Rep. Cummings Leaks Testimony, IRS Targets Whistleblower and Bonuses for IRS Hoodlums

In an apparent effort to impede the IRS investigation by the committee on which he serves Congressman Elijah Cummings has released the entire testimony of one Cincinnati IRS employee. John Shafer, who Cummings would like to make the fall guy in the case, was interviewed in a closed hearing on June 6. He is supposedly the "conservative Republican" who claims that he began segregating conservative groups to insure uniformity in the treatment of like applicants.
Keep in mind Shafer is a lower level employee in Cincinnati nevertheless he was asked "do you have any reason to believe that anyone in the White House was involved in the decision to screen Tea Party cases?" Shafer replied, "I have no reason to believe that." and "Do you have any reason to believe that anyone in the White House was involved in the decisions to centralize the review of Tea Party cases?" he was asked. "I have no reason to believe that," he replied.
You may view and download the entire 200 page document here.
Of course proving that not everyone in the agency thinks the White House was not involved does not excuse the endemic malfeasance that permeates the IRS. Nor does it explain why Lois Lerner felt compelled to take the 5th amendment or why, like Lerner, Holly Paz was placed on administrative leave. The scandal does not stop with the Tax Exempt / Government Entities division. Suspiciously timed audits and releases of confidential tax information indicates coordination from someone either in the White House or Obama campaign. A late breaking story by CNN hints that someone in the Obama administration used the IRS as a private hit squad to harass any enemy of the administration including critics of the Department of Homeland Security.
P. Jeffrey Black was a DHS air marshall. He had taken a long list of complaints to lawmakers about how the air marshals service was run, ranging from problems keeping marshals on flights to allegations of ineptitude and favoritism by managers. The same year he retired, he appeared in “Please Remove Your Shoes,” a documentary critical of the airline security measures travelers endure on every trip.
Then came the audit, which an Internal Revenue Service agent told him about the same day the movie premiered — “almost to the hour,” he said.
The year-long investigation included the placement of a $24,000 lien against his home. In the end, the IRS found out Black owed them $480 — while the government owed him $8,300.
Black paid his $480; the government never paid him, saying the statute of limitations had run out. Now, he thinks someone — perhaps the Air Marshal Service, the Department of Homeland Security or elsewhere in the Obama administration — was using the IRS to retaliate against him.






What fate awaits the miscreants in the crime syndicate known as the IRS? Bonuses of course. Sequester be damned, the IRS is scheduled to hand out $70 million in employee bonuses.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa says his office has learned that the IRS is executing an agreement with the employees' union on Wednesday to pay the bonuses. Grassley says the bonuses should be canceled under an April directive from the White House budget office.

The directive was written by Danny Werfel, a former budget official who has since been appointed acting IRS commissioner.
"The IRS always claims to be short on resources," Grassley said. "But it appears to have $70 million for union bonuses. And it appears to be making an extra effort to give the bonuses despite opportunities to renegotiate with the union and federal instruction to cease discretionary bonuses during sequestration."
The IRS said it is negotiating with the union over the matter but did not dispute Grassley's claim that the bonuses are imminent.

Suck it up Cummings, this scandal is not going away.