Familiar Pattern at the IRS

Tea Party Rally

by John C. Velisek, Contributing Author:  One of the hallmarks of the American identity is the belief that the American people can trust our government to be fair and honest. To undermine this legitimacy would be the death knell of this republic. The weaponization of any portion of our government for an ideology and the use of taxpayer money of meet an agenda is unacceptable to the people of this country.

Under the Obama administration, the weight of the various agencies were brought to bear on an unsuspecting populous via progressive socialists within the government and with the full imprimatur of the Obama administration. From Fast and Furious to the IRS and even up to today, we are still cleaning up after the damage of the Obama administration left behind.

My intent today is to focus on the IRS and on what the Obama administration did with that agency to do lasting damage to this country by suppressing the conservative Tea Party movement. As a political movement the Tea Party was harassed for many years, and even to this day there are many Tea Party organizations that still have not received the non-profit status that they requested.

The major player in the IRS fiasco was and remains Lois Lerner. It has already been proven that there were contacts with Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings and Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse about the True the Vote organization.

Cummings staffers first contacted the IRS about “True the Vote” in August 2012, asking for information on the 0rganization and Ms. Engelbrecht. In January 2013, Cummings staff requested further information about the organization from the IRS. Lerner and Deputy Holly Paz went out of their way to obtain as much information as they could which was then sent to Rep. Cummings. This action by the IRS was hidden from the majority of members of the House Oversight Committee.

At the end of January 2013, Holly Paz, the Deputy Director of the tax exempt division, sent True the Vote’s 990 forms to Cummings staff which is a clear violation of federal law. During this entire time Rep. Cummings denied any contact with the IRS. In fact, during the time that Ms. Engelbrecht testified before a Subcommittee hearing on February sixth 2014, Rep. Cummings used all the black victim rage he could muster to vehemently denounce this woman and to deny any contact or coordination with the IRS against True the Vote.

The purposes of these discussions were to discuss the criminal prosecution of conservative c4s organizations who report they are not involved in any political activity and how to go about proving that they were. It was discussed how just one IRS prosecution would impact these groups of conservative Tea Party members and stifle the work they were doing.

This line of reasoning moved further up the chain to the Department of Justice led by Eric Holder, the only Attorney General found in Contempt of Congress, before being shut down. Including the DOJ targeting these groups would have assured great difficulty in obtaining the documents needed to set the timeline for the illegal activities, the coordination and improper sharing of the taxpayer information connected to or involved in the Tea Party groups.

Lerner was more than happy to discuss hiding all facets of this illegal activity and even went as far as giving an interview to Politico to tell her lies to the American public and attempt to claim she was the victim. The only group to which Learning refused to explain her actions to was the Oversight Committee. The Oversight Committee has the responsibility of rooting out the illegal activities and prosecutes those whom break the law. Asking for members’ lists, what books they read, the text of prayers, and where they and their members go to church are outside the purview of investigation for c4 applications. Lerner and her equally culpable replacement John Koskinen actually told the House Ways and Means committee that “Whenever we can, we follow the law”.

Under Obama, anything was possible and breaking the law was just something to ignore. It was President Obama who prejudged the investigation that took place over four years and declared there was not a “smidgen of corruption” when he fully knew the facts were pointing to jail time for IRS officials.

Those who worked in the IRS, including Lois Lerner, Holly Paz and later John Koskinen, were knee deep in a criminal enterprise whose only purpose was to harass, to intimidate, attempt to criminalize, and bankrupt those who political ideology was different from the progressive socialist line. The basic premise was that they could use their public positions in the government to shut down those with opposing views. The bureaucrats in Washington were allowed to use their budget and the power of the federal government to target free speech. This abuse of power went far beyond anything that Richard Nixon ever contemplated and these thugs should still be held accountable.

A recent settlement of $3.5 million in a class action lawsuit does not go far enough. Lerner and the rest of the swamp at the IRS need to be held accountable. While the taxpayers are paying for the misdeeds of the Lerner IRS, she is now retired with a full government pension provided by the taxpayers.

And now, Lois Lerner and Holly Paz have requested that the sworn depositions that they were forced to give be sealed because they are afraid that harm may come to them from the American Public if it were to be made public. If they did nothing wrong, why should depositions not be available to the public? Is it because the actions they took to humiliate and damage others with whom that have a political disagreement were illegal?

The largest miscarriage of justice in the past debacle was by the DOJ. They worked in collusion with the IRS in this whole matter, decided not to prosecute. And although Lois Lerner intentionally misled both federal investigators and the American public about what transpired, the DOJ claimed that they couldn’t prosecute because here was no Intent. Sound familiar?
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John C. Velisek, retired Navy, retired Navy, is a California conservative and contributing author to the ARRA News Service. You can follow John's work on @sjspecialist on Twitter, One Patriots Opinion on Facebook and at Intellectual Conservative.

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