IRS Probe: Democrats Target Russell George

Posted by Tina

When Democrat power is threatened you can be sure that the person most likely to challenge or damage them will be targeted for destruction. Enter Russel George, the inspector general who gave damaging testimony in the House investigation of the IRS scandal. The probe eventually led to the “retirement” of IRS official Lois Lerner.

Some on the left have have advanced the theory that a handfull of left organizations that were also looked at by the IRS equals the almost 400 groups that were extensively probed, asked inappropriate questions, and had their applications indefinitely delayed. The President claims there isn’t a “smidgeon of corruption” in the IRS handling of conservative groups. The right refuses to let what they see as an egregious abuse of power die.

Now two Democrats in the House of Representatives, Gerry Connoll (Va.) and Matt Cartwright (Penn.), have filed a complaint with a special watchdog council questioning the independence of Treasury Department inspector general J. Russell George. They charge that George inappropriately met with Daryll Issa and other Republicans to discuss the matter and they demand access to all papers or emails relating to defining the limits of the audit be turned over. They also claim George produced a “fundamentally flawed performance audit” that was “incomplete” and “outright misleading.”

The Washigton Post reports on the response fro George and an inspector general spokesman:

Karen Kraushaar, a spokeswoman for the inspector general’s office, defended the review on Thursday, saying it “looked at the entire process of how the IRS was reviewing 501(c)(4)s,” otherwise known as social welfare groups.

George added: “We noted there were other ‘be on the lookout’ lists that included other types of organizations, but that was not the initial charge of the review and not the focus.”

George’s report stated that the IRS “used inappropriate criteria that identified for review Tea Party and other organizations applying for tax-exempt status.”

Since many of the applications have still not been granted or denied and since at least one of the applicants, Cathryn Engelbrecht, was targeted by not only the IRS but also OSHA, BATF, and the FBI:

In 2011, my personal and business tax returns were audited by the Internal Revenue Service, each audit going back for a number of years.

In 2012, my business was subjected to inspection by OSHA, on a select occasion when neither my husband nor I were present, and though the agency wrote that it found nothing serious or significant, it still issued fines in excess of $20,000.

In 2012 and again in 2013 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms conducted comprehensive audits at my place business.

Beginning in 2010, the FBI contacted my nonprofit organization on six separate occasions – wanting to cull through membership manifests in conjunction with domestic terrorism cases. They eventually dropped all matters and have now redacted nearly all my files.

All of these incursions into my affairs began after filing applications for tax-exemption. There is no other remarkable event, no other reason, to explain away how for decades I went unnoticed, but now find myself on the receiving end of inter agency coordination into and against all facets of my life, both public and private.

Bear in mind, distinguished ladies and gentlemen of this sub-committee, these events were occurring while the IRS was subjecting me to multiple rounds of abusive inquiries, with requests to provide every Facebook and Twitter entry I’d every posted, questions about my political aspirations, and demands to know the names of every group I’d ever made presentations to, the content of what I’d said, and where I intended to speak for the coming year. The answers to these sorts of questions are not of interest to the typical IRS analyst, but they are of great interest to a political machine that puts its own survival above the civil liberties of any private citizen.

This government attacked me because of my political beliefs, but I refuse to be cast as a victim; not to the IRS, not to the FBI, not to OSHA, not to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, or to any other government agency. I am not a victim, because to be a victim is to accept that I have no options. I do have options and I intend to use them all to the fullest extent of my capabilities.

I expect more revelations in this investigation and I believe that this time the Democrat habit of targeting will backfire.