House report traces IRS scandal to Obama Produces evidence Lois Lerner followed White House lead author-image Jerome R. Corsi About | Email | Archive Jerome R. Corsi, a Harvard Ph.D., is a WND senior staff reporter. He has authored many books, including No. 1 N.Y. Times best-sellers The Obama Nation and Unfit for Command. Corsis latest book NEW YORK – A House committee investigating the IRS scandal has found a link between President Obama’s criticism of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision and subsequent steps taken by IRS official Lois Lerner to discriminate against conservative groups. Lerner was responding to political pressure in her efforts to clamp down on conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status in the wake of the 2012 Supreme Court case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, concluded a 141-page report released last Tuesday by the Republican-majority staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Lerner twice has invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions in appearances before the committee. The report clearly raised the question of whether or not the political pressure came from the White House. “It’s not the job of the IRS to overrule the Supreme Court, and it’s not the job of the IRS to crush political movements its leaders dislike,” the report said. “Her deep involvement in this scheme raises even more questions about who else was involved – including at the White House.” The report said Lerner “led efforts to scrutinize conservative groups while working to maintain a veneer of objective enforcement.” Following Obama’s lead? The House report linked statements made by President Obama in political speeches during the 2010 mid-term election attacking the Citizens United Supreme Court decision with emails and speeches Lerner subsequently wrote expressing her intent to administer the IRS tax-exempt division in a partisan manner.On Jan. 23, 2010, President Obama declared the Citizens United “ruling strikes at our democracy itself” and “opens the floodgates for an unlimited amount of special interest money into our democracy.” Less than a week later, the president publicly criticized the decision during his State of the Union address.“With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests – including foreign corporations – to spend without limit in our elections,” he said. “I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people.” The report pointed out that over the next several months, Obama continued his public tirade against the Supreme Court decision, so-called “secret money” in politics and the emergence of conservative grassroots groups. In a July 2010 White House Rose Garden speech, the president proclaimed: “Because of the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year in the Citizens United case, big corporations … can buy millions of dollars worth of TV ads.”
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 02:49:06 +0000
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