The Obama DOJ’s Subversion of the IRS Investigation

Eric_HolderIn a letter written to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA), Issa reveals there was an attempt to coordinate media spin regarding the IRS investigation between the DOJ and the staff of the Committee’s Ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD). How did Issa find out? A DOJ official in the Office of Public Affairs who thought he was calling Cummings’ office, mistakenly phoned Issa’s office instead.

“I write with serious concerns stemming from a telephone call my staff received late on Friday afternoon from the Justice Department’s Office of Public Affairs (OPA) about the Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative tax-exempt applicants,” Issa states.

A senior OPA official—under the apparent mistaken belief he had called the staff of Ranking Member Elijah E. Cummings—asked if the Committee would release Committee documents to the media so that the Department could publicly comment on the material. I am extremely troubled by this attempt to improperly coordinate the release of Committee documents with the Minority staff. This effort to preemptively release incomplete and selectively chosen information undermines the Department’s claims that it is responding in good faith.

The senior OPA official to whom Issa refers is Brian Fallon, a former senior aide to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Although his name was not mentioned in the letter, he confirmed that he made the call, which took place last Friday at 5:01 p.m. EST. As Issa indicates, he believes Fallon thought he was talking to members of Rep. Elijah Cummings staff.

(Fallon) then asked the Committee employee if the Committee would agree to release the material to selected reporters and thereby allow the Department an opportunity to publicly comment on it.

The subject of the conversation was attorney Andrew Strelka, who is defending IRS commissioner John Koskinen in litigation initiated by the pro-Israel group Z Street. Prior to his job in the DOJ’s civil trial section, Strelka worked for Lois Lerner in the IRS’s Tax Exempt Organizations Division—where Z Street’s alleged mistreatment occurred. Documents indicate Strelka was kept in the loop about the IRS’s targeting practices.

The Committee wants to talk to Strelka about this apparent conflict of interest, but the DOJ has refused the request, prompting a Sept. 3 letter to Holder from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) accusing the DOJ of “conspiring with Mr. Strelka to prevent the American people from learning the truth.”

Issa spokesman Frederick Hill, who took Fallon’s call on a speaker phone in the presence of two other senior Committee employees, told him that Oversight Committee staffers would have to first examine the material—which is when Fallon apparently realized he was calling the office he was intending to undermine. After “abruptly” placing the call on hold for three minutes, an “audibly shaken” Fallon stated there would be a “change in plans,” with no effort to release the material early. Instead, the Department would “defer to the Chairman.”

Fallon then made an effort to cover his tracks, insisting that the reason for the call was to improve relations between the DOJ and Committee Republicans, who should “help one another.” When Fallon was subsequently asked if the material he had offered earlier would still be delivered Friday evening, he “attempted to walk back his earlier statement.”

Issa wasn’t buying any of it, noting that while communications are sometimes “erroneously shared,” he remains “disturbed to receive confirmation through this incident of apparently long-standing collaboration between the Obama Administration and Ranking Member Cummings’ staff to obfuscate and prejudice the Committee’s work through under-the-table communication.” Issa further insists that Fallon’s contention about improving relations with the Committee is “inconsistent” with the comments he made prior to putting the call on hold, and that it “strains credulity” to believe the DOJ would “seek to begin to improve relations via a telephone call between two individuals who had never spoken to each other before 5:01 p.m. on a Friday afternoon…”

In closing, Issa requested “a detailed explanation for each of the Department’s ex parte communications with the Minority Members or staff about Committee strategies for blocking and undermining oversight,” as well as “information about the number of times the Department has communicated with Minority staff to the exclusion of Majority staff.” Issa wants a DOJ response, “no later than Monday September 15, 2014.”

Those familiar with the stonewalling of the Holder-led DOJ know that such a request will likely be ignored. That reality was driven home once again on Tuesday when Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz testified before the House Committee on the Judiciary. “The FBI and some other department components … have refused our requests for various types of documents. As a result, a number of our reviews have been significantly impeded,” he revealed.

And while Horowitz said he appreciated the efforts of Holder and Deputy Attorney General James Cole to intervene on behalf of the IG, such intervention is “inconsistent” with the “clear mandate” of the law and “compromises our independence.” Horowitz further noted that absent a resolution of the issue, “our struggles to access information relevant to our reviews in a timely manner continue to cause delays to our work and consume resources.”

That same day, Fallon dismissed Issa’s allegations in an interview with The Hill, claiming there was “nothing out of the ordinary” about his conversation with GOP Oversight Committee members. “There is nothing inappropriate about department staff having conversations with both the majority and minority staff as it prepares responses to formal inquiries,” Fallon said. “That includes conversations between the spokespeople for the department and the committee.”

An Oversight Democratic staffer dodged a question about whether Cummings had ever had a conversation with the DOJ as described by Issa, insisting that the Representative and his staff  “make their own independent decisions about when to release information to the public and do not improperly coordinate with any executive branch agency.”

That last bit is, quite simply, a lie. Last April emails released by the Oversight Committee revealed that Cummings and his staff communicated with the “executive branch agency” known as the IRS multiple times in 2012 and 2013, with regard to the conservative group True the Vote. The Committee documented communications between Cummings’ staffers and Lois Lerner—communications Cummings denied during a Subcommittee hearing the previous February. That would be the same Elijah Cummings who, despite being caught in a blatant lie, has labeled the ongoing investigation of the IRS as a “witch hunt,” and a waste of time and money.

On the same Friday Fallon made his call, the IRS revealed that emails from five other IRS workers involved in the investigation had also been lost. One of those workers was a senior aide to Lerner, and like the loss of her emails, the IRS blamed it on computer problems, further insisting there was no indication that any evidence had been deliberately destroyed. “To the contrary, the computer issues identified appear to be the same sorts of issues routinely experienced by employees within the IRS, in other government agencies and in the private sector,” the IRS said. “In addition, each of the five hard drive issues resulting in a probable loss of emails substantially predates the onset of the investigations in 2013.”

Thus the scandal with “not even a smidgeon of corruption” according to President Obama, takes another curious turn. Today the Democratically-controlled Senate is expected to release a report authored by Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. It will reportedly claim the 2013 report by J. Russell George, Treasury IG for Tax Administration concluding that conservative groups were targeted for additional scrutiny, is “unfair.” It will further allege the scandal amounts to nothing more than “mismanagement” by the IRS.

It’s going to be an uphill climb for Democrats. In a Fox poll taken in June, a whopping 76 percent of Americans, including 90 percent of Republicans, 74 percent of independents and 63 percent of Democrats said they believed that Lois Lerner’s emails were “deliberately destroyed” by the IRS. The gaffe committed by Fallon would be amusing were it not for the reality that it is yet another indication of the endemic corruption that infests the Obama administration, their Democrat colleagues and a willfully somnambulant mainstream media. All of them seemingly prefer to run interference for one of the most powerful agencies in government, than allow the truth, no matter how inconvenient, to come out.

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  • objectivefactsmatter

    Compare a timeline of Watergate scandal events next to just the IRS scandal and see if the media is not wholly on the side of the communists.

    • dotherightthing4

      They are products of our Liberal Universities—they have been brainwashed.

    • kafir4life

      The media has indicated that Obama’s boots taste like chocolate.

    • Michael Durham

      Know something?

      With the Watergate “scandal”, Nixon was going after the very same strain of communist “Democrats” that now infest our White House, our Congress, and our Universities that he had to deal with back in 1972. Hardly a “scandal”; more like due diligence.

      Nixon was 100% right.

  • sundance69

    Rep. Elijah Cummings needs to step down from the committee or be removed forcibly, one way or the other he is dishonest and is actively trying to circumvent and discredit this investigation. Can you imagine if this were black minority groups that were treated like this? Holder would be all over this investigation seeking every “smidgeon” of evidence until every last Republican was brought to justice.

    • dotherightthing4

      You are so right. He should be impeached, held in contempt, censured or whatever they do to lying, corrupt members of Congress. The only honorable Blacks in Congress are the Conservative Blacks–the rest are just bitter, vendetta ridden people looking for an ax to grind–and not very bright.

      • nomoretraitors

        What do they do to lying, corrupt members of Congress? NOTHING

        • JB Ziggy Zoggy

          The worst one became President.

          • Gee

            I thought he was still Senate Majority Leader

          • Gidge713

            Yes, Reid him too.

      • Waldemar Daninsky

        What happened, eventually, to the “democrat” who had all the cash stashed in his freezer? Is he in a federal pen, or giving out “walking money” to fellow “democrats?”

        • Poodleguy

          Former mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagan was convicted on all but one count, if I recall & received a rather lengthy prison sentence. Every once in awhile, the good guys win one. I wonder which republican mayor the demonrats will setup to go after to get even w/us? They always do this….. They did it to Az governor Fife Symington after we got one of their guvs, who name I can’t recall.

          • MayAydemircim

            as Esther explained I’m shocked that any body able to get paid $6325 in 1 month on the internet . find out here x.vu/TP1V8l

    • GFRF

      Yes, Cummings is a racist old fool!

      • Poodleguy

        He is a dirty no good black, lying gob of $hit!!!!

    • Poodleguy

      I second that!!!

      • sundance69

        I’m a “poodle” guy too.

        • Poodleguy

          Yup, the most misunderstood breed ever. Love my Standards! I wish I knew how to send pix via my iPhone, my girls (3) all black, 2of which look as tho they are from the same line(s). I noticed the one (if the pix are not of the same Pudel) was in the weave polls. Do you do agility or rally? Love to chat w/Poodle people………we are a different breed ourselves & I know from those pix, I don’t have to explain that to ya!

    • rwp24382

      What Cummings has done is a criminal act. Also what the DOJ has done is a criminal act. The only thing is that we have the fox watching the hen house. There will be no criminal charges as long as criminals are in charge.

  • http://johnnyangeladvocacygroup.net JohnnyAngel Advocacy Group

    This is the biggest story in 20 years or more in domestic issues facing the country. The Communist media cares NOTHING FOR TRUTH on most anti-communist issues. Awake Amerika !!!

  • WhiteHunter

    Get Fallon in front of the committee–have him arrested by U.S. Marshals and brought in in handcuffs, shackles, and an orange jumpsuit if necessary. Read him the statute on perjury and obstruction, and the prison sentence prescribed in the U.S. Code for that crime.

    Put him under oath and hook him up to a polygraph right there at the witness table. Grill him 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a ten-minute potty break every two hours, and a ‘working lunch’ so he doesn’t have to leave the table to disappear into an anteroom for coaching and rehearsing by Holder’s goons–tag-team him if necessary to maintain the schedule. Put his time-and-a-half overtime pay in an escrow account. If he takes the Fifth–as he no doubt will–continue the questioning, and force him to take the Fifth again and again with every question, even if it’s a thousand times over the course of weeks or months.

    This co-conspirator may be the loose rock in Holder’s stonewall, and with this strategy it may be possible to break him and pry him loose from the foundation. Which will cause the entire criminal structure to collapse.

    Then get some cells ready at Leavenworth and Atlanta, with fresh sheets on the concrete bed platforms, paper towels, and a bar of soap.

    • Gidge713

      This guy worked for Chuck Schumer before, that say alot. Schumer another Dem. scumbag.

    • Poodleguy

      I like the way you think!!!

    • Barrustio

      Fallon is a shill and can put out rhetoric which the MSM eats up …Strelka on the other hand would be valuable, that’s why Holder won’t let him testify.

  • kevinstroup

    Wow, like I never saw this coming…….

    • stablepar

      Neither did holder. Bwahahahahahahaha

  • cree

    Every corrupt bump in this investigation road is obstruction of justice with Holder the most corrupt in that he will not seek the justice his office demands. Can’t get much worse for Constitutional rule of law. Oh, forgot, yes it can; there is our president.

  • nomoretraitors

    I can’t wait for that corrupt b*st*rd Holder do the perp walk

  • gram78

    There would be only one reason for the DOJ to subvert the IRS investigation and that’s if they’re protecting the White House to hide its complicity in the IRS conservative targeting scheme.

    • Poodleguy

      That, my friend is a glaring truth!!!

  • Legatus legionis

    We are living in an era when criminals are in power in our Government. They break our laws, murder our citizens, and walk freely among us because there is no one to arrest and prosecute them for their crimes. What then is the solution? Wait for an election cycle that throws the bumps out? I think not!

    • fistdeyuma

      We also live in an era where Liberals claim all the rich got rich because of underhanded government help, and the answer to that is to expand government and give them more money. Another example of the 180 degree world of Liberals.

    • Poodleguy

      That’s the only remedy available, Constitutionally & that is why the Republican Party MUST take back the Senate…..if we don’t, our nation is doomed!!!

    • Barrustio

      The scary part is they do it openly in the knowledge and with full support of the media

  • MrUniteUs1

    “asked if the Committee would release Committee documents to the media so
    that the Department could publicly comment on the material.”

    Sounds good to me. What’s the problem?

    • fistdeyuma

      The problem was selected releases with no context. It would allow the DOJ to spin the story they way they want it to go. Even when the other documents are released to put them in proper context it will be “old news” and never covered.
      This has been done over and over again by Obama’s people. Where have you been hiding?

    • Barrustio

      Calling the GOP committee members thinking he was calling the Dems to …”get something going”

      • MrUniteUs1

        Now if the call was to conceal info, that would be problem. But this was to release information.

        I know Issa would only release certain info, call only who he wanted, and only allowed public testimony he wanted.

        • Barrustio

          Any information released by Issa would be info that would have to be agreed upon by the committee (Democrats and Republican alike). The request to “LEAK” select information convenient to the DOJ and Democrats, to “selected media” (excludind Fox I’m sure) is questionable and should have ALL Americans curious to know what information they wanted leaked. Unfortunately after a three minute “on hold” they decided they had changed their mind. Issa is only one committee member and he didn’t make this up just to show the DOJ is complicit in a coverup, it is becoming more obvious to most Americans as polls are showing. Some still believe there is “not even a smidgeon of corruption). As an American I just want the truth and let the cards fall where they may.

  • Watcher 87

    Never forget – Justice is in the will of the Holder.

  • Gidge713

    Explains why Cummings kept sayind this was a with hunt, no basis for the hearingand that Reps. were wasting taxpayer’s money on this. Sorry Cummings but you were caught and should not be the ranking minority member on the committee. In fact you should be brought up to the Ethics committee.

  • Gidge713

    Only snswer, elect a Rep. Senate in Nov. and let the impeachment hearings begin. Start with Holder, make it stick and fear should take care of the rest.

  • Up Huff

    Whatever happens, ALL of those involved need to have their trials set so that they CANNOT be “pardoned” by an outgoing President Obama who WILL, as surely as the sun “rises” daily, issue blanket pardons to all those corrupt officios he has working in/with/and for his Administration, whether appointed or otherwise.
    Don’t let them walk by a premature guilty verdict! Besides, they will all have to pay for their legal fees with their OWN money once they are out of their office/job.
    A bunch of them might provide State’s evidence for a lighter sentence just to avoid doing Federal Prison time. And it is the BIG fish we want, not the small fry.

  • unique201

    It makes me angry that the Government (both parties) are so
    criminal, hiding everything from we the people. We need to
    vote them all out and vote in all new people, so that by 2020
    we will have all new people and not lawyers and doctors.

  • Ed Portela

    “… a willfully somnambulant mainstream media…” “…. a willfully somnambulant mainstream media…”
    LOVED it !!
    The only addition to such a PRECISE phrase would be “… a willfully somnambulant AND CRIMINALLY NEGLIGENT mainstream media” !!

    • Barrustio

      More like “criminally complicit”

  • runing

    WITH ALL THE CORRUPTION AND LIES GOING ON WHY CAN’T SOME OF THESE CROOKS GET ARRESTED I GUESS THERE ARE MORE OF THEM IN WASHINGTON THEN WE CARE TO KNOW

  • fistdeyuma

    This underhanded and likely illegal tactic will keep working until the MSM decides it is really a scandal. In order to know about any of this you have to be one of the small percentage of voters willing to look beyond the approved news stories. I not only find people who are totally ignorant on any of the facts, but feel themselves quite up-to-date on those issues. They only need to know that these are “phony scandals”.
    Not only that, they get angry at anyone willing to inform people about the truth. Standard argument is, “We don’t need to talk politics as not everyone agrees with you.” If there is a single Liberal at the table everyone must talk about the trivial things because the ignorant person will get upset if they talk facts and logic.

  • MrUniteUs1

    Funny story since tax exempt status adds to the national debt.
    None should have gotten tax exempt according to the law. (No political activites) Only Liberal groups were denied. Delays were caused Republican backed staffing cuts to the IRS.

  • Poodleguy

    There are are big bunch of these scummy bas tards who need to go to the crossbar hotel!! What a bunch of subversive sons of bi itches!!! This is the kind of $hit that starts revolutions!

  • Barrustio

    Cummings is as anti-American as Holder and both are Obama’s boot lickers

  • Barrustio

    They need to insist on Andrew Strelka testifying. If Obama stays true to his Chicago style politics, don’t be surprised if Strelka is found dead somewhere