IRS Admits Wrongdoing, Apologizes for Targeting Tea Party and Conserva

[wxzyw]

VICTORY: In Proposed Settlement, IRS Admits Wrongdoing, Apologizes for Targeting Tea Party and Conservative Groups

As set forth in the proposed Order:

The IRS admits that its treatment of Plaintiffs during the tax-exempt determinations process, including screening their applications based on their names or policy positions, subjecting those applications to heightened scrutiny and inordinate delays, and demanding of some Plaintiffs’ information that TIGTA determined was unnecessary to the agency’s determination of their tax-exempt status, was wrong. For such treatment, the IRS expresses its sincere apology.

https://aclj.org/free-speech/victory-in-proposed-settlement-irs-admits-wrongdoing-apologizes-for-targeting-tea-party-and-conservative-groups

[captain_kook]

Month-old Baloney. ^^^^^


GOP Surrenders Cherished IRS Scandal at Last

Bloomberg
-
4 hours ago


TODAY ^^^^



The IRS scandal came to a pathetic, whimpering conclusion earlier this month.
The fiction served the GOP for years, yet died quietly this month, forsaken and alone.

Contrary to the Republican story, the IRS never targeted conservatives.

The IRS targeted politics, which was pretty much what it was supposed to do.

[captain_kook]

Would Jay Sekulow LIE to you?
Sure he would,
He's Trump's lawyer.



Who Cares That There Was Never a Scandal At the IRS?
We All Should
by Neil H. Buchanan
OCTOBER 09, 2017
Do you remember "the IRS scandal"? 


If you do, you remember a lie. 


Granted, it was an elaborate, innuendo-driven lie
that many people repeated endlessly,
trying to get you to believe that there was a scandal. 


But it was still a lie, and a damaging one at that.


The reason to revisit this issue now
is that the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)
issued a report last week that showed that the supposedly scandalous behavior
never happened. 

In other words, the central lie behind this non-scandal has been definitively undermined.


In the meantime, Republicans continue to use the IRS non-scandal
as a reason to "punish" the agency with further cuts to its budget. 

Even if the Republicans cannot get their act together this year
 to cut taxes for rich people and corporations,
they can continue to achieve the same end
by making it all but impossible for the IRS to catch tax cheats.


The Republicans will never admit that there was no scandal. 


The Democrats will never make a concerted effort to educate the public.

 And the press will continue to say that it is all very complicated and that the two sides disagree. 

It is a beautifully closed system, with the only losers being the American people,
who need the IRS to be able to continue to do its job.
POSTED BY NEIL H. BUCHANAN
---
http://www.dorfonlaw.org/2017/10/who-cares-that-there-was-never-scandal.html

[wxzyw]

Justice Department admits IRS wrongdoing, agrees to $3.5 million settlement with tea party groups

The Trump administration agreed Thursday to pay $3.5 million to tea party groups snared by IRS targeting during the Obama administration, saying the intrusive scrutiny was illegal and cannot be allowed to happen again.
The government also reversed its tune on former IRS senior executive Lois G. Lerner. Instead of being a hero who tried to stop the targeting — as the Obama administration concluded in 2015 — the Justice Department and IRS now say she failed to stop her employees and hid the bad behavior from her bosses for two years.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who announced the settlements, offered an apology to more than 450 groups that were part of two lawsuits against the IRS.
As part of the agreements, the government admitted that the IRS forced tea party groups into illegal delays and unconscionable scrutiny, including questions about their political beliefs, plans to run for office and names of financial backers.
“There is no excuse for this conduct,” Mr. Sessions said in a statement announcing the settlements. “Hundreds of organizations were affected by these actions, and they deserve an apology from the IRS.”
The IRS did not reply to requests for comment from The Washington Times about whether it would add its own voice to that apology. The IRS also didn’t respond to questions about the reversal on Ms. Lerner, who was allowed to retire rather than be fired in the wake of the targeting scandal................
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/26/tea-party-groups-targeted-irs-get-35-million-settl/

[Dan]

The settlement should include overturning the 2012 election.  After all, the Obama IRS targeting scandal severely undercut the conservatives' ability to fight him.

[captain_kook]

The Trump administration agreed

ripping off the taxpayers again

[Dan]

Obama ripped off the taxpayers, specifically conservative groups.

[captain_kook]

That was NO FINDING of wrongdoing issued by any court against the IRS.

Even the "settlement" the Trump administration just made includes no - zero - findings of wrongdoing.


The Court ruling itself merely orders the IRS to obey all laws and regulations going forward
 
- but does NOT LIST OR RULE THAT ANY VIOLATIONS OCCURRED.

Read this:



Here is the declaratory judgement of the court:
“
49. The Court hereby declares that it is wrong to apply the United States tax laws, including any and all tax rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and standards of review, to any tax-exempt applicant or entity based solely on such entity’s name, any lawful positions it espouses on any issues, or its associations or perceived associations with a particular political movement, position, or viewpoint.

50. The Court hereby declares that any action or inaction taken by the IRS must be applied evenhandedly and not based solely on a tax-exempt applicant or entity’s name, political viewpoint, or associations or perceived associations with a particular political movement, position, or viewpoint.

51. The Court hereby declares that discrimination on the basis of political viewpoint in administering the United States tax code violates fundamental First Amendment rights. Disparate treatment of taxpayers based solely on the taxpayers’ names, any lawful positions the taxpayers espouse on any issues, or the taxpayers’ associations or perceived associations with a particular political movement, position, or viewpoint is unlawful.
--


Note that the judgement does not include any finding that anybody did any of those wrong things.


Paul Streckfus of EO Tax Journal wrote
"..the plaintiffs got nothing but platitudes.

In the other case, NorCal Tea Party Patriots v. IRS, the Cincinnati Enquirer is reporting a multi-million dollar settlement, which will net out to a few thousand dollars for each of 428 plaintiffs, but no apology. I'll take the money over an apology, thank you.


The big winners in this litigation will be the attorneys. While the IRS does not have to pay plaintiffs' attorneys' fees in Linchpins, and probably not in NorCal, the conservative foundations and organizations presumably backing this litigation against the IRS have reputations for paying promptly attorneys who bring these cases, so no starving attorneys, thank God."  http://eotaxjournal.com/eotj/

Why Now?
Repealing and replacing Obamacare was something of a bust.  So having the IRS finally grovelling to the Tea Party might be giving some satisfaction to the Trump base , which might well be disappointed by the upcoming tax bill. 


https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2017/10/27/irs-scandal-ends-as-it-began-with-an-apology/#2dc6640efd4b

[wxzyw]

Justice Department admits IRS wrongdoing, agrees to $3.5 million settlement with tea party groups

The Trump administration agreed Thursday to pay $3.5 million to tea party groups snared by IRS targeting during the Obama administration, saying the intrusive scrutiny was illegal and cannot be allowed to happen again.
The government also reversed its tune on former IRS senior executive Lois G. Lerner. Instead of being a hero who tried to stop the targeting — as the Obama administration concluded in 2015 — the Justice Department and IRS now say she failed to stop her employees and hid the bad behavior from her bosses for two years.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who announced the settlements, offered an apology to more than 450 groups that were part of two lawsuits against the IRS.
As part of the agreements, the government admitted that the IRS forced tea party groups into illegal delays and unconscionable scrutiny, including questions about their political beliefs, plans to run for office and names of financial backers.
“There is no excuse for this conduct,” Mr. Sessions said in a statement announcing the settlements. “Hundreds of organizations were affected by these actions, and they deserve an apology from the IRS.”
The IRS did not reply to requests for comment from The Washington Times about whether it would add its own voice to that apology. The IRS also didn’t respond to questions about the reversal on Ms. Lerner, who was allowed to retire rather than be fired in the wake of the targeting scandal................

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/26/tea-party-groups-targeted-irs-get-35-million-settl/