Category Archives: Campaign 2012

BREAKING NEWS: The Obama Administration knew a full five months before the 2012 election that the IRS was targeting Tea Party Groups. This revelation comes from the New York Times via Breitbart

June 2012: The Treasury Department’s inspector general told senior Treasury officials in June 2012 he was investigating the Internal Revenue Service’s screening of politically active organizations seeking tax exemptions, disclosing for the first time on Friday that Obama administration officials were aware of the matter during the presidential campaign year.

Incredible. It would seem this administration sat on it during an election year. What would the election have looked like had this information come out? Likely very different.

Could it be possible that the catalyst for the targeting began with the Tea Party organizations in Senator Max Baucus’ Montana?

Montana Shrugged, one such organization, was starting to be quite the “nuisance” to Senator Baucus as early as March of 2010. Mind you, the Citizens United case had just been heard and decided on two weeks prior to Montana Shrugged holding demonstrations in Montana. Citizens United drew the ire of President Obama, who during the State of the Union, called out the Justices displaying his disapproval with the decision. Another organization getting under Max Baucus’ skin at this time was American Tradition Partnership, who was working directly with a few Montana Tea Party Organizations.

Bear in mind that Senator Baucus is the Senate Finance Committee Chairman and has taken up the charge to get to the bottom of this scandal. Baucus also sits on the Joint Committee on Taxation. Baucus himself has warned there will be more revelations:

“I have a hunch that a lot more is going to come out, frankly. It’s broader than the current focus. And I think it’s important that we have the hearings, and I think that will encourage other information to come out that has not yet come out. I suspect that we will learn more in the next several days, maybe the next couple three weeks which adds more context to all of this.”

Source: Washington Examiner

Ever hear of the man who was being run out of town? He raced to the front and pretended he was leading a parade. The same analogy might fit here, but time will tell.

Here is a timeline of possible events as they may have unfolded starting with the creation of the Tea Party and ending with the IRS IG report.

April 15, 2009: Tea Party protest

May 2009: Obama jokes about IRS audits in a commencement speech at ASU.

September 2009: Tea Party groups and 9/12 projects start filing for tax exempt status

January 21, 2010: Supreme Court rules on Citizens United case.

March 1 2010 American Tradition Partnership sets up shop in Montana with Baucus in its sites and continued to do so.

March 2010: Ten Tea Party cases identified as targeted. (TIGTA appendix)

April 29 2010: Max Baucus gives a press release regarding new campaign finance reform titled the Disclose act which was drafted in direct response to the Citizens United decision. Its co-sponsors were Senators Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Al Franken (D-MN).

August 27 2010: Austen Goolsbee lets it slip that he has access to Koch Brothers Tax structure

September 23 2010: A letter is sent to J. Russell George Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration regarding the possible illegal accessing and disclosure of confidential taxpayer information specifically the tax structure of Koch Industries, Inc

September 28 2010: J. Russell George Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration sends a letter acknowledging receipt of Senator Grassley’s letter regarding the possible accessing of tax information of the Koch Brothers. A review had been ordered however, the letter ended with

“As you are aware, there are certain constraints on my ability to share information from our review with you in the absence of a request from the Chairman of the Committee on Finance.”
(Max Baucus)

September 28th 2010: Sen. Max Baucus sends letter to Commissioner of the IRS, Doug Shulman. The letter asks for the IRS to look into 501(c)(4), (c)(5) and (c)(6) groups.

October 6, 2010: NY Times article, ‘Republicans see a political motive in IRS audits’. The article describes Republican charges that a Senior Obama official inappropriately accessed the tax records of Koch Industries. It also mentions Republicans are upset over an audit proposed by Senator Max Baucus into the activities of tax exempt groups.

October 6th, 2010: Republicans respond to the Baucus letter.

March 12, 2012: 7 Democrat Senators – Schumer, Bennett, Whitehouse, Merkley, Udall, Shaheen, Franken – send letter to Commissioner of the IRS Doug Shulman. Letter stated they want the IRS to look specifically into Conservative ‘social welfare groups’ and 501(c)3′s.

June 2012: Obama administration has knowledge of IRS inappropriately targeting conservative groups. Remember: President Obama said he just head this news last Friday.

June 18, 2012: Senator Max Baucus visits the White House. All details of the visit are missing from the White House Visitor Logs.

April 23, 2013: Senator Baucus announces retirement. Baucus claims personal and not political reasons.

May 14, 2013: IG report comes out. Note: On page 43, there is a letter from Joseph Grant thanking the Inspector General for giving him a copy of the IG’s draft report in advance of it being published. The received stamp on the letter is April, 30th. That is just one week after Senator Baucus announced his retirement. It is entirely possible as a member of the Ways and Means committee that the Senator was privy to this advanced report.

May 10, 2013: Unsolicted ‘apology’ comes out of the IRS for targeting Conservatives.

May 15, 2013: Steve Miller resigns as Acting Director of IRS. Miller was set to depart in June anyway.

May 16, 2013: Joseph Grant announced retirement from Tax Exempt and Government Entities division of the IRS.

May 17, 2013: Steve Miller testifies in front of the Ways and Means committee. Miller’s overall theme in answers in this testimony is ‘I don’t know who is responsible’.

* This post was co-written by LadyLiberty1885 and Liberty S Continue reading →