Jan 21, 2010 - The Supreme Court ruled hat the government cannot limit corporation or union spending for or against political candidates. President Obama denounces the Supreme court for its ruling. March 2010 - As the result of a 2013 investigation by the Inspector General, appointed by Obama, it is found that the IRS, when searching for 501 c4 organizations to audit, specifically searched for groups with the name "Tea Party", as well as other searches that targeted conservative organizations. The IG says the search critieria was innappropriate but stopped short of saying conservatives were targeted out of political motivation. It was also found that while the IRS did audit liberal groups they were not being targeted for extra scrutiny. June 2010 - According to the Inspector General's report the Determinations Unit of the IRS began training its specialists on the issues to be aware of, specifically including Tea Party cases. July 2010 - According to the Inspector General, The IRS' Determinations Unit requested its specialists "Bolo"(Be on the lookout) for Tea Party applications. August 2010 - The determinations unit issues its first "Bolo" listing issued with criteria listed as various Tea Party organizations. September 2010 - An e-mail obtained by the house oversight committee shows that Lois Lerner told her subordinates that she would be intiating a "C4 project"(501c4) and added that we need to be cautious so it isn't a per se political project." October 2010 - Lerner told a Duke University group: “The Supreme Court dealt a huge blow, overturning a 100-year-old precedent that basically corporations couldn’t give directly to political campaigns. And everyone is up in arms because they don’t like it. The Federal Election Commission can’t do anything about it. They(Presumably the Obama adiministration) want the IRS to fix the problem.”(So far Lois Lerner has refused to tell us who "They" are.) October 26 2010 - an IRS agent in the Determinations Unit emailed concerns to the technical unit that conservative501(c)4 groups were being unfairly targeted through searches such as 'Tea Party', Patriot or 9/12 project. November 2010 - In Novermber the same person follows up with another e-mail after receiving no response to the first e-mail. February 2011 - Lerner e-mailed her colleagues in the IRS: “Tea Party Matter very dangerous. This could be the vehicle to go to court on the issue of whether Citizens United overturning the ban on corporate spending applies to tax-exempt rules. Counsel and Judy Kindell need to be in on this one please. Cincy should probably NOT have these cases.” June 29 2011- IRS director of exempt organizations Lois Lerner learns at a meeting that the agency flagged group titles with "tea party," "patriot," or "9/12 Project" for supplementary review. She told those involved to alter this practice "immediately," according to a draft of the report from the TIGTA, who audits the IRS. Michael Seto, manager of EO Technical in Washington, testified that that Lerner ordered Tea Party cases to undergo a “multi-tier review.” In June 2011- Lerner requested that Holly Paz obtain a copy of the tax-exempt application filed by Crossroads GPS so that her senior technical advisor, Judy Kindell, could review it and summarize the issues for Lerner. Jan. 25 2012 - IRS changes standard for identifying organizations that require additional scrutiny, now flagging for "political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform movement," according to the inspector general's report. March 22, 2012 - IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman testified the agency did not increase difficulty for politically active groups to get tax exempt status at the House Ways and Means Committee. The Ways and Means - Oversight subcommittee chairman, Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., called the hearing after he heard complaints from tea party groups about harassment from the IRS. May 3, 2012 -Then-deputy commissioner Steven Miller was first told about the extra scrutiny for tea party groups; he made no mention of this during a House hearing on July 25. July 25, 2012 - Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Texas, asked Miller about harassment complaints he had received constituents from politically active tax-exempt associations among his constituents. Miller responded only by saying the IRS "groups those organizations" for "consistency" and "quality." He never mentioned that he was already of aware of politically active groups being targeted for extra scrutiny(specifically Tea Party groups). April 16 2013 - The Inspector General notifies White House counsel about his findings and what is going to be included in his report. April 24, 2013 - White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler learned that the IRS targeted 501(c)4 applications with "tea party," "patriot," and "9/12 project." She informed senior White House staff including the Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough, not the president, Carney said at a May 20, 2013 press conference. May 10, 2013 - Lerner admits to and apologizes for additional review of conservative groups' 501(c)4 status applications, though she said high level employees didn't know about the issue -- the inspector general's report refuted this information. While the IRS asked some to provide a donor list, which is against most IRS policy, others never received tax exempt status. Overall, IRS agents flagged 296 of the 501(c)4 applications, 160 of which were open for more than 1,138 days. At an American Bar Association conference May 10, Lerner said "line people" in the Cincinnati office flagged applications based on certain terms, such as "Tea Party" and "patriot." The associated Press reported that she said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. "They didn't have the appropriate level of sensitivity about how this might appear to others, and it was just wrong," she said at the conference. May 10, 2013: White House press secretary Jay Carney said this IRS scrutiny was "of concern" and "inappropriate" when answering reporter questions. May 13, 2013: Mr. Obama called IRS targeting "outrageous," in a joint press conference with United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron. He said the IRS will be held accountable if reports are true. May 14, 2013: A Treasury inspector general report calls IRS standards "inappropriate criteria" for flagging 501(c)4 groups as the agency had for more than three years. The report blamed relaxed leadership for the targeting controversy and includes recommendations for the IRS implement more consistent policies. May 14 2013 - William Holder says there will be a Justice department investigation into the IRS Targeting Scandal. May 15, 2013: Mr. Obama accepted Miller's resignation, effective in June, after the president had a phone call with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to discuss results of the inspector general's report. Mr. Obama announced Miller's resignation at a short press conference after 6 p.m. where he said IRS actions were "inexcusable." May 16, 2013: IRS commissioner of the tax exempt and government entities division Joseph Grant announced he would retire June 3, becoming the second top agency official to leave within a week of news of the targeting. May 17, 2013: Testifying at the House Ways and Means Committee, Miller said "foolish mistakes were made" in determining when to administer extra scrutiny, but that the flagging process was not partisan. At the hearing, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George also testified about the report which detailed the targeting controversy. George seconded Miller's insistence that the IRS agents weren't motivated by partisanship. May 22 2013 - Lois Lerner is asked to testify in front of Congress. She pleads the fifth and refuses to answer any questions. Keep in mind Lois Lerner must have a reasonable fear that her testimony could incriminate her in order to plead the 5th. June 2013 - The inspector General says “TIGTA concluded that inappropriate criteria were used to identify potential political cases for extra scrutiny — specifically, the criteria listed in our audit report. From our audit work, we did not find evidence that the criteria you identified, labeled "Progressives,” were used by the IRS to select potential political cases during the 2010 to 2012 time frame we audited,” Mr. George said. The result was that 100% of groups with the name Tea Party were targeted for extra scrutiny while only 30% of groups labeled as progressives were targeted. Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/27/irs-auditor-reaffirms-conservatives-not-liberals-w/#ixzz38tlkhfD5 July 2013 - IRS officials in Cincinnatti fire back claiming they received orders on who to target from the Washington IRS office. November 2013 The head of the Cincinnati IRS office wrote to her superior that employees of the local office had been "hit by a convoy of Mack trucks" when they were blamed for targeting tea party groups. Jan 8 2014 - It is revealed that the Justice Department appointed an Obama campaign donor to head the investigation into the IRS Targeting Scandal. Republicans ask for someone else but president Obama refuses to change investigators citing it would be inappropriate to ask appointees about their political leanings. Feb. 2014 - In an interview with Bill O'rielly President Obama claims there is not even a smidgeon of corruption in the IRS regarding the targeting allegations. March 5th - Lois Lerner, once again fearing her own incrimination, pleads the 5th and refuses to testify. March 26 - John Koskinen, head of the IRS, says it would take years to provide all the e-mails of Lois Lerner and key figures tied to the contoversy because their would be millions of them and it would take time to redact the -emails. Up unil this time they were only producing documents with the word 'Tea party' or election in them. June 2014 - The IRS reveals that because of a hard-drive crash in May of 2011, they cannot supply many e-mails requested between January 2009 and May 2011. They soon after reveal that six other hard-drives crashed from computers that congress had requested emails from. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/06/17/how-the-irs-lost-lois-lerners-e-mails/10695507/ http://beforeitsnews.com/politics/2014/06/breaking-irs-loses-lois-lerner-emails-2629546.html http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014/06/26/emails-lerner-sought-irs-audit-republican-senator June 2014 - Inspector General says it will investigate lost e-mails. July 11 2014 - Federal Judge orders IRS to explain lost e-mails. July 21 - 2014 - John Koskinen reveals that the IG has found some back-up tapes that may containg lost e-mails. | Tea Party director says the type of questions asked made him feel like he was being interrogated by the secret police and described the questioning as "creepy" After telling congress they did not target conservatives in multiple hearings in 2012 the IRS later admits that it did target conservatives as early as early as the spring of 2010 President Obama says if conservatives were targeted because of their political beliefs, than thats outrageous. Below, a CBS report says conservatives were targeted and the IRS knew about it and lied about to congress Lois Lerner takes the 5th, excersizing her right not to incriminate herself prompting Republican congressman Trey Gowdy to claim she can't do that if she already spoke on her behalf. IRS agents from cincinatti testify that they got their targeting orders from Washington. Emails released in 2014 suggest Lois Lerner was very concerned with Tea Party applications and put out "Bolo" reports targeting them. Republicans discover that Eric Holder appointed a woman named Barbara Bosserman,who it turns out is a supporter and donor of Barack Obama. This has led some to believe that is why Barack Obama can confidently say there is not a "smidgeon" of corruption before the investigation has even been completed and further stating that there were just some boneheaded "mistakes." Was Obama trying to influence the investigation when he said there was not a smidgeon of corruption by the IRS? Lois Lerner taking the 5th again short version with Fox commentary Once again Lois Lerner refuses to testify and answer the questioning of Republican Daryl Issa out of fear she might incriminate herself. Democrat Elijah Cummings tries to speak in her defense but Issa won't allow it, leading to fireworks |
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irs commissioner john koskinen testifies before congress irs targeting scandal and lost emails6/20/2014 John Koskinen refused to apologize for the lost emails of Lois Lerner, the central figure of the IRS targeting scandal. The emails he claims, were lost in a computer crash in May of 2011 and says none were lost since the investigation began. The IRS has managed to retrieve 24,000 emails from hard drives of other computer that had been sent the emails. However, 7 other hard drives had crashed and it is believed by some that these emails will never be retrieved. The credibility of the IRS has been severely damaged by this new revelation but what is even more concerning is that they waited until early this week to reveal that the emails were lost when it had been known all along they weren't going to be able to provide these emails. They also said that the hard drive had been recycled and was no longer accessable.
Although Mr. Koskinen says no emails were lost since the investigation began a look back at the timeline tells us they were aware of the issue in October of 2010 when an employee emailed Lois Lerner out of concern that groups were being targeted for political purposes. Although a crash could happen accidentally, having the hard-drive recycled was not. If they could find that they were aware of the possibility of an investigation when they decided to recycle the hard-drive that could also be damaging. Mr. Koskinen says it is unclear how many emails they will be able to recover from the other hard-drives that had crashed. |