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Paul L. Caron
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Thursday, June 26, 2014

The IRS Scandal, Day 413

Fox News Poll:  Voters Think IRS Emails Were Deliberately Destroyed:

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. Overall, just 12 percent of voters believe the emails were destroyed accidentally. Another 12 percent are unsure.

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Poll 27 1

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Wall Street Journal:  No Confidence: Hardly Anybody Believes the IRS's Story About Lois Lerner's "Lost" Emails, by James Taranto:

The proportion of respondents who believe the IRS's claim to have destroyed the emails accidentally: 12%. That's congressional-approval-rating territory. Seventy-six percent disbelieve the IRS story, and the remaining 12% say they're "unsure." Asked whether Congress should continue to investigate, the ayes had it, 74% to 21%. ...

Each of these developments refutes Obama's claim that there was "not even a smidgen of corruption." And if the public is right that the destruction of emails was a deliberate coverup--and keep in mind that not just Lois Lerner but six other IRS employees are said to have suffered contemporaneous hard-drive crashes--that surely qualifies as "mass corruption," even irrespective of the facts of the underlying scandal.

The Fox poll is a stunning vote of no confidence not just in the Obama administration but in the government itself. Public skepticism of government is a healthy impulse, and in this case it seems fully warranted. A government that cannot inspire even a minimal degree of public confidence is a danger to itself and to the country.

Red State:  An Intellectually Honest Media Would Ask This Question:

Ignore, for a minute, the IRS targeting of conservative groups and the erasure of seven hard drives at the IRS. Yes, ignore all that for a moment.

While the media is doing its best to avoid that subject, with difficulty, it is absolutely and willfully ignoring another IRS scandal that, had it happened in the Bush Administration, would be the lead story of every nightly newscast and above the fold on the front page of every newspaper in America.

We now know that some person or persons at the IRS intentionally and maliciously leaked confidential tax records of a non-profit organization so that gay rights activists could target the donors of the organization for harassment. We know this from the emails of the gay rights activist who obtained the records through, what he described, as “a conduit” from the IRS. He then sent the data to the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, which then put the records online. The records contained the names and addresses of donors to the National Organization for Marriage. The IRS is not only seemingly targeting conservative groups, but is now admitting to leaking information about a conservative group so others can target their donors.

Yes, the IRS is admitting someone at the IRS did this and is paying the legal fees of the National Organization for Marriage as a result.

The gay rights activist who received and disseminated the information, Matthew Meisel, “invoked his fifth amendment right not to incriminate himself” and he would not identify his conduit.

This all raises a question an honest media would ask: why has Eric Holder refused to investigate and prosecute this?

The American media will not ask this question because the National Organization for Marriage opposes gay marriage. The donors to the group, in the media’s mind, are bigots. To the American media they deserve no protection. They are oppressors.

But an honest media that believed in equal justice under the law would have to ask the question — why will the Justice Department not investigate and prosecute those within the IRS who leaked confidential tax records to political opponents of the group.

Must we wait until a Republican administration does this?

It seems we need more than one special prosecutor to investigate the IRS and Darryl Issa should be holding hearings on this matter. The IRS is not only seemingly targeting conservative groups, but is leaking information about conservative groups so others can target their donors.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2014/06/the--2.html

IRS News, IRS Scandal, Tax | Permalink

Comments

Here are two questions regarding the IRS scandal for which I would like complete, honest, independent, and impartial investigations and answers: Two Questions

Posted by: Woody | Jun 26, 2014 3:01:03 PM

Image: IRS Commissioner Gollum's Precious Hard Drives

Posted by: Woody | Jun 26, 2014 1:23:31 PM