The IRS Targetting and The Obama Administration Connection?

Last night on On the Record, Lori Lowenthal Marcus, President of Z-Street brought forth information that could show that the Obama administration was in indeed connect with the IRS's targeting of certain groups for harassment.
ZStreet had applied for 501-C(3)  tax exemption, to help raise funds for their cause.
ZStreet cause is as stated on their website.

All members of Z STREET share a love of Israel, pride in being Zionists, and the belief that Israel must not negotiate with, make concessions to, or appease terrorists.  

What do we all really want for the inhabitants of the Middle East?  At the end of the day, everyone wants to live safe, productive lives.  They want to have the ability to read what they want, say what they want, work where they want, and go where they want.  And they want access to good medical care, cutting-edge technology, first class educational opportunities and a vibrant economy. 

Our goal at Z STREET is to put forth a viable model that ensures that the greatest number of people have access to all these rights and services while internalizing the importance of tolerance, mutual acceptance, pluralism and respect for the law.

ZStreet promotes a middle east solution, as does the United States. It's been our policy to reach such a solution for decades.
 
But as Ms Marcus spoke last night, she said something that caught my attention.

"The agent in charge (IRS) also told our lawyer that some of those other organizations applications were going to be sent to a special unit in Washington to determine whether those organizations position contradicts those of the administration."

I couldn't believe my ears, so I looked this up and what I found was, ZStreet has filed a complaint in court, suing the IRS, and in the complaint it states here:

A.     The plaintiff in this case, Z STREET, is a nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about Zionism; about the facts relating to the Middle East and to the existence of Israel as a Jewish State;  and about Israel’s right to refuse to negotiate with, make concessions to, or appease terrorists. Z STREET is not a grant-making organization and does not fund any organizations either within or outside the United States.
B.     Z STREET brings this case because, through its corporate counsel, Z STREET was informed explicitly by an IRS Agent on July 19, 2010, that approval of Z STREET’s application for tax-exempt status has been at least delayed, and may be denied, because of a special IRS policy in place regarding organizations in any way connected with Israel, and further that the applications of many such Israel-related organizations have been assigned to “a special unit in the D.C. office to determine whether the organization's activities contradict the Administration's public policies.” These statements by an IRS official that the IRS maintains special policies (hereinafter the “Israel Special Policy”) governing applications for tax-exempt status by organizations which deal with Israel, and which requires particularly intense scrutiny of such applications and an enhanced risk of denial if made by organizations which espouse or support positions inconsistent with the Obama administration’s Israel policies, constitute an explicit admission of the crudest form of viewpoint discrimination, and one which is both totally un-American and flatly unconstitutional under the First Amendment. 

And here, it also states that:

22.   Agent Gentry further stated to counsel for Z STREET: “these cases are being sent to a special unit in the D.C. office to determine whether the organization's activities contradict the Administration's public policies.”

So, just how further up the chain does this go?

Was it ordered by the Obama administration to funnel these applications to Washington for scrutiny on whether Obama would approve their tax exempt status?

Could very well be.

Whoops- IRS Not Honest About Targetting

It is turning out that the IRS, when admitting they had targeted Tea Partiers, Patriots and conservatives as coming from "low level" Cincinnati operatives, were not being fully honest.
This being reported from the Washington Post.

Lois G. Lerner, who oversees tax-exempt groups for the IRS, told reporters Friday that the “absolutely inappropriate” actions were undertaken by “front-line people” working in Cincinnati to target groups with “tea party,” “patriot” or “9/12” in their names.

Not So:

Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
IRS officials at the agency’s Washington headquarters sent queries to conservative groups asking about their donors and other aspects of their operations, while officials in the El Monte and Laguna Niguel offices in California sent similar questionnaires to tea-party-affiliated groups, the documents show.

In one instance, however, Ron Bell, an IRS employee, informed a lawyer representing a conservative group focused on voter fraud that the application was under review in Washington. On several other occasions, IRS officials in Washington and California sent conservative groups detailed questionnaires about their voter outreach and other activities, according to the documents.

Moreover, details of the IRS’s efforts to target conservative groups reached the highest levels of the agency in May 2012, far earlier than has been disclosed, according to Republican congressional aides briefed by the IRS and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration ­(TIGTA) on the details of their reviews.
Then-Commissioner Douglas Shulman, a George W. Bush appointee who stepped down in November, received a briefing from the TIGTA about what was happening in the Cincinnati office in May 2012, the aides said. His deputy and the agency’s current acting commissioner, Steven T. Miller, also learned about the matter that month, the aides said.
The officials did not share details with Republican lawmakers who had been demanding to know whether the IRS was targeting conservative groups, Republicans said.
“I wrote to the IRS three times last year after hearing concerns that conservative groups were being targeted,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement Monday. “In response to the first letter I sent with some of my colleagues, Steven Miller, the current Acting IRS Commissioner, responded that these groups weren’t being targeted.”
“Knowing what we know now,” he added, “the IRS was at best being far from forth coming, or at worst, being deliberately dishonest with Congress.”

For the IRS to say it was some low-level group in Oho is outright false and that this scandal could go up through the highest ranks of the IRS.... Or maybe even further... stay tuned.