Lois Lerner’s long-lost emails turned up this week, about 32,000 of them. The committee investigating her involvement in the IRS scandal had made numerous requests for them and the IRS director had testified under oath that they were irretrievably lost, and could never be found. Even the hard drive had been destroyed. And her Blackberry phone which she used to conduct business was also broken. Strange. But not nearly as strange as how this story began in the first place.
It was the closing session of the annual meeting of the American Bar Association’s tax section on May 14, 2013. The meeting room at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C. was filled with lawyers.
Lois Lerner, Director of the IRS’ tax-exempt organizations division, had just finished her prepared remarks when she was asked a question from the floor. The questioner was Celia Roady, one of the tax lawyers in attendance.
Her question surprised everyone there. She said she had heard there were some concerns about the IRS reviewing applications from 501(c) (4) organizations, including tea party groups, and she asked Lerner for additional information.
Lerner’s response was another surprise as she went into more detail than expected, saying there had been an increase in the number of such applications and that IRS employees in Cincinnati had attempted to follow the procedures required in such cases, but went on to say that the procedures had not been carried out properly.
According to Lerner, the manner in which the cases were filed was “wrong, absolutely incorrect, insensitive and inappropriate.” She even said that the IRS had sent some of these organizations questions that were “too broad”.
It has never been clear just why Lerner chose that method of calling public attention to the actions of the IRS. At first Roady denied that she had been asked ahead of time to pose the question from the floor, but eventually admitted that Lerner had asked her to do so. Various news reports had been coming out that the Treasury Inspector General had been investigating the IRS with regard to how it was treating the requests for tax exemption and had prepared a report which was due to be released shortly after the American Bar Association meeting.
Several news observers speculated that Lerner thought she could avoid being implicated if she herself got the story out ahead of the formal announcement. As it turned out, she found herself right in the middle of a major scandal involving the Internal Revenue Service and it did not turn out as she had anticipated.
Lerner later admitted that the IRS had been giving additional scrutiny to applications for tax exempt status from groups with the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their title prior to the 2012 election, and blamed the practice on a “rogue” employee in Cincinnati.
Just a few days later, Lerner appeared before the House Government Oversight Committee, at which time she read a brief statement to be put into the Record wherein she said that she had done nothing wrong, and when the committee members began to question her about her involvement, she invoked her right not to testify under the Fifth Amendment. After replying in this fashion at least four times, Chairman Darrell Issa allowed her to leave and she was placed on administrative leave, with pay.
In the meantime members of the Senate Finance Committee had requested 41 pieces of information about any communication between the IRS and White House officials about the singling out of tea party groups. The IRS failed to produce any documents.
At the same time members of the House Ways and Means Committee had asked IRS how it vetted conservative groups and the criteria it used to flag certain groups for extra screening. Again the IRS did not meet the deadline for submitting such information.
In September 2013, Lerner, who had been on paid administrative leave, resigned in order to draw a full tax-payer funded retirement benefit package of more than $102,600 per year as long as she lives, even though a review accountability board recommended that she be fired. She also received $129,300 in bonuses in addition to her $177,000 annual salary while she presided over the alleged scheme to discriminate against conservative groups.
The investigation was not concluded with her resignation. It now revolves around missing emails, literally thousands of them, as the various Congressional committees attempt to learn the persons and/or government agencies who have been involved from the beginning.
The IRS through its Commissioner Koskinen has consistently said that the emails were lost when Lerner’s computer suffered a crash of its hard drive.
In an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly at the 2014 Super Bowl, the President said there was no scandal with the IRS and not even a “smidgeon of corruption”.
On Thursday of last week, federal investigators for the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found about 30,000 of Lerner’s emails going back to 2001, ten years beyond what the IRS said had been destroyed.
IRS Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) that it took investigators just two weeks to recover 424 backup tapes that were previously said to be irretrievable.
“We send a subpoena, we send letters, we have hearings, we hear all kinds of excuses from the IRS,” Chaffetz said. “Every excuse you can have under the sun — you find them in two weeks, and then when you go talk to the IT people who are there in charge of them, they told you that they were never even asked for them?”
“That is correct”, replied Camus.
According to the Inspector General, he is now investigating for possible criminal activity in the matter.
It was the closing session of the annual meeting of the American Bar Association’s tax section on May 14, 2013. The meeting room at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C. was filled with lawyers.
Lois Lerner, Director of the IRS’ tax-exempt organizations division, had just finished her prepared remarks when she was asked a question from the floor. The questioner was Celia Roady, one of the tax lawyers in attendance.
Her question surprised everyone there. She said she had heard there were some concerns about the IRS reviewing applications from 501(c) (4) organizations, including tea party groups, and she asked Lerner for additional information.
Lerner’s response was another surprise as she went into more detail than expected, saying there had been an increase in the number of such applications and that IRS employees in Cincinnati had attempted to follow the procedures required in such cases, but went on to say that the procedures had not been carried out properly.
According to Lerner, the manner in which the cases were filed was “wrong, absolutely incorrect, insensitive and inappropriate.” She even said that the IRS had sent some of these organizations questions that were “too broad”.
It has never been clear just why Lerner chose that method of calling public attention to the actions of the IRS. At first Roady denied that she had been asked ahead of time to pose the question from the floor, but eventually admitted that Lerner had asked her to do so. Various news reports had been coming out that the Treasury Inspector General had been investigating the IRS with regard to how it was treating the requests for tax exemption and had prepared a report which was due to be released shortly after the American Bar Association meeting.
Several news observers speculated that Lerner thought she could avoid being implicated if she herself got the story out ahead of the formal announcement. As it turned out, she found herself right in the middle of a major scandal involving the Internal Revenue Service and it did not turn out as she had anticipated.
Lerner later admitted that the IRS had been giving additional scrutiny to applications for tax exempt status from groups with the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their title prior to the 2012 election, and blamed the practice on a “rogue” employee in Cincinnati.
Just a few days later, Lerner appeared before the House Government Oversight Committee, at which time she read a brief statement to be put into the Record wherein she said that she had done nothing wrong, and when the committee members began to question her about her involvement, she invoked her right not to testify under the Fifth Amendment. After replying in this fashion at least four times, Chairman Darrell Issa allowed her to leave and she was placed on administrative leave, with pay.
In the meantime members of the Senate Finance Committee had requested 41 pieces of information about any communication between the IRS and White House officials about the singling out of tea party groups. The IRS failed to produce any documents.
At the same time members of the House Ways and Means Committee had asked IRS how it vetted conservative groups and the criteria it used to flag certain groups for extra screening. Again the IRS did not meet the deadline for submitting such information.
In September 2013, Lerner, who had been on paid administrative leave, resigned in order to draw a full tax-payer funded retirement benefit package of more than $102,600 per year as long as she lives, even though a review accountability board recommended that she be fired. She also received $129,300 in bonuses in addition to her $177,000 annual salary while she presided over the alleged scheme to discriminate against conservative groups.
The investigation was not concluded with her resignation. It now revolves around missing emails, literally thousands of them, as the various Congressional committees attempt to learn the persons and/or government agencies who have been involved from the beginning.
The IRS through its Commissioner Koskinen has consistently said that the emails were lost when Lerner’s computer suffered a crash of its hard drive.
In an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly at the 2014 Super Bowl, the President said there was no scandal with the IRS and not even a “smidgeon of corruption”.
On Thursday of last week, federal investigators for the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found about 30,000 of Lerner’s emails going back to 2001, ten years beyond what the IRS said had been destroyed.
IRS Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) that it took investigators just two weeks to recover 424 backup tapes that were previously said to be irretrievable.
“We send a subpoena, we send letters, we have hearings, we hear all kinds of excuses from the IRS,” Chaffetz said. “Every excuse you can have under the sun — you find them in two weeks, and then when you go talk to the IT people who are there in charge of them, they told you that they were never even asked for them?”
“That is correct”, replied Camus.
According to the Inspector General, he is now investigating for possible criminal activity in the matter.
Comments