Shulman went through the first of at least two testimonies he is required to give concerning the #IRS scandal. Today, he appeared before the Senate Finance Committe. It did not go well for Mr. Shulman. He said he was “dismayed” and “saddened ” after reading the IG’s report that indicated targeting had gone on within the IRS concerning 501(c)(4) exemption. applications. In his usual instructive yet digressing style, he appeared to try and give the appearance of acceptance that the the questions concerning the fairness of the IRS’ actions, were justified. Yet he did not apologize and claimed he wasn’t responsible for what happened regarding the targeting. Sounds rather like a terrified USC trying to appeal to the IRS that he/she wasn’t responsible for not filing a tax return, or an FBAR, since he/she had no knowledge of it, doesn’t it? Apparently the panel was not particularly sympathetic to Shulman (or Miller).
See the video of his comments at:
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/irs-scandal-doug-shulman-91665.html (1:35)
Interestingly, Baucus took the unusual step of swearing each witness in. I wonder what level of risk that involves. I hear that famous phrase “under penalty of perjury” ringing deliciously in my ears!
“Shulman has come under fire for telling a House committee in March 2012 that the IRS was “absolutely” not targeting conservative groups. He was briefed on the program in May but never disclosed it to Congress before stepping down in November at the end of a six-year term.” If he could claim the IRS was not targeting in March 2012, it would appear that he knew it was going on. What difference does it make that he was briefed in May. What matters is that he knew, it was his responsibility to follow through and get to the bottom of it, given the seriousness of the matter. The fact he did not tell Congress is what should nail him. And what does that remind of us? Willfulness. Willful blindness (NOT!). Hm, what’s the penalty for that? Lying to Congress could land him 5 years in jail.
Mr. Shulman’s testimony “frustrated Republicans already irritated by Miller’s contentious appearance before the House Ways and Means Committee last Friday and shed little additional light on when key figures in the White House and Treasury found out about the IRS targeting.” I find it interesting that, although partisan-based, the Republicans seem to feel Obama is responsible so how could anyone not find Shulman responsible? It was his job to lead the IRS and knowing there was a problem, it is inexcusable that he did not investigate the full extent of it. Orrin Hatch said the fact Shulman and Miller found out in May 2012 and did not notify Congress amounted to “a lie of omission.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/300573-dem-ex-irs-chief-lied-to-congress
A Democrat, Rep. Joseph Crowley, indicated he believed Shulman lied to Congress under oath when he told lawmakers last year that the agency did not give special attention to certain groups.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/21/politics/irs-targeting/index.html?hpt=hp_inthenews
Baucus and Hatch sent a letter to the IRS on Monday seeking an exhaustive list of information about the case as part of a full investigation by their committee. There is a deadline (can’t find the original info) and there was no mention of any possibility of an extension. Hmmm, what kind of accuracy penalties, in addition to non-filing compliance, could we be looking at here? LOL!
According to The Hill, the Justice Department has launced a criminal investigation into the matter. And Lois Lerner will plead the 5th tomorrow when appearing before the House Oversight Committee.
Tune in tomorrow to the House Oversight Committee hearing where Mr. Shulman will appear again.
Boy, the Head of the IRS Went to the White House A Lot
@Just Me
If someone in the media would just speculate that some of these meetings were to discuss expats, that would catapult our issues further than they’ve ever gone!
The visits were probably about FATCA and how to hunt down those pesky ex-pats.
An idea…
David Camp of House Ways and means is looking for more stories about the T-Party IRS scandal.
They have a web site.
The IRS Political Discrimination Investigation – Share your Story.
I decided to put in a submission, which stated basically, they should look into the area of OVDP and FBAR penatly abuse by the IRS. I gave them two of Nina Olsons Reports to Congress. One on the Bait and Switch and the most recent on the Continued bad practices by the IRS voluntary disclosure process. What the hell? They are reading submission and are receptive for input, and though it was off the subject of their inquiry, the form did not prevent the entry, so I made one… 🙂
This is an interesting angle:
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/31/former-irs-commissioner-shulmans-wife-works-for-liberal-group-fighting-open-campaign-spending/
Former Internal Revenue Service commissioner Douglas H. Shulman, a frequent White House guest during the period when the IRS was targeting conservative nonprofits, is married to the senior program advisor for Public Campaign, an “organization dedicated to sweeping campaign reform that aims to dramatically reduce the role of big special interest money in American politics.”…………..” IRS supporters have defended the beleaguered agency”………”One of those defenders is the group of which Shulman’s spouse is an executive.
Good deed @Just Me. Perhaps it will bear fruit. Never can tell.
@badger
Most interesting.
She is Susan L Anderson on twitter as @slandersonwdc .
Apparently she stopped tweeting on May 9 just before the May 10 IRS “apology.” Link below shows HER visits to the WH (NB:log includes information on visits from Sept 15, 2009 through December 31, 2010).
https://twitter.com/IshYimini/status/341399469344030721/photo/1
Maybe there were more easter egg hunts than we thought:
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2010/10/06/whats-in-the-white-house-visitors-logs
“The White House also omits data on “purely personal” visits and “particularly sensitive meetings” from its data releases.”
@Just Me, great job on your submission to Ways and means regarding OVDI abuse.
Next question is, who initiated those meetings between Shulman and Obama?
Pingback: The Isaac Brock Society
The IRS scandal is not dying down on day 27…
I count 36 stories
Here is a good clip of Leno getting good laughs and applause on the suggestion that the IRS be shut down instead of Gitmo
and here is an excellent graphic… Not sure it will show up here as copy pasted, but you can follow the this link if it doesn’t work….
Source: TopAccountingDegrees.org
I should have said, “There is a good clip there of Leno…
Here is a direct link, but then you have to sign up for this guys web site, and I didn’t bother…
http://www.mrctv.org/videos/crowd-erupts-thunderous-applause-when-leno-says-obama-should-close-irs-instead-gitmo
记录生活 Not many of us speak Chinese and a URL in your message just screams SPAM. If you haven’t noticed this is not a site that we want spam in. Take your facealive.com and hit the road.
@The_Animal
Can’t spell the poster you mentioned above but it’s handled. 😉
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New development on IRS scandal:
http://www.taxabletalk.com/2013/07/19/irs-scandal-update-christine-odonnell-irs-general-counsel/
“..former IRS attorney Carter Hull and two other attorneys said that the orders to hold up approval of Tea Party organizations came from the IRS Chief Counsel’s Office. The head of the IRS Chief Counsel is one of only two political appointees at the IRS. Eliana Johnson’s report on National Review Online is an excellent source on this information.
For those who say this is meaningless, it’s not. This is huge news. It’s been clear from the start that someone ordered this. It was never rogue agents in Cincinnati. It’s almost certainly, given the nature of what happened, someone with a political slant. Sure, it could have been someone high-up at the IRS who didn’t like the Tea Party. It’s far more likely that a political appointee would make this decision. Again, the IRS Chief Counsel is such a person.
Peggy Noonan’s commentary is also must reading. She noted that the trail goes to the Chief Counsel’s office….”
“…For those who think the IRS scandal has ended, it hasn’t. It’s clearly linked to Washington, not Cincinnati. The only question now is who did the ordering….”
See also:
Updated July 19, 2013, 6:56 p.m. ET
‘Noonan: A Bombshell in the IRS Scandal; No, it wasn’t confined to a few rogue workers in Cincinnati.’
“….Still, what landed was a bombshell. And Democrats know it. Which is why they are so desperate to make the investigation go away. They know, as Republicans do, that the chief counsel of the IRS is one of only two Obama political appointees in the entire agency. …”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324448104578614220949743916.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
and,
July 18, 2013 4:00 AM
‘Targeting from the Top of the IRS
High-ranking IRS lawyers, possibly including an Obama appointee, delayed tea-party applications.’
By Eliana Johnson
“..testimony from three IRS attorneys indicated lawyers in the agency’s chief counsel’s office were involved in reviewing the applications of tea-party groups for tax exemption. The office is led by William Wilkins, one of two IRS officials appointed by President Obama….”
http://nationalreview.com/article/353729/targeting-top-irs-eliana-johnson
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/05/timothy-geithner-is-key-to-irs-scandal.html
I wished the media had such passion on pursuing FATCA and OVDP and the offshore jihad! That is more significant and important than the tempest over the tea party.
Attorney in Federal Agency General Counsel’s Office: There Is ‘No Innocent Explanation’ for IRS Chief Counsel’s Meeting With Obama
I am reprinting (with permission) an email I received today from an attorney in the general counsel’s office of a federal agency (not the IRS) concerning reports of IRS Chief Counsel William Wilkins’ meeting with President Obama in the White House two days before providing guidance to IRS personnel on handling tax-exempt applications from Tea Party and other conservative groups:
Amid new revelations about the IRS targeting scandal, the Obama administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said Tuesday that former OMB head Jeffrey Zients’ extended absence from the United States is due to a family vacation.
OMB’s statement came after The Daily Caller reported that former leader Jeffrey Zients met at the White House with key figures at the Internal Revenue Service just before news broke that the IRS was targeting conservative nonprofit groups for abusive audits and delays.
Zients has still not returned from an overseas trip that began after his departure from the Obama administration in April, two weeks before the IRS scandal broke. A White House source told The Daily Caller that Zients’ absence from the country has been noticeable and concerning.
“Mr. Zients’ wife’s family lives in South Africa. He is visiting them now, as he and his family do every summer,” an OMB spokesperson told Fox News in a statement Tuesday. The agency did not address the concerns raised by the White House source, nor did it provide either the date Zients began his overseas trip or the date he is expected to return.
OMB, which had declined to comment on Zients’ abrupt departure prior to The Daily Caller’s report, did not return a request for comment.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/23/when-will-jeffrey-zients-return-from-south-africa/#ixzz2a2E7r8r5
James Jatras has posted his power point presentation for the 2013 World Credit Union Conference held July 15th in Ottawa. I wonder if there was an audio or video recording done? We are so lucky to have someone of his calibre delivering the anti-FATCA message to key political and financial targets.
http://repealfatca.com/
@Em
Yes we are very lucky we have Jim Jatras crusading against FATCA. I noticed he mentioned the FATCA Compliance Complex (FCC) in his presentation. I believed Just Me coined that term, didn’t he? Nice to see a Brocker’s touch on the presentation 🙂
I hope that there was a lot of interest in FATCA-what??? among attendees and he got a good turnout.
Congress Probes Status of IRS Officials and Documents in Tea Party Scandal
Camp and the ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, Sander Levin, D-Mich., also sent a separate letter to Werfel on Wednesday asking about the lack of production of documents related to their May 14, 2013 request of all documents related to the targeting of organizations by the IRS. On June 4, the IRS said it had collected over 65 million pages of documents related to Camp and Levin’s request, but to date, the IRS has only provided 13,000 pages, some of which are duplicates.
“We are concerned that, at this rate, the full production will take months,” Camp and Levin wrote in their letter.
“The IRS demands that hardworking Americans comply with its rules and regulations, but it appears that same agency cannot comply with a simple Congressional request,” Camp later said in a statement from the Ways and Means press office. “The IRS has not even produced one percent of responsive documents—that is inexcusable. The IRS has pledged accountability and transparency, but the slow production and compliance in this investigation begins to look a lot like obstruction.”
Why Levin of ALL people??? Our enemy of our enemy is our enemy still.
@bubblebustin…
Different Levin