Thursday, September 3, 2015
The IRS Scandal, Day 847
Wall Street Journal, Miles From Nowhere: An Update on the IRS Scandal, by James Taranto:
Hillary Clinton is not the only official of the Obama administration to have engaged in email shenanigans. While we were away last week, as the Washington Times reported, a court filing from the Internal Revenue Service revealed that “Lois Lerner had yet another personal email account used to conduct some IRS business”: ...
“In addition to emails to or from an email account denominated ‘Lois G. Lerner‘ or ‘Lois Home,’ some emails responsive to Judicial Watch’s request may have been sent to or received from a personal email account denominated ‘Toby Miles,’ ” ...
At first we wondered why Lerner would use a masculine pseudonym. Then we realized Toby is an epicene name and we’d been thinking of Toby Flenderson, the officious bureaucrat from NBC’s “The Office.” At any rate, Fox News appears to have come up with the explanation: “Two sources told Fox News that Toby Miles is the name of Lerner’s dog.” Confusingly, Lerner’s canine shares a surname with her husband, and Fox adds that “Lerner’s husband Michael Miles also reportedly may have been linked to the account.” ...
This week, as blogger William Jacobson reports, yet another fake Lerner email address came to light:
In . . . an August 31, 2015 Status Report, the IRS revealed that Lerner also used “a second personal email account” that, unlike the Toby Miles account, “does not appear to be associated with a denomination; only the email address itself appears.” The IRS refuses to disclose the email address for either the Toby Miles or the newly discovered account. ...
Why Lerner needed so many email addresses is something of a mystery, but she’s not alone among Obama administration officials. ...
The Washington Times reports on yet another thwarted IRS attempt to evade public scrutiny:
A federal judge Friday ordered the IRS to turn over the records of any requests from the White House seeking taxpayers’ private information from the tax agency, delivering a victory to a group that for two years has been trying to pry the data loose.
It’s not clear that there were any such requests—but Judge Amy Berman Jackson said the IRS cannot just refuse to say so by citing taxpayer confidentiality laws, known as section 6103 of the tax code.
Richard Pollock, then of the Washington Examiner, explained the background in a 2013 piece:
Treasury Department investigators completed but never released a 2011 law enforcement probe of White House economic advisor Austan Goolsbee, The Washington Examiner has learned.
The investigation by the Treasury Department Inspector-General for Tax Administration was sparked by Goolsbee’s remarks during an Aug. 27, 2010, White House news briefing in which he appeared to possess confidential tax information on Koch Industries, the private conglomerate controlled by the Koch brothers, Charles and David. ...
Six senators requested an investigation of Goolsbee’s remark under Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, which protects taxpayers’ privacy. The IRS conducted the probe, then refused to reveal its findings, including to the senators and the Kochs—because, it said, they included taxpayer information that was confidential under Section 6103.
A group called Cause of Action filed the FOIA lawsuit seeking, among other things, “any communications by or from anyone in the Executive Office of the President constituting requests for taxpayer or ‘return information’ ” protected by Section 6103. Again, the IRS balked, saying such requests were private under Section 6103. That was the claim Judge Jackson rejected. ...
Whether the IRS is concealing misconduct is unknown; it’s possible, for instance, that the Goolsbee report found nothing amiss and its suppression was a product of mere bureaucratic monomania. Similarly, it’s possible Mrs. Clinton actually did turn over printouts of all her work-related emails to the State Department, but we may never know. In any case, it’s unreasonable for government officials to expect us to trust their assurances when they take such pains to prevent their verification.
On a happier note, it’s worth mentioning that the judges in both these cases were Democratic appointees. Emmet Sullivan was nominated by Bill Clinton in 1994 and Amy Jackson by Barack Obama in 2011. Independence and integrity are not dead, at least in the judicial branch.
- Breitbart, Lawsuit Uncovers Secret Lois Lerner Email Account
- Independent Journal, The Obama Administration Tried to Hide Its Internal IRS Taxpayer Requests — Then a Judge Stepped In
- Jewish Voice, Federal Judge Orders IRS to Disclose WH Requests for Taxpayer Info
- Washington Free Beacon, IRS Lawyer Who Headed Lerner Email Release Present When Markings on Clinton Emails Changed
- Washington Times, Lois Lerner Had Another Private Email!
- The IRS Scandal, Day 846 (Sept. 2, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 845 (Sept. 1, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 844 (Aug. 31, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 843 (Aug. 30, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 842 (Aug. 29, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 841 (Aug. 28, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 840 (Aug. 27, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 839 (Aug. 26, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 838 (Aug. 25, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 837 (Aug. 24, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 836 (Aug. 23, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 835 (Aug. 22, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 834 (Aug. 21, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 833 (Aug. 20, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 832 (Aug. 19, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 831 (Aug. 18, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 830 (Aug. 17, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 829 (Aug. 16, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 828 (Aug. 15, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 827 (Aug. 14, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 826 (Aug. 13, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 825 (Aug. 12, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 824 (Aug. 11, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 823 (Aug. 10, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 822 (Aug. 9, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 821 (Aug. 8, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 820 (Aug. 7, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 819 (Aug. 6, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 818 (Aug. 5, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 817 (Aug. 4, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 816 (Aug. 3, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 815 (Aug. 2, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 814 (Aug. 1, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 813 (July 31, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 812 (July 30, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 811 (July 29, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 810 (July 28, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 809 (July 27, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 808 (July 26, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 807 (July 25, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 806 (July 24, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 805 (July 23, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 804 (July 22, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 803 (July 21, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 802 (July 20, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 801 (July 19, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 701-800 (April 10, 2015 - July 18, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 601-700 (Dec. 31, 2014 - April 9, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 501-600 (Sept. 22, 2014-Dec. 30, 2014)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 401-500 (June 14, 2014 - Sept. 21,2014)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 301-400 (Mar. 6, 2014 - June 13, 2014)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 201-300 (Nov. 26, 2013 - Mar. 5, 2014)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 101-200 (Aug. 18, 2013 - Nov. 25, 2013)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 1-100 (May 10, 2013 - Aug. 17, 2013)
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/09/the-irs-scandal-day-847.html
This makes it sound like Lerner had 3 private email accounts: lernerhome, Toby miles, and this one mentioned by Jacobson.
That the IRS and DOJ having been hiding this, from congress and the courts, shows an intentional effort to obstruct justice and multiple federal agencies don't work together like this without the approval of their boss, Barack Obama.
Posted by: wodun | Sep 3, 2015 10:26:04 AM