The Briefing Room
General Category => National/Breaking News => Topic started by: rangerrebew on June 26, 2014, 12:20:57 am
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At Least One Lerner Email Didn’t Vanish…And It Contained A Bombshell!
"...using the IRS as a tool for political purposes in defiance of taxpayer rights."
Ample suspicion has surrounded the IRS claim that two years’ worth of emails to and from former official Lois Lerner were lost in a hard drive crash. A central figure in an ongoing congressional investigation into targeting of conservative groups, many Americans believe the correspondences were purposefully destroyed in an effort to protect others involved.
Judging from the contents of one Lerner conversation that actually made it to GOP investigators in the House, one can only wonder what outrageous plots were hatched in the countless lost emails.
Committee Chairman Dave Camp presented the email Wednesday, noting that Lerner was inadvertently sent an invitation meant for Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. In addition to correcting the mistake in an email to the senders, she crafted a message to an IRS colleague in which she seemingly supported pursuing charges against Grassley.
“Looked like they were inappropriately offering to pay for his wife,” she wrote. “Perhaps we should refer to Exam?”
In a response, Matthew Giuliano instructed Lerner – who was at the time a high-ranking IRS official – that her accusation of wrongdoing was unfounded.
“Not sure we should send to exam,” the email stated. “I think the offer to pay for Grassley’s wife is income to Grassley, and not prohibited on its face…”
The response continued: “We would need to wait for: (i) Grassley to accept and attend the speaking arrangement, and (ii) then determine whether [redacted] issues him a 1099. And even without the 1099, it would be Grassley who would need to report the income on his 1040. Either way [redacted].”
Grass Ley Lerner
Camp was outraged at Lerner’s brazen attempt to use a misdirected invitation as potential ammunition against a Republican senator.
“At every turn,” he concluded, “Lerner was using the IRS as a tool for political purposes in defiance of taxpayer rights.”
He lamented the fact that Americans “may never know the full extent of the abuse since the IRS conveniently lost two years of Lerner emails, not to mention those of other key figures in this scandal.”
Camp also criticized Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department for its failure to investigate the IRS, citing the refusal as further evidence of “this administration’s unwillingness to uphold the rule of law.”
Read more at http://www.westernjournalism.com/least-one-lerner-email-didnt-vanishand-contained-bombshell/#c3z71qezSf3jZRF8.99
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This isn't the strongest of stuff - it isn't "sexy" to the average American - but I have to agree that this is an attempt to use the IRS' examination function to punish someone for their political views. It's especially egregious because it involves a US Senator. Part of what makes it so blatant is that it is tax law 101 that a payment of money for someone else's benefit is taxable income to that someone else unless there is a specific statutory exclusion for that payment. As such, there is nothing suspicious - nothing to examine - until/unless the someone else who was benefited fails to report the payment as income. Lois Lerner was too experienced an IRS officer to not know that basic rule.
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This single e-mail is going to make all the 'missing' ones all the more suspect.
I would think that it might well be the straw that breaks Lerner's back in terms of getting Americans to want to get to the bottom of her crimes.
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This single e-mail is going to make all the 'missing' ones all the more suspect.
I would think that it might well be the straw that breaks Lerner's back in terms of getting Americans to want to get to the bottom of her crimes.
I certainly hope so. It would also be interesting to haul her sorry ass back before Congress to question her in detail about the email and about any other similar emails. Obviously she would take the Fifth, but this would let the Congressional committee build up a long list of her repeatedly claiming the Fifth, which would just make her look more and more guilty.
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The email.
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/uploadedfiles/irs_grassley.pdf
You will notice .. Lois G. Lerner: Sent From My BlackBerry Wireless Handheld?
What .. No hard drives in Blackberry's? :silly:
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The email.
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/uploadedfiles/irs_grassley.pdf
You will notice .. Lois G. Lerner: Sent From My BlackBerry Wireless Handheld?
What .. No hard drives in Blackberry's? :silly:
What do you want to bet the Blackberry gets accidentally dropped overboard on a boat?
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They need to keep digging. Use those subpoena powers