertaking a comprehensive review of screening and identification of critical issues,” she declared. “We intend to develop proper procedures and uses for these types of documents. Until a more formal process for identification, approval and distribution of this type of data is established, Rulings and Agreements will not use this technique to elevate issues.”
Barking up the wrong tree
Pointing to the ongoing Obama IRS scandal, the conservative political group Young Conservatives brings light to the irony of a recent movement striving to label President Donald Trump as embodying big government.
“Earlier this month, over 200 movie theaters screened 1984 as a protest against President Trump,” Young Conservatives noted. ”Ironically, as these presumably liberal theater owners were doing this, information was being released that revealed that President Obama was using the IRS to hurt conservative groups in a way that could properly be considered Orwellian.”
Even though all the evidence is stacked against Obama and his IRS officials, doubts have been voiced as to whether the scandal will elicit compunction from the conspirators – who unlawfully influenced the 2012 election.
“It is unlikely, however, that these revelations will cause anyone involved to regret their role in IRS-gate,” Young Conservatives stated. “The IRS targeting of conservative groups and Tea Party was an enormously effective means for the Obama campaign to hamper those groups and may very well have won the election for them.”
No more hiding
Fitton is amazed that Obama and his IRS officials have been able to evade scrutiny this long by the public, media and courts.
“The corruption at the IRS is astounding,” Fitton declared last month in a Judicial Watch press release. “Our attorneys knew that there were more records to be searched, but the Obama IRS ignored this issue for years.”
The conservative watchdog is urging the new administration to weed out the corruption at the IRS before it does further to American taxpayers.
“President Trump needs to clean house at the IRS as quickly as possible,” Fitton insisted.
In the release, he also highlighted discoveries from years past further implicating the Obama administration.
“In July 2015, Judicial Watch released Obama IRS documents confirming that the agency used donor lists of tax-exempt organizations to target those donors for audits,” he disclosed. “The documents also show IRS officials specifically highlighted how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce may come under ‘high scrutiny’ from the IRS. In September 2014, another Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit forced the release of documents detailing that the IRS sought, obtained and maintained the names of donors to Tea Party and other conservative groups. IRS officials acknowledged in these documents that ‘such information was not needed.’ The documents also show that the donor names were being used for a ‘secret research project.’”
Unlawful presidency
The covert operations administered under Obama were said to be nothing less than unscrupulous and unlawful.
“In short, the Obama IRS, after lawlessly delaying the approval of Tea Party group applications, tried to extort restrictions – which had no basis in law – on these very same groups,” Fitton revealed via Breitbart. “On September 30, 2013, Acting Director, Exempt Organizations, Kenneth C. Corbin, sent a memo to IRS staff providing detailed guidance on classifying applications when ‘merit approval is not an option,’ emphasizing that the determination is to be based on ‘facts and circumstances,’ not ‘words and labels.”
The head of Jihad Watch went over the process, noting that the classifier examines the application to see whether or not it should be sent to a specialty group.
“This determination is based upon facts and circumstances of the stated activities within Part II of the application rather than names or labels,” Fitton informed.
He then showed how this is exactly what was demonstrated in the August 9, 2013, memorandum prepared by Schiller – a document that used identifier tags to target conservative opposition to Obama.
“The Schiller and Corbin memos came on the heels of the May 14, 2013, Inspector General report revealing that the IRS had singled out groups using conservative-sounding terms such as ‘patriot’ and ‘Tea Party’ when applying for tax-exempt status,” Fitton pointed out. “The IG probe determined that ‘Early in Calendar Year 2010, the IRS began using inappropriate criteria to identify organizations applying for tax-exempt status (e.g., lists of past and future donors)’ and ‘delayed processing of targeted groups applications’ in advance of the 2012 presidential election.”
He said Obama and the IRS have good reason to be worried about this coverup coming to the surface, which reveals how they violated the constitutional rights of the citizens the former president vowed to protect while in office.
“No wonder the Obama IRS hid these records – these new smoking-gun documents contain admissions by the Obama IRS that it inappropriately targeted conservative groups,” Fitton concluded. “But the records also show that the abuse continued – as the Obama IRS tried to force conservative applicants to give up their First Amendment rights in order to finally get their applications granted.”
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Copyright American Family News. Reprinted with permission.
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