However, as we have previously outlined current Treasury Secretary Jack Lew holds a serious conflict of interest. Lew’s decision to block the release is not only unethical, and an obvious conflict of interest, but also borders on illegal.
In 2012 Jack Lew was President Obama’s Chief of Staff. He would have been Chief of Staff at the time a discovered “Secret Research Project” was being conducted. The footprint of the 2012 Secret Project came to light as a result of a Judicial Watch lawsuit which led to the release of internal emails between the IRS the DOJ.
One of the email trails lends the following insight – As a result of a lawsuit communication documents dated June 27, 2012, it is revealed that inappropriately obtained donor lists were being used for a “secret research project” and that a top official wanted then-Acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller to decide how to handle the issue.
The email exchange, with the Subject line “donor names,” included the following:
Joseph Urban [IRS Technical Advisor, Tax Exempt and Government Entities] had actually started a secret research project on whether we could, consistent with 6104, argue that [REDACTED] Joe was quite agitated yesterday when I told him what we were doing. (He was involved when the initial question was raised, but we didn’t continue reading him in). At one point he started saying that this was a decision for Steve Miller–I told him we were already doing it, and that I didn’t know whether Lois had already talked to Nikole [former IRS Chief of Staff to IRS Commissioner Steve Miller] about this. Would not be surprised if he already started working on Lois.
- June 27, 2012 9:02 AM — Holly Paz to David L. Fish:
Thanks for the heads up. The decision was made by Steve, based on advice from P and A. [Procedure and Administration]
Lois Lerner’s and other IRS officials’ concerns about how to handle these donor lists came on the heels of an advisory from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) to her and other IRS officials in late March 2012 of “an audit we plan to conductof the IRS’s process for reviewing applications for tax exemption by potential section 501(c)(4), 501(c)(5), and 501(c)(6) organizations.”
This March 2012 “audit we plan to conduct” is the IG notification for a pending investigation of IRS. Specifically of their handling of Conservative Groups filing applications and status.
We all know the result of that investigation was a finding the IRS was indeed targeting conservative groups – hence the IRS scandal erupted in the headlines.
However, far more troubling were later discoveries into the internal communications which suggested much more nefarious activity regarding the assembly of secret lists, the “Secret Research Project”.
An undertaking by both the Obama Administration and the DOJ together with the IRS began to surface.
The American Center for Law and Justice put it thusly: We know the IRS unconstitutionally targeted conservative groups. We know they illegally demanded, obtained, and held the donor lists of these conservative organizations. Now we learn that in 2012, the height of the targeting, the IRS was involved in a “secret research project” with this confidential, illegally obtained donor information.
That’s more than a big deal. It’s potentially criminal.
The very fact that the IRS was using the phrase “secret research project” should give every American pause. But the fact that this project was conducted as part of a well-orchestrated effort to target and silence conservative Americans is utterly disturbing.
There are several other incriminating emails revealed in the latest set of Lerner emails turned over to Judicial Watch as part of their ongoing FOIA lawsuit.
When the Treasury Inspector General was in the early stages of its audit in June 2012, Lois Lerner demanded to be present when they wanted to speak with her deputy Holly Paz. In a flurry of emails on the morning of June 28, 2012, Paz informed Lerner that the IG would be interviewing her.
♦ June 28, 2012 8:57 AM — Paz to Lerner: “Now TIGTA wants to talk to me. I am guessing they read this morning’s paper. [Apparent reference to Wall Street Journal article concerning IRS scrutiny of Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS tax exempt status]Will keep you posted.”
♦ June 28, 2012 9:13 AM — Lerner to Paz: “Not alone. Wait til I am there.”
♦ June 28, 2012 09:17 AM — Paz to Lerner: “Sorry. Too late. He already called me. It was not about WSJ. Just him trying to get better understanding of the scope of the [House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave] Camp [R-MI] request.”
♦ June 28, 2012 8:22 AM — Lerner to Paz: “Just as dangerous. I’ll talk to you soon. Be there in half hour.”
Again, just for emphasis, this activity is between March and July of 2012.
From January 27th of 2012 to January 25th of 2013 President Obama’s Chief of Staff was Jack Lew.
Toward that end Chief of Staff Jack Lew would have been at the tip of the spear for any communication in 2012 around the “Secret Research Project“, and would have been in any meeting with, or on behalf of, the President -or White House- in that regard.
~ The Plot Thickens ~
We first discovered it on June 28th 2014 as an outcome of another research project we were working on. We have tried to draw as much attention to it as we can. Thankfully theDaily Caller is closing in, The Wall Street Journal is stumbling in that direction, and as noted above, the American Center for Law and Justice’s Jay Sekulow has finally connected the dots.
How can the DOJ conduct an investigation into unlawful aspects of the IRS targeting of specific 501(c)(4) groups, when the DOJ is the initiating body for the illegality they are seeking to investigate ?
The IRS scandal is NOT about the IRS. Yes, the IRS did indeed target conservative groups; however, they were NOT the originating entity in the overall plan to create a list of targets.
The U.S. Department of Justice was the originating governmental agency who constructed the plan to make a target list and then weaponize various government agencies against those on the list.
And whose instructions would the DOJ be following?
As said, we stumbled onto the DOJ trail of evidence back in June when we reviewed one of very few disclosures given by Lois Lerner’s attorney William Taylor III. In a moment of clarity, which was not caught by the interviewer, William Taylor responded to questioning by stating that his client, Lois Lerner, was merely responding to a request from the Department of Justice, when she sent confidential tax files to the DOJ.
Taylor said Lerner didn’t know and sent them because Justice requested the documents: “She [understood] the donor information on Schedule B had been removed. In some cases, we later learned, it may not have been.” (link)
Lois Lerner sent the DOJ 1.1 million pages of 501(c)(4) tax filing data. Including a very specific set of “33 Schedule B attachment files”. The Schedule B’s were specific to Large Conservative 501(c)(4) groups operating and organized to oppose the agenda of President Obama.
The Schedule B’s include the donor lists of specific people and sub-groups attached to the 501(c)(4).
In essence the donor group or names of every person who supported the larger conservative group. These would have been “the opponents” President Obama outlined in the controversial “citizens united” Supreme Court decision.
For obvious reasons it is illegal to distribute that taxpayer data. It is primarily illegal because such information could be used to create a list of people in opposition to the executive branch; that is exactly what happened.
Lois Lerner sent the data to the DOJ just before 2010 mid-terms. The DOJ hid the connection for three years and did not admit the submission until 2013 when congress was about to find out through one of their IRS subpoenas.
The DOJ then claimed it was some form of miscommunication, merely a mistake. The DOJ claimed they did not expect to get the Schedule B information, and therefore never noticed it until the House investigation began.
However, Lois Lerner’s attorney, William Taylor, is clearly refuting such deniability. He said it was not a mistake, it was his client, Lois Lerner, fulfilling a specific request.
Hence, it now became obvious, the House Oversight Committee is actually investigating only ONE aspect of the overall scheme. The larger scheme is actually within the investigating body, the DOJ itself and where they came up with the idea.
Which brings us back to the question we began with:
How can the DOJ conduct an investigation into unlawful aspects of the IRS targeting of specific 501(c)(4) groups, when the DOJ is the initiating body for the illegality they are seeking to investigate ?
In my humble opinion this is why President Obama took an unusual trip back to Washington DC in August of this year while he was on vacation. My spidey senses told me at the time he was meeting with various entities in/around the DOJ/IRS scandal, and secondarily getting briefed on Ferguson riots etc.
The timings we were finding within the research were too coincidental to be disconnected.
Interview with William Taylor III HERE
The Discovery outlined HERE
What difference it makes discussed HERE
Jay Sekulow ACLJ Catches On HERE
[…] We know the IRS unconstitutionally targeted conservative groups. We know they illegally demanded, obtained, and held the donor lists of these conservative organizations. Now we learn that in 2012, the height of the targeting, the IRS was involved in a “secret research project” with this confidential, illegally obtained donor information.
That’s more than a big deal. It’s potentially criminal. (link)
However, what we didn’t anticipate in August was the 2014 Ferguson type unrest could also be used as a distractive endeavor, a smokescreen, for the upcoming inability of the White House to continue keeping the construct of the IRS scandal hidden.
Hence, yesterday’s gob smacking release was buried amid a swarm of overwhelmingly distractive national anxiety.
In conclusion is it clear now how Jack Lew is in no position as Secretary of the Treasury 2014 to block evidence of his own White House activity back in 2012?
Lew is stating the internal communication requested within the FOIA contains taxpayer information that would be unlawful to disclose. Therefore he is denying the FOIA request. Within the denial he is admitting the unlawful transmission of taxpayer data from the IRS to the White House.
What’s worse, he’s claiming, according to the letter, there are “Department of Justice attorneys assigned to this matter.” The very DOJ that are up to their eyeballs in the scandal.
Lew is blocking discovery of his own culpability as a consequence of being the President’s 2012 Chief of Staff at the time the illegal taxpayer information was gathered; and then he’s hiding behind the shield of another party, the DOJ, who was similarly engaged in the construction of the scheme.
An absolute conflict of interest.
April 11, 2015
We should perhaps begin with this question: if Imam Fouad el Bayly is an example of Islamic jurisprudence, then should we be concerned about the curriculum at this new university? My guess is, “Uh, yeah.”
The Silent Soldier 