Suits Settled as IRS Apologizes for Targeting of Obama Political Opponents

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The IRS admitted it targeted American citizens and awarded a $3.5 million settlement to the aggrieved parties.

Mark Meckler, president of Citizens for Self-Governance, hailed the $3.5 million settlement that came “after years of stonewalling.” Citizens for Self-Governance spearheaded a lawsuit brought by a coalition of conservative groups that were subjected to enhanced scrutiny from the IRS delaying their approval for non-profit status.

It was a serious First Amendment case against a government hoping to silence political opponents that included conservatives, religious groups and organizations providing instruction on the Constitution.

When the targeting first became known, President Obama said if true, it was “outrageous and had to be stopped. The targeting continued and by the time he was interviewed by Fox host Bill O’Reilly, he said “there wasn’t a smidgeon of corruption” at the IRS.

There is no question the IRS targeted tea party groups, religious groups and even organizations educating people on the Constitution because of their views which ran contrary to the administration’s.

“We all know the IRS unconstitutionally target tea party groups to shut down their political speech in a violation of the First Amendment. That has been unequivocally proven by the statements of IRS employees,” Mark Meckler said in a statement. “After years of stonewalling by the federal government, the litigation against the IRS for their unconstitutional behavior has been settled and the targeted groups will receive substantial payments.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Thursday that the Department of Justice had agreed to settle two lawsuits brought by 469 parties who were targeted by the IRS. He faulted the agency and the Obama administration for fostering a partisan application of the tax code and singled out the request for sensitive information, such as requests for donor lists, as irrelevant to making “a determination of tax-exempt status.”

The IRS offered a bland apology:

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

The IRS likes to pretend, as did Lois Lerner, that it was merely mismanagement when it was clearly a deceitful, threatening abuse of government powers. They even discussed putting conservatives in prison with Robert Mueller’s FBI.

In 2014, the Volokh Conspiracy blog of The Washington Post wrote “it is now well known that the IRS targeted tea party organizations…What is less well known, but perhaps even more scandalous, is that the IRS also targeted those who would educate their fellow citizens about the United States Constitution.”

“According to the inspector general’s report (pp. 30 & 38), this particular IRS targeting commenced on Jan. 25, 2012 — the beginning of the election year for President Obama’s second campaign. On that date: “the BOLO [‘be on the lookout’] criteria were again updated.” The revised criteria included “political action type organizations involved in … educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.”

Grass-roots organizations around the country, such as the Linchpins of Liberty (Tennessee), the Spirit of Freedom Institute (Wyoming), and the Constitutional Organization of Liberty (Pennsylvania), allege that they were singled out for special scrutiny at least in part for their work in constitutional education. There may have been many more, the blog reported.

That is no surprise.

At the same time, George Soros’ Open Society website publicized the books Keeping Faith with the Constitution and The Constitution of 2020 in their bookstore.

Keeping Faith is geared towards social justice and a fluid constitution.

The Constitution in 2020 is a powerful blueprint for implementing a more progressive vision of constitutional law in the years ahead. Socialista Cass Sunstein is one of the editors. The Constitution in 2020 calls on liberals to articulate their constitutional vision in a way that can command the confidence of ordinary Americans.

Do you remember when Nancy Pelosi stated she was afraid of people who read the Federalist Papers? Do you remember when Janet Napolitano listed people who read The Federalist Papers as possible terrorists? These two are far left and have no interest in continuing the constitutional foundation of our government.

The NY Times, in an article entitled, We the people loses appeal with people around the world, said this, “But the Constitution is out of step with the rest of the world in failing to protect, at least in so many words, a right to travel, the presumption of innocence and entitlement to food, education and health care.” They go on to talk about studies being done that will show the constitution is terse and old and guarantees few freedoms. They also denigrate ours as inferior and causing us to lose credibility in the world.

One of those targeted by the IRS and several other agencies was Catherine Engelbrecht who runs the group ‘True the Vote’, an organization dedicated to honest voting. Listen to her story.


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Uncle Tom
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Uncle Tom
6 years ago

So the irs basically settled that obama is a GD corrupt Liar to the American people? Ok, good to know! Now just let everyone go free while the Taxpayers bail these criminals out? “Dude, that’s pretty f#cked up right there!”