Lois Lerner Email: IRS Official Looked to Audit Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) … Or Could It Have Been the The Non-Profit Org Who Issued the Invitation?

ROGUE AGENTS AGENCY …

House Ways and Means Committee investigators have uncovered emails from former IRS official Lois “I plead the 5th” Lerner that sought to audit Republican Senator Charles Grassley. Grassley said. “It’s very troubling that a simple clerical mix-up could get a taxpayer immediately referred for an IRS exam without any due diligence from agency officials.” Actually, what might be even more troubling is that the head of the IRS nonprofit department did not know the guidelines or law, but wanted to presume guilty first.

House Ways and Means Press Release: REVEALED: GOP Senator Targeted by Lerner: Ways and Means investigation uncovers push to audit Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

Today, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) announced the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) targeting of conservative individuals includes a sitting United States Senator.  According to emails reviewed by the Committee under its Section 6103 authority, which allows the Committee to review confidential taxpayer information, Lois Lerner sought to have Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) referred for IRS examination.

“We have seen a lot of unbelievable things in this investigation, but the fact that Lois Lerner attempted to initiate an apparently baseless IRS examination against a sitting Republican United States Senator is shocking,” said Camp.  “At every turn, Lerner was using the IRS as a tool for political purposes in defiance of taxpayer rights.  We 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.  The fact that DOJ refuses to investigate the IRS’s abuses or appoint a special counsel demonstrates, yet again, this Administration’s unwillingness to uphold the rule of law.”

The emails can be read HERE.

Congressional investigators say they uncovered emails Wednesday showing that a former Internal Revenue Service official at the heart of the tea party investigation sought an audit involving a Republican senator in 2012.

The emails show former IRS official Lois Lerner mistakenly received an invitation to an event that was meant to go to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

The event organizer apparently offered to pay for Grassley’s wife to attend the event. In an email to another IRS official, Lerner suggests referring the matter for an audit, saying it might be inappropriate for the group to pay for his wife.

“Perhaps we should refer to exam?” Lerner wrote.

It was unclear from the emails whether Lerner was suggesting that Grassley or the group be audited — or both.

The other IRS official, Matthew Giuliano, waved her off, saying an audit would be premature because Grassley hadn’t even accepted the invitation.

“It would be Grassley who would need to report the income,” Giuliano said.

Powerline  brings up an interesting interpretation of  the emails that could very well be plausible as well. After all, Lois Lerner has been accused of targeting conservative non-profit and Tea Party groups.

JOHN adds: I don’t think Lerner meant to have Grassley investigated, but rather the nonprofit organization that issued the speaking invitation. It is helpful to see the emails. This is the one Lois Lerner sent after mistakenly receiving the invitation that was directed to Senator Grassley.

Note that Lerner doesn’t seem to know much about tax law. There is nothing “inappropriate” about the group that sponsored the seminar offering to pay Mrs. Grassley’s way. But when Lerner suggests that the matter should be “refer[red] to Exam,” I think she is pretty clearly talking about the section of the IRS for which she has responsibility, i.e., nonprofit organizations. The inappropriateness, if any, would be on the part of the organization, not Grassley.

In any event, not a smidgen of corruption.

Fox News Poll: 76% of Voters Think the IRS Deliberately Destroyed Lois Lerner Emails … Just 12% Believe It Was an Accident

DAMNING OBAMA/IRS POLLING …

According to the most recent FOX News poll, an amazing 76% of voters believe that the Internal Revenue Service deliberately and purposely destroyed Lois Lerner’s emails. Only 12% believe in the Tooth Fairy and think it was an accident. Another 12% are unsure and are too bust watching “Here Cones Honey Boo Boo”. The 76% of those who believe the IRS acted deliberately its includes 74% of Independents and an incredible 63% of Democrats. What does this mean? As much as the White House has called IRS-gate a phony scandal and a GOP conspiracy, the American people are not buying it. “We the People” think that it was deliberate and a crime was committed and there was a purposeful destruction of property.

Full poll can be read HERE.

PHONY CONSPIRACY, EH?

The consensus is: it’s no accident. More than three-quarters of voters — 76 percent — think the emails missing from the account of Lois Lerner, the ex-IRS official at the center of the scandal over targeting of conservative groups, were deliberately destroyed.
That suspicion is shared across party lines, albeit to varying degrees. An overwhelming 90 percent of Republicans think the emails were intentionally destroyed, as do 74 percent of independents and 63 percent of Democrats.

Furthermore, Democrats and Barack Obama have tried their best, along with the lap dog liberal media to make this scandal go away. Partisan Democrats have called the investigation, silly, political and a waste of time. The liberal MSM has pretty much refused to cover the story. However, according to the FOX News poll, 74% think that Congress should continue to investigate the IRS in their targeting of conservative and Tea Party non-profit groups. This includes 65% of Independents and 66% of Democrats.

This latest wrinkle in the IRS targeting of certain groups, including hundreds with “Tea Party” in their name, has increased voter interest in Congress investigating the matter.

Some 74 percent of voters now say lawmakers should investigate the IRS “until someone is held accountable,” up from 67 percent who felt that way in April. That includes 66 percent of Democrats.

Finally, a resounding majority do not believe Barack Obama when he says that he learned about such scandals like IRS-gate, the VA scandal, Fast & Furious and the plethora of other scandals when the president says he learned about it from the media. What does this tell us? The American people think Obama is a liar.

Archivist of the U.S. David Ferriero Testifies to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Lois Lerner Lost Emails … ” IRS Didn’t Follow the Law “

IMAGINE THAT, THE OBAMA IRS BROKE THE LAW …

On Tuesday, David Ferriero, the top United States archivist of federal records, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that the IRS broke the law when it failed to report loss of emails. David S. Ferriero, the chief archivist at the National Archives said, “In accordance with the Federal Records Act, when an agency becomes aware of an incident of unauthorized destruction, they must report the incident to us.” Ferriero told the House Oversight Committee that federal agencies are supposed to report whenever their records are destroyed or even accidentally deleted; however, he stated that nobody told the National Archives after emails from IRS official Lois Lerner vanished after a computer failure in 2011. Imagine that? How about the six others whose computers miraculously crashed as well? Were they reported?

The top U.S. official in charge of archiving federal records testified Tuesday that the IRS ran afoul of the law by neglecting to tell his office that a trove of emails from the woman at the center of the targeting scandal disappeared after an apparent hard drive crash.

Archivist of the U.S. David Ferriero, speaking before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, made clear that federal agencies are supposed to report whenever their records are destroyed or even accidentally deleted. But he said that after emails from embattled IRS official Lois Lerner vanished after a computer failure in 2011, nobody told the National Archives.

“They did not follow the law,” Ferriero said.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) Questions IRS Commissioner John Koskinen On Lois Lerner Missing Emails … IRS Commissioner Double Talk, “I Did Not Say We Would Provide You Emails that Disappeared”

More amazing smuggery from  IRS Commissioner John Koskinen …

Last night during the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing IRS Commissioner John Koskinen made a comment of such parsing of words that even Slick Willie, former President Bill Clinton would have been proud of. The contentious Q&A between Koskinen told Issa ended as follows:

IRS Commissioner Koskinen: All the emails we have will be provided. I did not say that I would provide emails that disappeared. If you have  have a magically way for me to do that I’d be happy to know about it. I said I would provide all the emails, we are providing all the emails. The fact that three years ago, some of them not all of them, were not available. I never said I would provide you emails we didn’t have  and in fact we are going to provide you 24000 emails …

Rep. Darrell Issa: My time has expired and I’ve lost my patience with you.

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen Does Not Think an Apology is Owed to Congress or We the People

The height of contempt and arrogance … IRS Commissioner John Koskinen does not think that an apology is owed for the lost Lois Lerner emails and the stonewalling by the IRS.  Koskinen said he didn’t inform Congress immediately because he wanted to find out the full scope of the situation before reporting to them. But some how the Treasury Department and White House were notified in advance of Congress and the American people.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen said Friday that he does not owe an apology for computer crashes that resulted in the loss of emails connected to an ongoing probe.

“I don’t think an apology is owed,” Koskinen said during a tense hearing with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. “Not a single email has been lost since the start of this investigation.”

Last week, the IRS acknowledged that the computer of Lois Lerner, the IRS employee at the center of the probe, experienced a hard drive crash in 2011, making some of her emails inaccessible for the investigation. Koskinen said the IRS is taking measures to restore the emails and noted that the loss took place before the investigation began.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) says during Friday’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the IRS scandal of targeting conservative non-profit organizations and the convenient IRS losing of Lois Lerners’s emails … “This is unbelievable. The apology that ought to be given is to the American tax payer, not to a government agency that is abusing it’s power.