Obama IRS Targets Liberal Groups Too

Oh no! Now the Obama Administration liberals too. Oh noooooooo!

Danny Werfel, IRS Chief, Says Inappropriate Screening Was Used More Broadly Than Disclosed
Posted: 06/24/2013

WASHINGTON -- Danny Werfel, the principal deputy commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, acknowledged on Monday that the same tactic that got the tax agency in trouble for screening tea party organizations before the 2012 elections was used elsewhere by agency officials.

In a conference call with reporters, Werfel said an internal investigation of the IRS scandal, the findings of which were released Monday afternoon, had unearthed other instances in which "Be On The Look Out" (BOLO) lists were used. He has since ended the use of the tactic, he said, calling the screening criteria used in these other instances "inappropriate."

"When I got to the IRS, we started a more comprehensive review of the operations of this part of the IRS, have been looking at documents and business operations, and we did determine and discover that there are other BOLO lists in place," Werfel said. "And upon discovering that, we also found that we believed there continued to be inappropriate or questionable criteria on these BOLO lists. Once we came to that conclusion, we took immediate action to suspend the use of these lists in the exempt organizations unit within the IRS."

Werfel declined to reveal which organizations appeared on these other lists and what criteria were used to screen them, saying it took time to scrub these documents of "sensitive information." But his comments are bound to renew criticism of the tax agency, which has been under fire for weeks after news it singled out conservative organizations applying for 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status.

Though he acknowledged that his investigation remains incomplete, Werfel said that he had yet to uncover evidence of intentional wrongdoing by IRS officials when applying these BOLOs. Nor had he found instances in which outside actors -- mainly the Obama campaign and administration -- had pressured the tax agency to target conservative groups.

"The fact that no evidence is surfacing as wrongdoing is an important conclusion to reach as long as it is qualified by the fact that more reviews are underway," Werfel said, when pressed by The Huffington Post as to why he was making statements that could later be contradicted by the findings of additional investigations. "And so, I'll be as clear as I can right now. I'm not providing a definitive conclusion that no intentional wrongdoing occurred. But I'm suggesting that based on the ongoing reviews to date, no evidence has yet surfaced."

Werfel's assessment previewed a 60-page, three-part internal IRS report that concluded "significant management and judgment failures occurred" at the agency.

The internal IRS report notes that new people have been appointed to fill five executive management roles: IRS Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement, Commissioner for Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division, Director of Exempt Organizations, and Director of Rulings and Agreements.

Werfel declined to answer questions on the current status of Lois Lerner, the director of the IRS division on tax-exempt organizations who was placed on administrative leave, citing "limitations imposed by the Privacy Act."

The report will offer various suggestions for agency reforms going forward. It will advise the Treasury Department to consider updating its regulations governing the amount of political activity a 501(c)(4) organization can pursue. Current regulations say that social welfare must be the "primary" function of 501(c)(4) groups. The law, which changed in the late 1940s, used to say social welfare should be the "exclusive" activity.

The report calls for an Enterprise Risk Management Program that will "provide a common framework for capturing, reporting and addressing risk areas across the IRS," according to a press release.

Finally, it suggests that the IRS create a self-certification process that would enable groups that have waited more than 120 days for 510(c)(4) approval to fast-track their applications for tax-exempt status. According to Werfel, groups in the backlog would have to sign papers pledging that they would spend "no more than 40 percent of their resources or expenditures and no more than 40 percent of their voluntary person hours on political campaign intervention activities."

Asked by The Huffington Post if that meant that these groups would get tax privileges in exchange for promising to follow the law, Werfel noted that groups can currently file as 501(c)(4)s and do not have to ask the IRS for that designation ahead of time. Moreover, if the IRS feels an organization is violating its pledge under the new system, it has the option to penalize it.

"To the extent any issues surface where those percentages change or the activities change, the appropriate place to vet and look at those issues would potentially be on exam and audit when they come in with their tax returns," Werfel said.

The IRS report comes as congressional investigators examine the root causes of the IRS screening scandal. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chair of the House Oversight Committee, has released several partial transcripts of interviews with IRS employees that suggested officials in Washington were involved in establishing the BOLO criteria. But a full transcript of one of the interviews released by the committee's ranking member, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), showed that those officials were merely lawyers in the IRS' D.C. office, not advisers to the administration.

The transcript also revealed that John Shafer, the manager of the tax-exempt division in the IRS' Cincinnati office and a self-described conservative, had been involved in developing the criteria. Shafer said his goal was to maintain consistency in the screening process and that he was not driven by a political agenda.

Issa has announced that his committee will hold its next hearing about the scandal on Wednesday.

UPDATE: 4: 45 p.m. -- The Associated Press has obtained an internal IRS document that reveals the other terms the agency screened for when deciding which groups should be granted tax exempt status. The news cuts against the original storyline that the tactic was used to target conservatives.

 

Oh nooooooooo! ANOTHER scandal!

 

We didn't target any groups....well. maybe we did but it wasn't politcally motivated...okay, well, maybe they were Conservative groups but the White House wasn't involved...okay, so maybe that isn't entirely true...HEY, WAIT, WE TARGETED LIBERALS GROUPS TOO! YEAH, THAT'S IT! THAT'S THE TICKET! YEAH...
Another case where the truth wasn't known because of the fog-of-war?

 

Ha ha ha ha ha... You just can't handle facts that counter your agenda.

 

Isn't it funny to watch as the admin's version tends to "evolve"?

 

Here's a scandal: Every time some wrong-doing has been uncovered at the IRS, a republican has been found to be in charge.

Well right-wing-nuts, where's your outrage at all these republicans doing wrong?

 

"Werfel declined to reveal which organizations appeared on these other lists and what criteria were used to screen them", yet somehow you translate that to liberals. As you keep asking for in other threads - where is the proof?

 

Wow! You guys could find a scandal and conspiracy in a bowl of Fruit Loops. I'm impressed!

 

It is funny that their narrative is destroyed and as usual by facts. Those pesky facts.

 

Well, there have always been two belief systems that don't allow facts to stand in the way of backwards thinking....politics and religion.

 

...and you guys will overlook every single wrong-doing in DC as long as BO is calling the shots...

 

You think facts are "pesky"...typical far left whacko...just like BO considers the Constitution pesky, right?

 

.....like I said.

 

Oh, c'mon...when Chris Mathews, Rachel maddow & Harry Reid are starting to ask questions you gotta think there just might be a flame behind all that smoke! Maybe?

 

Do you notice how as their narrative falls apart, it doesn't seem to change what they are saying in the least? True believers to the end. It has to be Obama targeting conservative groups, it just has to be in spite of no proof and actual evidence to the contrary. Too funny.

 

OMG! I love the way anyone who disagrees with your mantra is lying, being ignored, does not count or whatever other category you put them in. The IRS has ADMITTED they were targeting. There is no stronger proof.

 

The OP's article did contain this statement

Werfel declined to reveal which organizations appeared on these other lists and what criteria were used to screen them, saying it took time to scrub these documents of "sensitive information.

Read more: http://www.partisanlines.com/threads/obama-irs-targets-liberal-groups-too.50393/#ixzz2XKf7DPnu​

But nowhere in Werfel's statements does he state that BOLO criteria was also applied to Liberal groups seeking Tax Exempt Status. I would think if the study revealed that BOLO was also applied to Liberal Causes that this finding would be addressed specifically in the statement. Absence of such has me worried that applied broader could mean that BOLO was utilized as part of the Audit Function.

 

Someone else actually read it the way I did. Thank you!

 

View attachment 1789

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...aim-that-liberal-groups-were-targeted-by-irs/

 

You mean Teddy was wrong? Well, gee. I will have to remember that, but it will be difficult trying to sort this mistake out from the rest of his BS.