It has now come out that Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner picked up a trick used by former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, DOJ Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer during Operation Fast and Furious and by recently confirmed Labor Secretary Tom Perez during his time as a DOJ Civil Rights Attorney.
She was caught using a personal e-mail account under an alias to conduct official business so that it would not be captured by records requests by Congress relating to her or Freedom of Information Act requests. It also impedes investigations because personal accounts are not archived by the government. Jackson used 'Richard Windsor' as her alias, while Lerner used 'Lois Home'.
This is also known as obstruction of justice, the last time I checked.
House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa and his colleague, Ohio congressman Jim Jordan wrote to Lerner, demanding the relevant documents for the period between January 2008 and the present.
“This raises some serious questions concerning your use of a non-official e-mail account to conduct official business,” the GOP lawmakers wrote. “Additional documents related to the Committee’s investigation may exist in these non-official accounts over which you have some control, and the lack of access to this information prevents the Committee from fully assessing your actions.” Issa and Jordan are requesting that Lerner produce the documents they want by August 27.
Lerner is already in hot water because its been discovered that she communicated with an FEC attorney about two conservative groups, and the information she disclosed very likely constitutes a felony, punishable by up to $5,000 in fines or five years in prison, plus the loss of her federal job.
She is refusing to testify before the committee unless she's given immunity.
Yep..just another one of President Obama's 'phony scandals'.
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"Yep just another one of President Obama's phony scandals." This will likely depend upon what Mr. Obama knew and when he knew it. In the case of the IRS, this organization has always had it in for Conservatives and Conservative groups for at least the last 30 years and probably longer. In other words, actions like this predate Mr. Obama by a long time.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, I'm pleased it is finally coming to light. The people act so shocked though. I thought it was a given that everyone knew this. I'm not optimistic we are going to see reform in this area though for two basic reasons. 1.)Republicans and Democrats hate the tea party and conservative groups. This is one of the only areas they actually agree on. 2.)America today is a left of center nation politically. As such, while they don't like injustice, they don't generally like the tea party or other conservative groups either. The result of this is there is unlikely to be enough dismay at the situation by the American people to stick at the process long enough to force real change in how the IRS and other government organizations conduct business in this regard.
This situation by itself is unlikely to cause any significant damage to Mr. Obama, however, this in combination with other things could cause significant issues. On the one hand, there seems to be much more illegal activity going on with the Obama Administration than there was with the Bush Administration. On the other hand, Mr. Obama has managed to remain relatively popular with the American public while Mr. Bush was the most hated man in the history of the republic when he left office.