Eliana Johnson
The Corner
National Review Online
7/31/2013
Embattled Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner and an attorney in the Federal Election Commission’s general counsel’s office appear to have twice colluded to influence the record before the FEC’s vote in the case of a conservative non-profit organization, according to e-mails unearthed by the House Ways and Means Committee and obtained exclusively by National Review Online. The correspondence suggests the discrimination of conservative groups extended beyond the IRS and into the FEC, where an attorney from the agency’s enforcement division in at least one case sought and received tax information about the status of a conservative group, the American Future Fund, before recommending that the commission prosecute it for violations of campaign-finance law. Lerner, the former head of the IRS’s exempt-organizations division, worked at the FEC from 1986 to 1995, and was known for aggressive investigation of conservative groups during her tenure there, too.
“Several months ago . . . I spoke with you about the American Future Fund, a 501(c)(4) organization that had submitted an exemption application the IRS [sic],” the FEC attorney wrote Lerner in February 2009. The FEC, which polices violations of campaign-finance laws, is not exempted under Rule 6103, which prohibits the IRS from sharing confidential taxpayer information, but the e-mail indicates Lerner provided that information nonetheless: “When we spoke last July, you had told us that the American Future Fund had not received an exemption letter from the IRS,” the FEC attorney wrote.
The timing of the correspondence between Lerner and the FEC suggests the FEC attorney sought information from the IRS in order to influence an upcoming vote by the six FEC commissioners…
The article continues at National Review Online.
Related: Carney says Republican attempts to turn Benghazi and IRS into scandals have failed
According to Carney, IRS targeting of conservatives and the Benghazi terrorist attacks aren’t scandals and Republican attempts to turn them into scandals have failed..
…It doesn’t matter that Obama’s own political appointee was in on the IRS scandals that only targeted conservative groups. it doesn’t matter that the IRS is part of the Executive Branch. No. It doesn’t matter that Obama slept while our men were getting murdered in Benghazi and then went to Vegas the next day to campaign while families were grieving the loss of those under his command. No, the White House has done nothing wrong…
Update: Issa threatens IRS boss Werfel with 5 years in prison
House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa has warned Acting IRS chief, Danny Werfel with 5 years in prison, if he continues to obstruct the committee’s investigation. So far, only 12,000 of the 64 million pages requested have been turned over.
Werfel is on his own on this one. Neither President Obama or Eric Holder has a say in whether Werfel is prosecuted or not. The president cannot pardon Werfel. That power is only good for crimes against the federal government…
