This Could Be Interesting
Can you say, “Lois Lerner”? Sure. I knew you could. (smile)
For those who’ve forgotten: Lois Lerner was the former head of the IRS division that rules on nonprofit groups’ applications for tax-exempt status. That division was caught apparently blatantly playing politics with nonprofit applications – e.g., fast-tracking those of leftist groups, while slow-rolling and otherwise obstructing those of conservatives.
Lerner later resigned, and has “taken the Fifth” when asked to testify in Congress. Conveniently, tens of thousands of her official IRS emails from the period greatest interest for the scandal were “lost”. The same happened to emails of some of her closest associates who were also believed to have been hip-deep in the scandal.
Jonn and I have written numerous times about this and other instances of missing IRS email. Use the site’s search features if you want to see them.
Lerner’s emails were initially held to be “lost permanently” – until very recently, that is. Now, it appears that the IRS has now magically “found” some “disaster recovery tapes” from the period in question that contain many if not all of Lerner’s missing emails.
Now, maybe it’s just me. But if I had a bunch of, you know, missing email – and I had a disaster recovery system in-place that stored stuff like, say, copies of email traffic or email databases/transaction records – those records would probably be one of the first places I’d look for a bunch of missing emails to/from a high-ranking official. But apparently the IRS doesn’t do things that way.
Or maybe it took so long because of, well, some little thing like an “upcoming Congressional election”. Nah – that can’t be it. The “most transparent administration in history” would never pull such an underhanded trick. Besides, that would require blatantly lying to Federal investigators and Congress multiple times. They’d NEVER stoop that low!
In any case, it will still take a while to recover Lerner’s emails from those tapes. But you might want to follow this one for a while. It looks like this just might get even more interesting.
That just breaks my heart. (smile)
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", 2012 election, Crime, Politics, Taxes
I have 3 words:
“Contempt of Congress”
Offer immunity for full testimony to some underling, stick their ass in jail if they refuse to testify and leave them there until they play ball. It’s time to put the cricket bats away and bring out the brass knuckles. Someone needs to go to prison for all of this. Let the rats scurry around and turn on each other. Start putting people in jail and the whole house of cards collapses. None of these punks have the stones to take a jail term like the old-school machine politicians did.
A new requirement- All public officials can no longer claim the 5th- as their everyday actions involve our well being and future.
if you spend/ allocate or size it- you have no recourse- no other path but to answer all. if not- well- bye.
Let’s not act in haste either though, let’s take our time, get to the truth (and if it is what most of us think is true) then try her and send her to prison for a very long time, on the first day of the next administration. Otherwise Obama will just pardon all of these POS’s.
Busa: he could do that anyway. If it hadn’t already been done, Ford unfortunately established that precedent with his pardon of Nixon in 1974 – when he pardoned him, pre-conviction, “. . . for all offenses against the United States which he . . . has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974.”
Yep … and if I had the slightest hope that those political whores in Washington, DC were capable of perceiving that not doing what is right will always come back to haunt you, I would be saying, “Well, this should teach them!”
Ford did that for what he regarded as the good of the country. So read the proclamation that accompanied the pardon of Nixon.
The power to pardon is not constitutionally conditioned upon a conviction but must be for a specific act or omission that has already occurred and one that is contrary to US criminal (not state or civil) law. Also, a pardon cannot be effected for impeachment cases. So, one of best ways to nail someone like Lerner is for a state to prosecute her, leaving the feds out of it and the pres unable to grant a pardon.
If anyone is interested, Here’s the Ford Proclamation:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=4696
I’m aware of that, 2/17 Air Cav. And at the time, I was convinced Ford did the right thing.
I now regard that as the greatest mistake Ford made. That single act cost him the 1976 election – which gave us that “wonderful” Administration of Jimmy the Clueless. We’re still suffering the long-term effects of that peanut farmer’s idiocy. And it also indirectly established the principle that the POTUS can break the law and get away with it. Nixon did. (He wasn’t the only POTUS who’s done so, but his was the most public, “in your face” example.)
IMO, the nation would have been better off to suffer the disruptions caused by a Nixon prosecution. Hell, had that occurred maybe someone else would be thinking twice about issuing extralegal decrees like a damn Emperor today.
As an aside: I’m not so sure about the “specific act” requirement for a pardon. Ford’s pardon for Nixon was effectively a blanket pardon for any Federal crime committed by Nixon while in office. As I read it, it mentions no specific act whatsoever.
Sarcasm noted, Hondo.
But in this case, since we all know that the wheels of justice do grind slowly, a truly THOROUGH recovery of such missing stuff could take a couple of years, couldn’t it? 😉
Just askin’.
It could. But as I noted above: there’s really no need. Presidents can issue pardons for crimes committed for which the perp has yet to be indicted.
Can’t executive orders be revoked or repealed? And is a presidential pardon and EO?
I don’t think so in either case. As 2/17 Air Cav notes above, while it can’t be used in cases of impeachment, the authority of the Chief Executive to pardon individuals for Federal crimes under the Constitution is essentially both unlimited and beyond appeal.
Although this does raise an interesting question: would a pardon issued by a sitting POTUS as part of a cover-up for illegal activity (as a quid pro quo for, oh, helping hide evidence of wrongdoing on his part) – and thus itself an act undertaken as part of a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice – be lawful?
Must, of course, defer to the attorneys among us, but my understanding is that the pardon is absolute and irreversible, but that EO’s can, and often are, reversed, overridden, or otherwise acted upon.
Seems like the pardon was fairly unusual until Clinton. My memory may be fuzzy on that point, but it doesn’t seem like it was an issue until he handed them out by the dozens as he walked out the door.
Actually, OWB – Clintoon was a middle-of-the-pack to low guy in terms of the number of pardons he issued. His total (456) was considerably lower than the number issued by any POTUS from Grover Cleveland (2 nonconsecutive terms combined) to Nixon – JFK included – and lower than all but a handful of Presidents since Lincoln. Both Reagan and Ford issued nearly as many, and Carter issued more.
Clintoon’s total seems so low because of two reasons. First, Bush(both) and the current occupant, 1600 Penn Ave, Wash DC have been historically hugely stingy in granting pardons (as IMO it should be). And second, as you observed many of Clintoon’s pardons were bunched at the very end of his Administration. Some of those also got intense press coverage (Rich).
http://www.infoplease.com/us/government/presidential-pardons-1789-present.html
Thanks, Hondo. Was in the middle of a couple of things here.
The controversy is probably what I’m remembering instead of the numbers. Seems like many of his were highly questionable if not utterly disgusting.
Meanwhile, the “Reverand”!Al Sharpton’s National Action Network was withholding taxes from employee pay checks, but never gave that money to Uncle Sugar. What was it that Dear Leader said about everyone getting more skin in the game and paying their fair share?
Hack Stone…You don’t mean the same Al (I’m so greasy my hot tub keeps cloggin’ up the filters) Sharpton who just named 20 U.S. cities for his NAN, (joke organization for tax break and evasion purposes), to hold “peaceful”…read that as “riots and looting”…demonstrations. If the Ferguson Grand Jury verdict doesn’t come back the “black” way. Not THAT Al! Say it ain’t so Hack. He ONLY owes $4.5 million in unpaid federal and state taxes and his comment was first, “those are old taxes” (that’s right, I remember now, old taxes don’t count). Then it was because Obama, as a “black man” was elected, some mayor somewhere was elected (presumably also black) and various other, “it’s da man again comin’ down on us black folk” reasons why they are looking and even, God forbid asking him to “PAY YOUR TAXES MF’er”. Reasons so obtuse and full of shit I couldn’t…well yes I did believe them. Coming from his lying mouth.
“Or maybe it took so long because of, well, some little thing like an “upcoming Congressional election”. Maybe the IG over at the IRS finally decided, probably on November 5th, that there wasn’t anybody at the IRS or in the White House worth him going to jail for? I understand that his office came up with the emails.
All I know is that the consequences for this need to be so severe that, in the future, any bureaucrat, upon being approached for anything remotely similar to what Lois Lerner takes the Fifth for, will immediately pee all over him/her self.
I wonder when and if the “Fast & Furious” documents will ever appear?
API: My guess is that it will be many years from now when some PhD candidate, perhaps not yet born, is doing research. It will be footnote 112 or so sourcing the info to a DOJ email whose subject reads “May I buy you lunch today?” but whose content will speak to F&F.
The investigators from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said that they “found” 744 recovery tapes covering the period of the emails that are being sought. They also said that it’s “likely” they’ll find the missing emails from the folks that were emailing Lerner, those other emails that were irretrievably lost.
One thing is certain – the puzzles may be solvable if the emails and other writings of those pardoned are closely scrutinized. Prosecution of those responsible may not be possible, but at least proper documentation would be more likely. Perhaps followed by some sort of being held accountable.
Wonder just how they will work it all out. Pardon would short circuit future federal prosecution and some state/local charges from ever being filed. If no pardon is given, some will eventually be prosecuted.
This just might be a great show to watch as it unfolds.
Do these pardons only apply to criminal charges, or can pardons be for civil litigation as well? Hmmm.
…If I wasn’t the cynical type, I’d almost wonder if somebody hadn’t been holding onto those emails to see which way the election went. If it had ended favoring the Dems, they might have stayed lost. But now, there’s a real possibility that the wrath of God could be headed their way, and somebody’s going to have to be the sacrificial lamb. Ms. Lerner will take the hit, and they now have the paperwork to back it up.
Mike
Yep, like the justice department Fast and Furious emails, or the result of the Benghazi investigation, or the results of the Berghdahl 15-6. Yeah, I think their claim on the most transparent administration can go right out the window.
Put some butter on her. She is toast. I still think this goes all the way to the Oval Office. It reeks of Chicago politics. I’d bet that little weasel Rahm Emmanuel had his dirty hands on it. It stinks of Obama himself.