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Paul L. Caron
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Thursday, October 8, 2015

The IRS Scandal, Day 882

IRS Logo 2George Will (Washington Post), Impeach the IRS Director:

“Look,” wrote Lois Lerner, echoing Horace Greeley, “my view is that Lincoln was our worst president not our best. He should have let the South go. We really do seem to have 2 totally different mindsets.”

Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, was referring to Southern secessionist states when he urged President-elect Abraham Lincoln to “let the erring sisters go in peace.”

Greeley favored separating the nation from certain mindsets; Lerner favors suppressing certain mindsets. At the IRS, she participated in delaying for up to five years — effectively denying — tax-exempt status for, and hence restricting political activity by, groups with conservative mindsets. She retired after refusing to testify to congressional committees, invoking Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

As the IRS cover-up of its and her malfeasance continues, the Republicans’ new House leaders should exercise this constitutional power: “The House … shall have the sole power of impeachment.” The current IRS director, John Koskinen, has earned this attention. ...

Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, says the IRS has “lied to Congress” and “destroyed documents under subpoena.” He accuses Koskinen of “lies, obfuscation and deceit”: “He assured us he would comply with a congressional subpoena seeking Lois Lerner’s emails. Not only did he fail to keep that promise, we later learned he did not look in earnest for the information.”

After Koskinen complained about the high cost in time and money involved in the search, employees at a West Virginia data center told a Treasury Department official that no one asked for backup tapes of Lerner’s emails. Subpoenaed documents, including 422 tapes potentially containing 24,000 Lerner emails, were destroyed. For four months, Koskinen kept from Congress information about Lerner’s elusive emails. He testified under oath that he had “confirmed” that none of the tapes could be recovered. ...

Even if, as Koskinen says, he did not intentionally mislead Congress, he did not subsequently do his legal duty to correct the record in a timely manner. Even if he has not committed a crime such as perjury, he has a duty higher than merely avoiding criminality.

If the House votes to impeach, the Senate trial will not produce a two-thirds majority needed for conviction: Democrats are not ingrates. Impeachment would, however, test the mainstream media’s ability to continue ignoring this five-year-old scandal, and would demonstrate to dissatisfied Republican voters that control of Congress can have gratifying consequences.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/10/the-irs-scandal-day-882.html

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Comments

The media would ignore this just like they ignore Obama's other scandals. Our media is essentially a one party organ that seeks to further their party through the control and dissemination of information. Not surprising that this coincides with the rise of the progressive socialist wing of the Democrat party.

Posted by: wodun | Oct 8, 2015 10:32:34 AM

Making a political statement without actual change is not something I normally support, but the attention of the public and the IRS needs to be focused on the incredible stupidity of allowing the IRS to become partisan, or even to become perceived as partisan.

Posted by: AMTbuff | Oct 8, 2015 8:45:49 AM