That Ranking Oversight Committee Democrat? Now linked with Lois Lehrner - Granite Grok

That Ranking Oversight Committee Democrat? Now linked with Lois Lehrner

“Elijah Cummings and Lois Lehrner sitting in a tree…” – OK, maybe only in a political sense.  It is clear that we know that the IRS became politically weaponized against Conservative groups but who knew that the main Democrat who was supposed to provide non-partisan oversight was actually in cahoots with Lois Lerner!  Steve wrote about Democratic Ranking Member Elijah Cummings actually working with the IRS to target Conservatives here and now, more has come out (emphasis mine):

New IRS emails released by the House Oversight Committee show staff working for Democratic Ranking Member Elijah Cummings communicated with the IRS multiple times between 2012 and 2013 about voter fraud prevention group True the Vote. True the Vote was targeted by the IRS after applying for tax exempt status more than two years ago. Further, information shows the IRS and Cummings’ staff asked for nearly identical information from True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht about her organization, indicating coordination and improper sharing of confidential taxpayer information.  

… “Although you have previously denied that your staff made inquiries to the IRS about conservative organization True the Vote that may have led to additional agency scrutiny, communication records between your staff and IRS officials – which you did not disclose to Majority Members or staff – indicates otherwise,” the letter to Cummings states. “As the Committee is scheduled to consider a resolution holding Ms. Lerner, a participant in responding to your communications that you failed to disclose, in contempt of Congress, you have an obligation to fully explain your staff’s undisclosed contacts with the IRS.”

Now, True the Vote’s mission is to go through the voter rolls and ferret out Voter Fraud – sort of the anti-ACORN.  Which means it doesn’t only just detect who should not be voting but can also lead to other strings that can be run up and pulled to see who is at the other end – and almost always some Democrat or some Democrat advocacy group.  From that, one just steps from one stone to another – and that could not be allowed to happen to the Democrats bread and butter tactic for queering elections results.  But wait!  Based on that Oversight Committee’s investigation, we once again see not just that he / his staff conspired with the IRS to do sideline Conservatives, but he did so with the leading person leading that charge within the IRS, Lois Lerner (and she was doing so when in the Federal Elections Commission):

The first contact between the IRS and Cummings’ staffers about True the Vote happened in August 2012. In January 2013, staff asked for more information from the IRS about the group. Former head of tax exempt groups at the IRS Lois Lerner went out of her way to try and get information to Cummings’ office.The information Cummings received was not shared with Majority Members on the Committee.

On January 28, three days after staffers requested more information, Lerner wrote an email to her deputy Holly Paz, who has since been put on administrative leave, asking, “Did we find anything?” Paz responded immediately by saying information had not been found yet, to which Lerner replied, “Thanks, check tomorrow please.”

Lerner has now been found in contempt.  With this tying of Cummings to Lerner, he has put himself in danger of jail himself for willfully obstructing Congress.  After all, if Cummings asked for some items from TtV and then the IRS actually goes and demands the same things:

“The IRS and the Oversight Minority made numerous requests for virtually identical information from True the Vote, raising concerns that the IRS improperly shared protected taxpayer information with Rep. Cummings’ staff,” a statement from the Oversight panel reads.

According to Issa, Cummings and his staff sought “copies of all training materials used for volunteers, affiliates, or other entities,” from True the Vote.

Five days after the Cummings inquiry, the IRS sent True the Vote an email requesting “a copy of [True the Vote’s] volunteer registration form,” “… the process you use to assign volunteers,” “how you keep your volunteers in teams,” and “how your volunteers are deployed … following the training they receive by you.”

Well, it becomes kinda clear what was going on.  BTW, here’s a great timeline on Lois Lerner’s anti-Conservate group actions.

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