According to a report from Fox19 news in Cincinnati, the story we’ve been told about the IRS and its “rogue” workers is false to the roots. The IRS has claimed that the entire anti-Tea Party regime was run by two people who, according to outgoing acting commissioner Steven Miller (whose resignation turned out to be a sham), acted on their own. Fox19 has found that the facts are a bit different.
One of FOX19’s two sources went on say that these four IRS workers claim “they simply did what their bosses ordered.” FOX19 reported on Tuesday that the report by the Office of Inspector General states that senior IRS officials knew agents were targeting Tea Party groups as early as 2011.
In fact, according to that report, Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax exempt organizations, was told on June 29, 2011 that groups with “Tea Party”, “Patriot” or “9/12 Project” in their names were being flagged for additional, and often burdensome, scrutiny.
Whose orders were they following? We may find out on Monday, when at least two IRS workers are supposed to testify.
Update: Gay Patriot asks, “Who wrote the [IRS] questionnaire?” Great question. They really do read like an opposition researcher’s dream.
Update: The Nine Lies of Lois Lerner. Kevin Williamson runs through Lerner’s many lies before reaching this conclusion.
What we have, then, is this: Under a Democratic administration, the IRS was under pressure from Democratic elected officials to investigate political enemies of the Democratic party. The agency did so. Its commissioner lied to Congress about its doing so. When the inspector general’s report was about to make these abuses public, the agency staged a classic Washington Friday news rollout at a sleepy American Bar Association tax-law conference, hoping to minimize the bad publicity. Lerner lied to the public about the nature, scope, and extent of the IRS intimidation campaign.
House Speaker John Boehner asked yesterday “Who is going to jail?” because of this scandal. Steven Miller and Lois Lerner would be a good start.
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