Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
A week ago Sunday, Rep. Darrell "Grand Theft Auto" Issa referred to selectively edited transcripts of interviews with IRS employees in the Cincinnati office to insinuate that the "targeting" of Tea Party groups by the IRS was "ordered from Washington." CNN host shoots down Issa’s claim that IRS ‘rogue’ agents were ‘ordered from Washington’:
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) on Sunday
was unable to produce evidence to back up his claim that so-called
“rogue” agents at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) were “directly
being ordered from Washington” to target tea party groups.
* * *
CNN host Candy Crowley pointed out that Issa’s committee had provided transcripts of an
interview with one IRS agent who was asked if the practice of
scrutinizing conservative groups had been ordered by Washington, and the
agent replied, “I believe so.”
“It’s totally not definitive,” Crowley observed.
“Well, that one isn’t,” Issa admitted.
* * *
“This is a problem that was coordinated in all likelihood right out
of Washington headquarters,” he insisted. “And we’re getting to proving
it.”
“But as yet, you don’t have the direct link,” Crowley noted.
Issa has refused to make the full transcripts publicly available (and the Democrats on the committee have been precluded from release).
This past Sunday, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings (D-MD), was Candy Crowley's guest. Cummings said that the so-called scandal involving the
Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) targeting of tea party groups was
"solved," but Committee Chairman Darrell Issa has refused to
release the testimony of a "conservative Republican" IRS manager because
it indicated that the White House was not involved. Cummings Calls Issa's IRS Bluff: 'I'll Release' Transcripts Clearing White House if He Doesn't:
Rep. Cummings explained to Crowley that he had "begged" Issa to release the full transcripts.
"He's the chairman of the committee, we're not in power," the
Maryland Democrat pointed out. "If he does not release them, I will.
Period."
"I'm willing to come on your show next week with the chairman, with
the transcripts, if he agrees to do that," he added. "But if he doesn't,
I'll release them by the end of the week."
Crowley observed that in a portion of the transcripts that had been
released, an IRS screening group manager in the Cincinnati office told
Issa's committee that he had "no reason to believe" that the White House
had ordered the targeting of conservative groups.
"He was a 21-year veteran," Cummings said of the IRS manager. "He
described himself in the interviews in response to a Republican
attorney's question as a conservative Republican. Very significant. He
is a conservative Republican working for the IRS. I think these
interviews and these statements go a long way to showing the White House
was not involved in this."
"Based upon everything I've seen, the case is solved. And if it were me, I would wrap this case up and move on."
The Washington Post adds today, Cincinnati IRS employees say they started the targeting:
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) on Sunday revealed new details about the
IRS controversy that he said should absolve the White House of blame
for the issue, providing excerpts of interviews between IRS workers and
congressional investigators.
The partial transcripts, which Cummings shared in a memo
to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, shed light
on a key but redacted portion of the inspector general’s timeline: The
first event that prompted the targeting campaign.
A self-described “conservative Republican” manager from the
Cincinnati office told congressional investigators that he sent a tea
party case to Washington on Feb. 25, 2010 to help determine whether the
group should qualify for tax-exempt status, according to the excerpts.
A timeline from the inspector general’s report
listed an event on that same date as the genesis of the targeting
initiative, which first focused on groups with names including “tea
party,” “patriot” and “9/12,” a term associated with conservative
political commentator Glenn Beck.
A screening agent from the Cincinnati office told congressional
investigators that he developed the initial search criteria after the
conservative manager asked him to identify additional cases, according
to Cummings.
* * *
According to Cummings’ memo, the conservative IRS manager said no one
from Washington ordered him to identify additional tea party cases.
“There was no — there was no — no one said to make a search,” the
employee said, according to an excerpt.
“Based upon everything I’ve seen, the case is solved,” Cummings said
Sunday on CNN. “And if it were me, I would wrap this case up and move
on, to be frank with you.”
The ball is in your court, Grand Theft Auto. Release the full transcripts or Rep. Elijah Cummings will. Your hyped IRS "scandal" is about to be exposed.
Maybe we can finally get around to the real scandal, that any of these political organizations were given a 501(c)(4) tax status by the IRS.
