FOX19 EXCLUSIVE: Four local IRS workers allegedly connected to scandal
CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) -
FOX19 has exclusively learned that as many as four people may be the first Cincinnati Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees to face disciplinary action, and possibly even criminal charges, for allegedly targeting Tea Party and Liberty groups applying for non-profit status.
In addition, acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller resigned his position, revealed by President Obama on Wednesday.
“Secretary Lew took the first step by requesting and accepting the resignation of the acting commissioner of the IRS, because given the controversy surrounding this audit, it’s important to institute new leadership that can help restore confidence going forward,” said President Obama in a statement on Wednesday evening.
Prior to his resignation, Steven Miller called the two Cincinnati employees ‘rogue’ and ‘off the reservation,’ adding that they were ‘overly aggressive’ in handling the requests from those conservative groups over the past two years.
Miller also added that those two employees have already been ‘disciplined’ by the agency.
However, despite the claim of just two employees being involved, FOX19 has exclusively learned from two separate sources that there could be at least four Cincinnati employees involved.
Those four employees, whose names we have chosen to withhold until they have been officially confirmed, have each worked in the IRS Exempt Organizations Department.
This is the same department that has admitted publicly to sending letters to Tea Party and other conservative organizations.
FOX19 has also confirmed those four Cincinnati employees made large requests of information from:
- The Richmond, Virginia Tea Party in January of 2012.
- The Ohio Liberty Council in January of 2012..
- Dan Backer, a lawyer based in Washington D.C. who helped six small conservative groups apply for 501c4 status in February of 2012.
- The Liberty Township Tea Party in March of 2012.
One of FOX19′s two sources went on say that these four IRS workers claim “they simply did what their bosses ordered.” FOX19 reported on Tuesday that the report by the Office of Inspector General states that senior IRS officials knew agents were targeting Tea Party groups as early as 2011.
EXCLUSIVE: HOLDER SAYS ‘NO’ TO SPECIAL COUNSEL TO INVESTIGATE BENGHAZI
Breitbart -
Breitbart News has obtained an exclusive video of Attorney General Eric Holder flatly rejecting the idea of appointing a special counsel to investigate Benghazi.
Filmed on May 15 and provided to Breitbart News by Special Operations Speaks, the video shows Holder emerge from his car and walk towards the Rayburn House Office Building for hearings on the IRS scandal. Holder is clearly asked, “Mr. Holder, will you appoint a Special Counsel to investigate Benghazi?”
In equally clear tones, Holder answers, “No,” and disappears into the building.
IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office
ABC News – The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.
Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.
Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.
Grant announced today that he would retire June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office May 8, a week ago.
As the House voted to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act Thursday evening, House Speaker John Boehner expressed “serious concerns” that the IRS is empowered as the law’s chief enforcer.
“Fully repealing ObamaCare will help us build a stronger, healthier economy, and will clear the way for patient-centered reforms that lower health care costs and protect jobs,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said.
“Obamacare empowers the agency that just violated the public’s trust by secretly targeting conservative groups,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., added. “Even by Washington’s standards, that’s unacceptable.”
Sen. John Cornyn even introduced a bill, the “Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013,” which would prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury, or any delegate, including the IRS, from enforcing the Affordable Care Act.
“Now more than ever, we need to prevent the IRS from having any role in Americans’ health care,” Cornyn, R-Texas, stated. “I do not support Obamacare, and after the events of last week, I cannot support giving the IRS any more responsibility or taxpayer dollars to implement a broken law.”
SHOCK: OFFICIAL IN CHARGE OF IRS GROUP TARGETING CONSERVATIVES NOW HEADS AGENCY’S OBAMACARE OFFICE
The Blaze – Well, this can’t be good.
It appears that the official who oversaw the Internal Revenue Service division responsible for targeting conservative groups has moved on from that post and now head the agency’s Obamacare office.
From ABC News:
The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.
Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and isnow the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.
Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.
Grant announced Thursday his plans to resign from his position, TheBlaze reported. He was appointed to the post just eight days ago.
This is a breaking story. Updates will be added as they become available.
ROSKAM TALKS TO CBS ABOUT IRS ABUSE SCANDAL
Illinois Review – This morning, Congressman Peter Roskam (IL-06) appeared on CBS This Morning to discuss this Friday’s Ways and Means hearing were Steven Miller, who recently resigned as IRS Commissioner, will be testifying on the IRS targeting conservative groups:
Tea party leader: Media apologized for not taking IRS targeting seriously last year
Daily Caller – At least one tea party leader has had employees at a major national newspaper and a major Ohio newspaper apologize to him for failing to take his concerns about the Internal Revenue Service targeting tea party groups seriously last year, though he wouldn’t say who specifically.
“I actually have had several [members] of the media apologize to me today and yesterday,” Tom Zawistowski, former leader of the Ohio Liberty Coalition and current president of We the People Convention, Inc. and head of the Portage County Tea Party, said at a FreedomWorks roundtable event Thursday.
“They said, ‘Tom I want to apologize to you because when this story came out last year it was so over the top I didn’t believe it, and I didn’t believe it and I questioned it and I didn’t really look into it and then when the IRS commissioner came out and testified to Congress and said, ‘There is no targeting of the tea party, I shut it down,’” he said.
House votes to fully repeal Obamacare
WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled House voted Thursday to repeal the Affordable
Care Act in its entirety.
With implementation of Obamacare set to begin later this year, the vote is largely symbolic. The Senate is highly unlikely to even take up a vote on repeal.
The House voted for repeal 229-195, with votes cast almost entirely down party lines. Two Democrats voted with Republicans in favor of repeal: Rep. Jim Matheson of Utah and Rep. Mike McIntyre of North Carolina.
The IRS wants YOU — to share everything
POLITICO -
The Internal Revenue Service asked tea party groups to see donor rolls.
It asked for printouts of Facebook posts.
A POLITICO review of documents from 11 tea party and conservative groups that the IRS scrutinized in 2012 shows the agency wanted to know everything — in some cases, it even seemed curious what members were thinking. The review included interviews with groups or their representatives from Hawaii, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas and elsewhere.
The long-awaited Treasury Department inspector general report released Tuesday says the agency itself decided some of its questions to conservative groups were way over the line — especially the one about donors.
(Also on POLITICO: Watchdog: IRS used ‘inappropriate criteria’)
The report shows that top IRS officials put a stop to some of the questions in early 2012, including the ones that asked tea party groups who their donors were, what issues were important to them and whether their top officers ever planned to run for office. And they told the investigators they planned to destroy the donor lists that had already been sent in.
But interviews with members of the groups paint a more dramatic picture than the bland language of the report, which just says the IRS “requested irrelevant (unnecessary) information because of a lack of managerial review, at all levels, of questions before they were sent to organizations seeking tax-exempt status.”
“They were asking for a U-Haul truck’s worth of information,” said Toby Marie Walker, the president of the Waco Tea Party.
Obama fires acting IRS commissioner as pressure grows surrounding political targeting of conservative groups that sought tax-exempt status
Daily Mail UK -
- Steven Miller is ousted but writes face-saving email announcing departure when his ‘assignment ends in early June.’
- Obama: IRS ‘misconduct’ is ‘inexcusable and Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it.’
- Jacob Lew, Obama’s trusted Treasury Secretary and former chief of staff, gave Miller his walking papers
- IRS reportedly targeted 300 right-wing groups while letting left-wing organizations slide through with far less scrutiny
President Barack Obama has thrown his acting IRS commissioner overboard, making Steven Miller the highest-ranking political casualty thus far in a series of scandals that have swept his administration in recent weeks.
In a hastily called press conference in the East Room of the White House, Obama told reporters that he had asked Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew to find out who was responsible for a program that targeted tea party groups and other conservative organizations for a special level of intrusive questioning after they applied for tax-exempt charitable statuses.
‘Lew took the first step by requesting and accepting the resignation of the acting director of the IRS,’ Obama said.
‘It’s important,’ he added, ‘to institute new leadership that can help restore confidence going forward.’
But in an email to IRS employees, Miller claimed he would only be leaving next month because his assignment would be over.
JOE SCARBOROUGH BLOWS UP AT DAVID AXELROD OVER DOJ/AP RECORDS: ‘SAVE THAT FOR SOMEBODY ELSE THAT’S GOING TO BUY INTO THAT’
The Blaze -
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough had a fiery exchange Wednesday with former Obama senior adviser David Axelrod over the Justice Department’s seizure of Associated Press phone records, accusing Axelrod of peddling a “bogus argument” and misstating Scarborough’s past remarks.
Axelrod said he recalled speaking with the “Morning Joe” co-host last summer, when Scarborough asked when Obama was going to take a strong stance against leakers.
“No, no, no, no,” Scarborough cut in. “I’ve heard the president’s defenders try to say this, and I congratulate you guys for going off into a room and calling each other and coming up with this bogus argument — but never did I suggest that 100 AP reporters have all of their phone records seized, their private cell phone records seized, their home phone numbers seized. So please, save that for somebody else that’s going to buy into that. Don’t shift this to me!”
Scarborough continued, “Answer my question. Will sources, confidential sources inside the federal government, be intimidated because of what this administration, according to The New York Times, has been doing from the very beginning?”
Axelrod acknowledged that it could have an impact on whistleblowers, after which Scarborough said the administration can investigate leaks without going overboard.
