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Sources: IRS Official Won't Plead Fifth At Hearing On Scandal

The Prof

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Steven Miller, the soon-to-be-former acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, has assured congressional investigators he will cooperate fully with lawmakers in upcoming Capitol Hill hearings on the IRS’ targeting of Tea Party groups, and will not exercise his constitutional right to refuse to answer questions on the grounds that doing so may incriminate him in the ongoing FBI probe, Fox News has learned.

Rather, sources say, Miller has agreed to provide his best testimony on the sudden swirl of allegations surrounding last week’s disclosure that the IRS had systematically singled out conservative-leaning groups for delays in their applications for tax-exempt status. Miller was reportedly made aware of the practice, which commenced early in 2010, as early as March 2012, but shortly thereafter assured lawmakers the IRS was not engaged in such targeting.

In addition to determining who was ultimately responsible for initiating the practice – culpability the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration failed to assign in his report on the subject, issued Tuesday – Capitol Hill investigators are said to be examining two other critical aspects to the scandal.

These include the dissemination of privileged tax data amassed during the targeting exercise to the left-leaning news outlet ProPublica; and allegations that conservatives listed by the targeted groups as donors were in turn singled out for adverse treatment by IRS.

The alleged improper conduct toward those donors would have been performed by a different office at IRS, sources said, than that which was responsible for the slow-walking of the conservative groups’ applications for tax-exempt status.

Both initiatives, Capitol Hill staffers told Fox News, could suggest a greater level of coordination on the overall project among – or even beyond – IRS management echelons.

Key congressional aides do not rule out the possibility that the targeting was conceived and executed by “rogue” elements in middle-management positions within IRS. But the bureaucratic culture within the agency is said to place an exceedingly high premium on compliance with orders from above – to the point of securing them, often in writing, when they are absent – and accordingly not one that would foster the emergence of so rigorous and enduring a targeting system without some measure of management supervision.

While Miller will face more intense scrutiny, J. Russell George, the inspector general for IRS’ Tax Administration division, whose office released Tuesday’s damning intra-agency report, will also be confronted with tough questions, sources said. Capitol Hill staffers told Fox News they regard George’s report as “watered down” and are eager to ask him why his probe failed to fix ultimate responsibility for the targeting, and why he didn’t raise alarms about the practice sooner.

An IRS spokesperson did not immediately return an email seeking comment for this article.

Sources: IRS official won't plead fifth at hearing on scandal | Fox News

steven miller, ways and means, friday---tune in
 
Bipartisan Congressional Demand: Provide All Communications Between IRS and WH About Targeting Conservatives, Don't Destroy, Modify or Remove Any Documents | CNS News

Rep. Sander Levin (D.-Mich.), the ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, has joined Rep. Dave Camp (R.-Mich.), the committee chairman, in demanding that the Internal Revenue Service answer by next Tuesday thirteen questions posed by the committee relating to IRS discrimination against conservative and pro-Israel groups and, where relevant, provide all internal agency documents and communications substantiating the answers.

The committee's bipartisan demand for documents includes all communications between the IRS and the White House about the IRS's targeting of conservative groups.

The committee also warns the IRS in the letter not to destroy, modify or remove any of the records the committee is seeking.

This document-and-information demand, sent in a letter dated Tuesday to acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller, ups the ante from a letter that Rep. Charles Boustany (R.-La.), chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, sent Miller last Friday demanding that the IRS provide the committee by today (May 15) not only with all internal communications using the words “tea party,” “patriot” or “conservative,” but also with the names and titles of all officials involved in discriminating against tea party and conservative organizations.

As of Tuesday, the IRS was not saying whether it would comply with that request from its congressional oversight committee. But, now, the agency must deal with the more comprehensive demand for documents and information communicated directly by the committee’s bipartisan leadership.

Camp's and Levin's letter includes a list of detailed instructions explaining to the IRS the scrupulosity with which the committee expects the agency to respond to the document demand.

"In complying with this request, you shall produce all responsive records that are in your possession, custody or control," the committee instructed the IRS. "Records responsive to the request shall not be destroyed, modified, removed, transferred, or otherwise made inaccessible to the committee."

The most striking question that Democrat Ranking Member Levin and Republican Chairman Camp are asking the IRS goes to the issue of potential White House involvement in the scandal.

Specifically, Levin and Camp ask: “Did the IRS at any time notify the White House of the targeting of conservative or other groups? Provide all documents and communications between the IRS and the White House on this matter.”

Levin and Camp also told the IRS that the committee wants all documents and communications relevant to the agency’s reported discrimination against pro-Israel groups.

stay tuned
 
fox local, cincy:

FOX19 has exclusively learned that as many as four people may be the first Cincinnati Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees to face disciplinary action, and possibly even criminal charges, for allegedly targeting Tea Party and Liberty groups applying for non-profit status.

On Wednesday, the IRS announced that it has pin-pointed two employees at the agency's Cincinnati office for being 'primarily' responsible.

Prior to his resignation, Steven Miller called the two Cincinnati employees 'rogue' and 'off the reservation', adding that they were 'overly aggressive' in handling the requests from those conservative groups over the past two years.

However, despite the claim of just two employees being involved, FOX19 has exclusively learned from two separate sources that there could be at least four Cincinnati employees involved.

Those four employees -- whose names we have chosen to withhold until they have been officially confirmed -- have each worked in the IRS Exempt Organizations Department.

FOX19 has also confirmed those four Cincinnati employees made large requests of information from:

The Richmond, Virginia Tea Party in January of 2012. The Ohio Liberty Council in January of 2012. Dan Backer, a lawyer based in Washington D.C. who helped six small conservative groups apply for 501c4 status in February of 2012. The Liberty Township Tea Party in March of 2012.

One of FOX19's two sources went on say that these four IRS workers claim "they simply did what their bosses ordered." Keep in mind, as FOX19 reported on Tuesday, the report by the Office of Inspector General states that senior IRS officials knew agents were targeting Tea Party groups as early as 2011.

In fact, according to that report, Lois Lerner who heads the IRS division that oversees tax exempt organizations, was told on June 29, 2011 that groups with 'Tea Party', 'Patriot' or '9/12 Project' in their names were being flagged for additional, and often burdensome, scrutiny.

While the IRS is pointing at 'two rogue employees', the number of organizations that were singled out has swelled to nearly 500, according to Rep. Congressmen Darryl Issa and Ohio's Jim Jordan.

FOX News is also reporting that at least two Cincinnati agents have been subpoenaed to testify before congress on Monday.

Four Cincy IRS workers, not two, allegedly connected to scandal - FOX19.com-Cincinnati News, Weather & Sports

2013 feels fifty times faster than 1972, 1986...

hold on
 
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