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Thursday, March 13, 2014

The IRS Scandal, Day 308

IRS Logo 2Wall Street Journal:  Lois Lerner's IRS 'Immunity Deal':

Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of a House Oversight subcommittee that has been investigating the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups, says that "we need a special prosecutor." And he has a candidate in mind. ...

Mr. Jordan says that Ms. Lerner should tell the American people what she knows about IRS harassment of the President's philosophical opponents because, thanks to explicit signals from the administration, she must already know she is "not going to jail."

The Ohio Republican adds that Ms. Lerner can take further comfort from the fact that Justice assigned the case to government attorney Barbara Bosserman, who has donated more than $5,000 to Barack Obama's campaigns. ... Mr. Jordan has asked Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz to determine how this case landed with Ms. Bosserman, a civil-rights attorney, instead of a prosecutor in the department's public integrity section.

Mr. Jordan says he'd like to get a transcript of Justice's Lerner interview but doubts the department will turn it over since the executive branch still hasn't complied with a Congressional subpoena to turn over all of Ms. Lerner's emails.

While Mr. Jordan is not endorsing a revival of the flawed and expired independent counsel statute, he says "we need a special prosecutor." And he believes that Mr. Horowitz, an Obama appointee, could conduct a serious inquiry. "I would trust Horowitz," he adds.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2014/03/the-irs-scandal-11.html

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Comments

Elmer: Forgive me if I am suspicious of Chairman Issa's failure to give Ms. Lerner immunity in order to see if her claim of her 5th Amendment rights is hiding a lot of skullduggery.

Posted by: Publius Novus | Mar 14, 2014 7:41:20 AM

Publius Novus: Please forgive some of us for being suspicious that Ms. Lerner is using her 5th Amendment rights, as is her right, to hide a lot of skullduggery.

Posted by: Elmer Stoup | Mar 13, 2014 9:36:19 AM

Let me see if I understand this. Lois Lerner was the Assistant Commissioner for Tax Exempt & Government Entities Division, the component of the IRS that reviews applications for recognition of tax exempt status and audits organizations after they have received recognition of tax exempt status, among other things. Lerner, in her capacity as Assistant Commissioner of TE/GE, requested a summary of the CrossRoads GPS application from one of her minions. According to Chairman Issa, this action is said to be proof of malfeasance, indeed corruption, on the part of Lerner. Doesn’t this seem odd to anyone? Wasn’t that part of her job–to familiarize herself with a major player in the 501(c)(4) controversy created, in part, by the rather unexpected decision of the SCOTUS in Citizens United?

Posted by: Publius Novus | Mar 13, 2014 7:44:55 AM