"Republicans Are Using the IRS Scandal to Hide Their Koch Fueled Shady Activities"

[applegrove]

Republicans Are Using the IRS Scandal to Hide Their Koch Fueled Shady Activities

By: Sarah Jones at Politicus USA

http://www.politicususa.com/lawyers-allege-complaints-irs-meant-derail-preexisting-audits.html

"SNIP......................


From the beginning of the IRS “scandal”, it seemed obvious to me that with conservative nonprofit groups outspending liberals by 34-1, their activities would be more prone to scrutiny. Add into that mix the fact that after Citizens United, these dark money groups sprang up in order to avoid disclosure of donors, the fact that many of these “tea party” groups were actually violating the rules of nonprofits by engaging in political activities, and this scandal looked more like preemptive pushback than a “targeting” scandal.

It seems some election lawyers agree. Over the holiday weekend, when almost no one was reading politics, the New York Times published an article based on their review of IRS agency planning documents. It turns out that “The I.R.S. is already separately reviewing roughly 300 tax-exempt groups that may have engaged in improper campaign activity in past years.”

Thus, “Some election lawyers said they believed a wave of lawsuits against the I.R.S. and intensifying Congressional criticism of its handling of applications were intended in part to derail those audits, giving political nonprofit organizations a freer hand during the 2014 campaign.”

The Times examined more than a dozen of the organizations seeking nonprofit status, and they appear to have earned this scrutiny the hard way, “… a close examination of these groups and others reveals an array of election activities that tax experts and former I.R.S. officials said would provide a legitimate basis for flagging them for closer review.”

.....................SNIP"

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Of course they are. Sudden outrage = about to get caught out, as usual. nt

[Puzzledtraveller]

3. But the admin and media are falling for it, that's worse.

[siligut]

2. Yes and then came attempts to smear the IRS with wacko claims

http://www.nextgov.com/health/2013/05/lawsuit-says-irs-illegally-seized-60-million-health-records/63179/

Barnes said the IRS search warrant only “authorized the seizure of financial records related principally to a former employee of the company; it did not authorize any seizure of any health care or medical record of any persons, least of all third parties completely unrelated to the matter.”

Despite this stricture, Barnes charged the agents “seized personal mobile phones, including all the data and information on those phones, without any employing the proper and procedurally correct screening methods to protect private and privileged information, all of which was completely unapproved by the search warrant."

When the agents finished their raid, Barnes said they then used the John Doe Company facilities to relax, eat and watch sports on television. “Adding insult to injury, after unlawfully seizing the records and searching their intimate parts, defendants decided to use John Doe Company's media system to watch basketball, ordering pizza and Coca-Cola, to take in part of the NCAA tournament, illustrating their complete disregard of the court's order and the Plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment rights,” the suit said.

John Doe Company?