Using the IRS Against Political Enemies “An Impeachable Offense”

WAS LERNER TAKING DIRECTION FROM OBAMA?

by Sharon Rondeau

(Nov. 28, 2014) — In his Wednesday “Lunch Alert!” political pundit Dick Morris reported on an inspector general’s recent discovery of approximately 30,000 emails exchanged between former IRS Exempt Organizations Division Director Lois Lerner and external U.S. government recipients.

In May of last year, Lerner admitted that targeting of certain right-leaning groups was carried out by the tax agency formed after the 16th Amendment was put into place under questionable conditions.

Initially, only the Cincinnati IRS office was identified as the perpetrator, but later, supervisors in Washington, DC were implicated.  Lerner, who now draws a six-figure, taxpayer-funded pension, quickly became the focus of congressional investigators of the corruption which ultimately may have swayed the 2012 presidential election.

When Lerner was promoted to the IRS directorship, then-IRS Commissioner stated that “Protecting the integrity of tax-exempt organizations is an important part of our enforcement program.  Lois’s background, including her work for the Federal Election Commission, qualifies her for this new assignment.”

Lerner insisted in an interview with Politico in September that her left-leaning views “have never affected my work.”  An inspector general’s report released in June of last year refuted the claim that “progressive” tax-exempt applicants received the same scrutiny as “conservative” or Tea Party groups.

After Congress subpoenaed Lerner’s emails to external government agencies and departments, IRS employees said that Lerner’s computer had crashed and that no backup of emails sent by Lerner and others existed.  The inspector general’s discovery last week proved that assertion false.

A 33-year- federal government career employee, Lerner refused to resign after the scandal became public, although she was placed on “administrative leave.”

“It’s going to be very important to go through those bit by bit and find exactly what role the White House may or may not have played in the IRS scandal,” Morris said, reminding his audience that President Richard M. Nixon had been impeached by the House of Representatives in 1972 in part for using the IRS against his political enemies.

In June of this year, conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer described the IRS scandal as “a high crime” comparable to the Second Article of Impeachment drafted against Nixon, referencing Obama’s claim that there was “not a smidgeon of corruption” within the IRS.

Obama has lied to the public about his signature accomplishment, Obamacare; the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012, which killed four Americans; his long-form birth certificate posted on the White House website, which has been proved fraudulent by a three-year criminal investigation; his recent announced “executive actions” on illegal aliens touted as “temporary” but admittedly an attempt to “changing the law” without constitutionally-mandated action from Congress; the impact of Islam on the early history of the United States; and his promise of “transparency” and “openness in government.”

Obama’s sycophants, assistants, and fellow executive-branch employees have also lied, including Jonathan Gruber regarding how Obamacare was passed; putative Attorney General Eric Holder in regard to the Fast & Furious gunrunning scandal and his knowledge of it; and former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius concerning abortion coverage by Obamacare plans.

Obama’s new HHS secretary, Sylvia Burwell, admitted that Obamacare enrollee figures were “padded” with those enrolling only in dental plans in order to give the appearance that a certain threshold had been met.

Republicans in Congress have criticized Obama for failing to “faithfully execute the laws” of the United States, particularly in regard to his unilateral actions on illegal aliens by declaring them exempt from deportation without Congress having altered federal law constitutionally.

Some Democrats have predicted that Obama will be impeached, although citing “racism” as its cause.

Some believe that Republicans are taking actions which will lead to Obama’s ultimate impeachment by the House of Representatives.  Should that occur, the Senate would act as the trial court and vote on whether or not to remove Obama from office for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Writing for The New York Times, author Peter Schick said the day following Obama’s immigration declaration:

Most telling, Mr. Obama, a former constitutional law professor, once rejected the very arguments he now embraces. Last year he said that extending amnesty beyond the so-called Dreamers (the children of undocumented immigrants brought here at an early age) would be “ignoring the law in a way that I think would be very difficult to defend legally.” It is hard to think of a confession more damning to his position in a court of law, in a congressional court of impeachment and in the court of public opinion.

On July 27, 1974, three Articles of Impeachment were prepared naming Nixon as the perpetrator of abuse of power, obstruction of justice, and contempt of Congress.  Nixon was also noted to have tried to “use the Internal Revenue Service as a weapon to investigate his enemies.”  The IRS Commissioner at the time, Johnnie Mac Walters, refused.

Since the news of the most recent IRS scandal was made public, groups and individuals receiving extra scrutiny are, in part:

• Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson, who has been critical of Obamacare and may seek the presidency in 2016
• Tea Party organizations
• 9/12 Project groups
• Organizations “educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights”
• Wayne Allyn Root, who reportedly attended Columbia when Obama did and has called Obama a “fraud“
• Donors to the presidential campaign of Republican Mitt Romney
• The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
• Breitbart News
• A statistically high percentage of individuals who attempted to attend a hearing for CDR Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III (Ret.) to protest grand jury and judicial corruption in eastern Tennessee on April 20, 2010
• A Catholic professor who openly criticized Obama
• Former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell
• True the Vote and King Street Patriots Founder Catherine Engelbrecht
• Pro-life and religious groups
• The Koch brothers

Lerner did, however, expedite the application for non-profit status of Malik Obama, who is allegedly financing Islamic terror through The Muslim Brotherhood and his own charity, the Barack H. Obama Sr. Foundation.

On September 23, an editorial in The Washington Post stated:

This is a new low for American government — targeting those who would teach others about its founding document. Forty years ago, President Richard Nixon went to great lengths to try to conceal the facts of his constitutional violations, but it never occurred to him to conceal the meaning of the Constitution itself, by targeting its teachers. Politicians have always been tempted to try to censor their political adversaries; but none has been so bold as to try to suppress constitutional education directly. Presidents have always sought to push against the constitutional limits of their power; but never have they targeted those who merely teach about such limits. In short, never before has the federal government singled out for special scrutiny those who would teach their fellow citizens about our magnificent Constitution. This is the new innovation of Obama’s IRS.

“The question is, ‘What was the White House’s role?'” Morris asked in his recent video, referencing the IRS targeting scandal.

Article 2 of the arguments for impeachment of Nixon reads:

Using the powers of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in disregard of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has repeatedly engaged in conduct violating the constitutional rights of citizens, imparting the due and proper administration of justice and the conduct of lawful inquiries, or contravening the laws governing agencies of the executive branch and the purposes of these agencies.

This conduct has included one or more of the following:

(1) He has, acting personally and through his subordinated and agents, endeavored to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigation to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.

(2) He misused the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, and other executive personnel, in violation or disregard of the constitutional rights of citizens, by directing or authorizing such agencies or personnel to conduct or continue electronic surveillance or other investigations for purposes unrelated to national security, the enforcement of laws, or any other lawful function of his office; he did direct, authorize, or permit the use of information obtained thereby for purposes unrelated to national security, the enforcement of laws, or any other lawful function of his office; and he did direct the concealment of certain records made by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of electronic surveillance.

(3) He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, in violation or disregard of the constitutional rights of citizens, authorized and permitted to be maintained a secret investigative unit within the office of the President, financed in part with money derived from campaign contributions to him, which unlawfully utilized the resources of the Central Intelligence Agency, engaged in covert and unlawful activities, and attempted to prejudice the constitutional right of an accused to a fair trial.

(4) He has failed to take care that the laws were faithfully executed by failing to act when he knew or had reason to know that his close subordinates endeavored to impede and frustrate lawful inquiries by duly constituted executive; judicial and legislative entities concerning the unlawful entry into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, and the cover-up thereof, and concerning other unlawful activities including those relating to the confirmation of Richard Kleindienst as attorney general of the United States, the electronic surveillance of private citizens, the break-in into the office of Dr. Lewis Fielding, and the campaign financing practices of the Committee to Re-elect the President.

(5) In disregard of the rule of law: he knowingly misused the executive power by interfering with agencies of the executive branch: including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Criminal Division and the Office of Watergate Special Prosecution Force of the Department of Justice, in violation of his duty to take care that the laws by faithfully executed.

In all of this, Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore Richard M. Nixon, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

(Approved 28-10 by the House Judiciary Committee on Monday, July 29, 1974.)

The contents of the IRS emails uncovered by the inspector general reportedly already show that “there are also nearly 2,500 documents relating to investigations of the improper disclosure of confidential taxpayer information by the IRS to the White House. Yes, the White House.”