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IRS pays $50K to anti-gay marriage group

pbrauer

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According to my sources the right wing has really played this story up to conspiracy level, but the information was inadvertently leaked.

The IRS will pay the National Organization for Marriage $50,000 to settle a lawsuit over claims the agency improperly disclosed confidential tax information, according to a consent judgment released this week.

The group pushing for laws defining marriage as between a man and a woman had filed suit against the tax agency seeking damages for disclosure of its donors, and the $50,000 the IRS will shell out represents actual damages from the unauthorized release.

The lawsuit stemmed from information an IRS worker sent to an individual who identified himself as a member of the media who requested it in the midst of the 2012 presidential campaign, which he then sent to the pro-gay rights group Human Rights Campaign. The Huffington Post then ran a story noting a political action committee linked to Mitt Romney had been a donor to NOM.


Read more: IRS pays $50K to anti-gay marriage group - Mackenzie Weinger - POLITICO.com
 
Does media matters pay you lefties much?

This regime is good at inadversion :). Like inadvertly being the least open to the public ever, inadvertly telling everyone they could keep their dr, and inadvertly spying on just about everyone.
 
Here is what the Judge had to say and what the facts of the case actually were:

1. "NOM has offered no evidence that its unredacted tax information was willfully disclosed. The record provides a specific timeline evidencing that NOM’s Schedule B was released inadvertently as part of a single employee’s mistake."

2. "The email evidence, deposition testimony, watermark, and entries from SEIN and IDRS compel the conclusion that Peters accidentally forwarded an unredacted copy of NOM’s 2008 Schedule B in response to Meisel’s request. (See Gov’t’s Mem. at 7-9.) NOM has produced no evidence from which a reasonable juror could conclude otherwise, and therefore its unsubstantiated assertion that another source could have intentionally released the Schedule B falls flat."

3. "NOM's argument that the disclosure was intentional because the Schedule B was given to a 'known political activist' and 'altered to obscure its internal IRS markings' is similarly unfounded. The evidence is unrefuted that Peters did not know Meisel or have any connection to the HRC when she disclosed the information. Furthermore, NOM has failed to produce a shred of proof that anyone at the IRS altered or obscured the watermark. In short, NOM's allegations of willfulness are unsupported by any evidence..."

4. "This argument is unpersuasive. No reasonable jury could find in NOM's favor based solely on this negative inference when the remaining evidence overwhelmingly indicates that Peters inspected the return while performing her official IRS duties. To find that NOM could prevail from this scintilla of evidence would require 'the building of one inference upon another,' which is not appropriate..."

etc. The IRS gave them the 50K so they'd stop whining about being busted for colluding with the Romney campaign to hide his donations from the election commission and general public.
 
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Every time the Left get caught with their hands in the cookie jar it's always a vast far right wing conspiracy.

What I think they fail to realize is that if it is a vast far right wing conspiracy than the Left is admitting they are just that god damn incompetent.

So what's it gonna be Leftys?

Devious and Diabolical?

Or

Dumb as Doo Doo?


Those are the only two options you've given yourselves...
 
another example of liberals/democrats accepting any behavior by this government and dismissing an criticism as "conspiracy theories".

it's happened on every single issue...
 
:laughat: Media Matters :lamo

It's like SNL and MSNBC all in one.

I know I'm laughing, this should stop some of the stories on Fox.

For two years, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has been peddling the theory that the IRS intentionally leaked its donor list to a gay rights organization as part of an Obama administration conspiracy. Two separate investigations and a ruling by a Reagan-appointed judge have debunked that theory. But right-wing media, which have widely touted NOM's initial accusations, have largely ignored or denied the conspiracy theory's demise.

In the spring of 2012, an IRS employee inadvertently leaked an unredacted list of NOM's donors in response to a public records request. The pro-equality group Human Rights Campaign (HRC) got its hands on the list, highlighting past contributions to NOM by prominent conservatives like then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney.


Noting that key HRC officials were prominent supporters of President Obama's re-election campaign, NOM alleged a conspiracy between the organization and the Obama administration aimed at embarrassing NOM and its supporters.

In April 2012, NOM filed a formal letter of complaint to the IRS. Conservative outlets like The Daily Caller and The Weekly Standard touted the complaint, focusing particularly on the revelation that Romney was one of the group's donors. For most of the next year, however, media interest in the story was scant.[...]​
 
So, the IRS releases info they shouldn't and now pays for damages and this is somehow a right wing conspiracy? Between the IRS targeting conservative groups and this with a pro-traditional marriage group I as a citizen am very concerned. The IRS should not be in anything political and they certainly should exist to forward a political agenda or "punish" groups that disagree with whoever is in charge.
 
This is the silliest line in the OP: "The Huffington Post then ran a story noting a political action committee linked to Mitt Romney had been a donor to NOM." Almost as silly as if they said: "The IRS, a government agency under the control of President Obama."
 
Does media matters pay you lefties much?

This regime is good at inadversion :). Like inadvertly being the least open to the public ever, inadvertly telling everyone they could keep their dr, and inadvertly spying on just about everyone.

Evidently not otherwise they wouldn't be trying to unionize and media matters wouldn't be trying to get them not to unionize. lol
so far media matters has resisted all attempted to let their workers unionize lol.

ol the irony that is the extreme left.
 
etc. The IRS gave them the 50K so they'd stop whining about being busted for colluding with the Romney campaign to hide his donations from the election commission and general public.

Heh. That's a good one, right there. So if I whine enough, the IRS will pay me to shut up?
 
According to my sources the right wing has really played this story up to conspiracy level, but the information was inadvertently leaked.
The IRS will pay the National Organization for Marriage $50,000 to settle a lawsuit over claims the agency improperly disclosed confidential tax information, according to a consent judgment released this week.

The group pushing for laws defining marriage as between a man and a woman had filed suit against the tax agency seeking damages for disclosure of its donors, and the $50,000 the IRS will shell out represents actual damages from the unauthorized release.

The lawsuit stemmed from information an IRS worker sent to an individual who identified himself as a member of the media who requested it in the midst of the 2012 presidential campaign, which he then sent to the pro-gay rights group Human Rights Campaign. The Huffington Post then ran a story noting a political action committee linked to Mitt Romney had been a donor to NOM.


Read more: IRS pays $50K to anti-gay marriage group - Mackenzie Weinger - POLITICO.com

That is as it should be.

DO you have a problem with this?
 
That is as it should be.

DO you have a problem with this?
Absolutely not, the IRS ****ed up and they should pay. However, the Right had many conspiracy theories as to what happened. See the "My sources" link at the OP.
 
Absolutely not, the IRS ****ed up and they should pay. However, the Right had many conspiracy theories as to what happened. See the "My sources" link at the OP.

I don't see a governemnt oficial, the judge, protecteing a governemnt agency, the IRS, as anything odd.

The ruling in the court does not change reality, it is their opinión.

A differnet judge could have easily have ruled a different way.
 
So, the IRS releases info they shouldn't and now pays for damages and this is somehow a right wing conspiracy? Between the IRS targeting conservative groups and this with a pro-traditional marriage group I as a citizen am very concerned. The IRS should not be in anything political and they certainly should exist to forward a political agenda or "punish" groups that disagree with whoever is in charge.
The conspiracy theory is that this was an intentional release of data to harm the donors of NOM, but absolutely no evidence of intentional release exists.

Doesn't matter, NOM is like millions in the hole and won't be around for long.
 
I don't see a governemnt oficial, the judge, protecteing a governemnt agency, the IRS, as anything odd.

The ruling in the court does not change reality, it is their opinión.

A differnet judge could have easily have ruled a different way.

Sorry, I don't know what your getting at.
 
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