IRS official refuses to answer questions at scandal hearing

Daily News Article   —   Posted on May 23, 2013
Lois Lerner

Lois Lerner

(by Kim Dixon and Patrick Temple-West, YahooNews) WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Internal Revenue Service official at the center of a scandal about targeting conservative groups told Congress on Wednesday she had done nothing wrong but invoked her constitutional right not to answer questions.

Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS tax-exempt unit, angered lawmakers by reading a statement before refusing to testify, but she was dismissed from the hearing with a warning that she could be called back for another appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any congressional committee,” Lerner told the panel. “Because I am asserting my right not to testify, I know that some people will assume that I have done something wrong. I have not,” she said.

House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa, a California Republican, said Lerner appeared to have waived her right against self-incrimination by making the statement. Republican Trey Gowdy of South Carolina demanded that she stay to answer questions, drawing applause from the crowd in the hearing room.

After conferring with aides, Issa – who has accused Lerner of providing “false or misleading” information to Congress last year about the IRS’s treatment of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status – dismissed her from the hearing but said he might call her to testify in the future….

Lerner is at the center of the scandal over the IRS’s use of search terms such as “Tea Party” and “patriots,” to target groups for additional scrutiny of their qualifications for tax-exempt status.

The IRS’s “inappropriate” targeting of conservative groups, as described in a report the inspector general released last week, has set off a political firestorm and led Republicans to question whether Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration was involved. …

Congressional investigators have said Lerner [the head of the IRS unit that grants tax exempt status to organizations] was the Washington official who learned in June 2011 that workers in a Cincinnati, Ohio, office were using inappropriate criteria and ordered them changed.

Issa and other lawmakers have complained that Lerner and other IRS officials knew of targeting by the IRS but did not inform Congress.

‘FALSE OR MISLEADING’

Lerner made the IRS targeting public on May 10, sparking investigations by three congressional committees and a criminal probe by the Department of Justice.

Her refusal to testify on Wednesday stymied attempts by Issa’s panel to learn who was responsible for initiating the targeting and supervising the targeting [of conservative organizations].

At the hearing, frustrated lawmakers repeatedly criticized former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman and [Inspector General of TIGTA] J. Russell George, who published a watchdog report on the practice last week, for not alerting Congress to the practice earlier.

Democratic Representative Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts warned their failure to be more forthcoming could require the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into the scandal.

Issa said an IRS internal review uncovered the policy of scrutinizing conservative groups in May 2012 and that top officials, including outgoing acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, were made aware of the findings but did not alert Congress for nearly a year.

He also questioned why George’s investigators looking into the targeting allowed IRS officials to be present during investigative interviews with subordinates and criticized the inspector general for waiting 10 months to give the [congressional] committee information on the targeting.

George said it would have been “impractical for us to give you partial information that may not be accurate.”

Shulman repeated the testimony he gave a Senate hearing on Tuesday that he did not know the full details of the targeting for two years after it started in 2010. Issa told Shulman, “If you didn’t know, you were derelict in your duty.”

Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the panel, criticized Shulman for not alerting Congress to the practice after testifying in March 2012 without mentioning it. He said it would have been “common sense” to “come back, even if it were a phone call or a letter.”

Issa said the employees in the IRS tax-exempt unit “could have and should have been a whistleblower” on the targeting.

Shulman said he never discussed the targeting with anyone at the White House. Republican Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio noted that Shulman visited the White House 118 times during 2010 and 2011 and said it was surprising the issue would not have come up.

Shulman said he mostly talked about budget and tax issues, with the healthcare overhaul another frequent topic.

(Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Karey Van Hall, Doina Chiacu and Cynthia Osterman)

By Reuters at YahooNews.com. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. Visit news.yahoo.com/irs-lerner-says-did-nothing-wrong-refuses-answer-143727256.html for the original post.


Questions

Please note:  "ANSWERS BY EMAIL" ENDS TOMORROW.  ANSWERS EMAILS WILL RESUME ON SEPTEMBER 3RD
1. a) Who is Lois Lerner?
b) What does it mean to "plead the Fifth"?

2. a) What will people assume by Ms. Lerner's decision to plead the Fifth?
b) Do you think Ms. Lerner's decision to plead the Fifth was a good idea? Explain your answer.

3. a) What did the committee accuse Lois Lerner of doing in relation to the scandal?
b) In para. 7, the Reuters reporters state: "The IRS's 'inappropriate' targeting of conservative groups, as described in a report the inspector general released last week, has set off a political firestorm and led Republicans to question whether Democratic President Barack Obama's administration was involved." Do you think Democrats should also be concerned about this possibility? Explain your answer.

4. a) When did Ms. Lerner learn about her department's targeting of conservatives?
b) Ms. Lerner made the information public almost a year after learning of the scandal, only because the inspector general's report was being released. How did Congress and the Justice Department react to the information?

5. What is Congressman Issa's committee attempting to determine with their investigation?

6. The inspector general who investigated the IRS scandal did not alert Congress of any IRS wrongdoing prior to publishing the report. The head of the unit targeting conservatives did not alert Congress. Both were supposed to have done so. Why do you think they didn't?

7. a) Many believe the targeting by the IRS was a deliberate attack to silence Tea Party groups leading up to the presidential election, and some suggest this intimidation could have affected the outcome of the election. What do you think? Ask a parent what he/she thinks.
b) How serious is it for the IRS (the U.S. federal government) to target a citizen because of political beliefs? Ask a parent what he/she thinks.


Background

NOTE: The federal government agency TIGTA (Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration) provides independent oversight of Department of the Treasury matters involving Internal Revenue Service (IRS) activities...

According to TIGTA’s investigation of the IRS, the IRS used “inappropriate criteria” to select conservative groups applying for nonprofit status for additional scrutiny. In a 48-page report prepared by the Treasury Inspector General for tax administration: “The inappropriate and changing criteria may have led to inconsistent treatment of organizations applying for tax-exempt status.”  The criteria led to “substantial delays in processing certain applications and allowed unnecessary information requests to be issued,” the report says.

IRS employees also inappropriately requested the political affiliations of members of the groups seeking nonprofit designation.

The Inspector disputed claims by the IRS that the problems surrounding the scandal have been fixed. “Although the IRS has taken some action,” the Inspector General wrote, “it will need to do more so that the public has reasonable assurance that applications are processed without unreasonable delay in a fair and impartial manner in the future.”  (adapted from politico.com)

  • When an application for tax exempt status comes into the IRS:

    Agents have 270 days to work through that application.  If the application is not processed within those 270 days it automatically triggers flags in the system.  When that happens, individual agents are required to input a status update on that individual case once a month, every month until the case is resolved. 

    Keep in mind, at least 300 groups were targeted out of Cincinnati alone.  Those applications spent anywhere from 18 months to nearly 3 years in the system and some still don't have their non-profit status.  300 groups multiplied by at least 18 months for each group, means thousands of red flags would have been generated in the system. 

    So who in the chain of command would have received all these flags?  The answer, according to the IRS directory, is one woman in Cincinnati, Cindy Thomas, the Program Manager of the Tax Exempt Division.  Because all six of our IRS workers have different individual and territory managers, Cindy Thomas is one manager they all have common.     

    It turns out Cindy Thomas' name is one we have heard before.  The independent journalism group ProPublica says in November of 2012 they had requested information on conservatives groups that had received non-profit status.  Along with that information, the IRS released private information on nine conservative groups that had not yet been approved and personal information had not been redacted.  The person who signed off on that release, Cindy Thomas. 

    What this means for you... consider this chain of command since the story broke: