Emails Show Corruption At Heart  Of Administration

405 CommentsMon, Apr 21 2014 00:00:00  EA12_ISSUES

 

Lois Lerner listens at the start of a  House Oversight Committee hearing on May 22, 2013, to investigate the extra  scrutiny the IRS gave to Tea Party... View Enlarged Image

Corruption: New emails show that both the IRS and Justice  Department were involved in a probe of Tea Party and other conservative groups.  This is no mere scandal — it's a major breach of the law.

The newly released emails were gathered for a Freedom of Information Act  request by Judicial Watch, a nonpartisan public interest law group. They show  that former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner discussed with the  Justice Department going after conservative groups that she believed lied about  their political activities.

What's shocking is that this discussion came just days before Lerner  acknowledged that the IRS had investigated tea-party and other conservative  groups but insisted that it was an isolated incident conducted by low-level  officials in the IRS' Cincinnati office.

It was a lie. In a May 8 email to Nikole Flax, then the chief of staff to the  acting IRS commissioner, Lerner discusses a phone call from Richard Pilger, who  headed the Justice Department's elections crimes unit.

According to Lerner, Pilger wondered if the IRS could help him "piece  together false-statement cases about applicants who 'lied'" on applications for  tax-free status.

In a subsequent email, Lerner responded: "I think we should do it — also need  to include CI (the criminal investigation unit), which we can help coordinate.  Also, we need to reach out to FEC (the Federal Election Commission). Does it  make sense to consider including them in this or keep it separate?"

It's been clear for some time that this goes beyond a mere rogue IRS  operation in Cincinnati. But until now, we didn't know how far it went.

As the emails show, it was a high-level conspiracy to use the offices and  powers of the federal government — including the IRS, FEC and Justice — to  falsely prosecute and harass the tea party and conservative political groups  that opposed the Obama administration.

How do we know that the groups were "conservative?" Just two days after her  email to Flax, Lerner admitted in an email to a Washington Post reporter that  she "can't confirm that there was anyone on the other side of the political  spectrum" targeted by the IRS.

In short, it was a politically motivated witch hunt.

"These new emails show that the day before she broke the news of the IRS  scandal, Lois Lerner was talking to a top Obama Justice Department official  about whether the DOJ could prosecute the very same organizations that the IRS  had already improperly targeted," said Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch's  president.

"The IRS emails show Eric Holder's Department of Justice is now implicated  and conflicted in the IRS scandal," he added.

Moreover, the IRS coordinated some of its attacks against conservatives and  the GOP with far-left Democrats in Congress, including Rep. Elijah Cummings of  Maryland and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. This wasn't isolated; it  was a campaign.

President Obama told Fox News in February that there wasn't "even a smidgen  of corruption" in what the IRS did. The corruption is there, Mr. President, and  it demands a prosecution. The only remaining question is whether the rot extends  to your office, too.

Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/041714-697618-new-emails-show-extensive-plan-to-target-conservative-groups.htm#ixzz2zO7JrmXa
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Rewarding low life incompetence:

Sebelius sticks around just long enough to get government benefits...

Lois is a liar.

HHS HealthCare.gov Official: “Delete this email”

• by sattkisson
• on August 15, 2014
• in Healthcare.gov, News

An email obtained by Congress shows the top official for Healthcare.gov at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Department of Health and Human Services, Marilyn Tavenner, instructed the agency’s top spokesman to “Please delete this email.”

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner

The instruction appears significant for several reasons: First, the email to be deleted included an exchange between key White House officials and CMS  officials. Second, the email was dated October 5, 2013, five days into the disastrous launch of HealthCare.gov. Third, federal law requires federal officials to retain copies of –not delete– email exchanges. And fourth, the document to be deleted is covered under Congressional subpoena as well as longstanding Freedom of Information requests made by members of the media (including me).

In a letter today, House Energy and Commerce leaders asked Tavenner to explain why she asked her colleague to delete the email, and the letter questions whether there are other instances in which she instructed HHS staff to delete emails. The letter also asks for more details regarding Congressional subpoenaed documents, including Tavenner emails, that CMS recently said might be permanently lost; and it requests an explanation as to why redactions are made in some documents provided to Congress so far.

Jeanne Lambrew, White House health care policy advisor. Photo courtesy: Univ. of Texas

The meaning of the Tavenner email that she wanted deleted, and the reason why she issued the instruction, isn’t clear. Those copied on the email exchange to be deleted include: Jeanne Lambrew, Obama’s Director of the White House Office of Health Reform. Previously, emails obtained by the House Oversight Committee indicated Lambrew exchanged confidential taxpayer information on organizations with IRS official Sarah Hall Ingram and White House health policy advisor Ellen Montz. White House visitor logs indicate that Lambrew also hosted the vast majority of Ingram’s 165 White House visits. The IRS has been found by independent overseers to have  improperly targeted and harassed conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. (Incidentally, the IRS has notified Congress that, like HHS, it has “lost” emails responsive to Congressional subpoena).

White House Chief Technology Officer Todd Park

Other names included on the email to be deleted are: White House Chief Technology Officer Todd Park, White House advisor on health care Christopher Jennings, and other HHS and CMS officials.

“[N]ow we know that when HealthCare.gov was crashing, those in charge were hitting the delete button behind the scenes,” said Energy and Commerce chairman Fred Upton (R-MI).

Last week, I sued HHS over its lack of response to my FOI requests regarding HealthCare.gov. Federal officials routinely fail to comply with FOI law. The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch is assisting with the lawsuit. Judicial Watch has had success in its FOI lawsuits against both the Bush and Obama administrations.

There appears to be no down side for federal officials when they flout FOI law to delay and obfuscate. Even in the relatively rare instances in which they are sued, they pay the legal bills with your tax dollars.