True the Vote is suing IRS employees personally, including Lois Lerner

◼ Lois Lerner, Slapped With Lawsuit Papers at Home - J. Christian Adams/PJMedia

REVEALED: OBAMA DONOR SAT IN ON IG INTERVIEWS WITH IRS EMPLOYEES

◼ On Wednesday, House hearings on the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) political targeting of conservative groups uncovered a startling revelation about the interview process used to construct the Inspector General’s report: Obama donor-turned-IRS director of tax exempt organizations Holly Paz sat in on 36 of 41 interviews with IRS employees. - Wynton Hall/Breitbart

“Why was Holly Paz... in almost all of the interviews you conducted?” asked Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC). “Why would you have someone from the IRS in those meetings? Is that proper protocol?”

“I am unaware of it,” said Inspector General J. Russell George. “This is the first I’ve heard this.”
George then requested time to research the revelation. “This is the first time that I was made aware of this,” said George.

George then clarified he and his agency performed an audit, not an investigation.

“The operative word, Mr. Chairman, is audit,” said George. “It was not conducted as an investigation.”
Still, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) seemed unsettled that Paz was allowed to sit in on the IG’s interviews of IRS employees.

“Usually when you are conducting an investigation—I know this was an audit, I got that—you want to keep your witnesses separate because you’re in search of the truth and you are trying to make sure there’s no advantage of a person hearing what somebody else said,” said Cummings. “That’s pretty standard procedure.”

◼ Documents: Lois Lerner Was Directly Involved in Targeting Program - Guy Benson/Townhall

Benghazi Investigation Deepens: Lawmakers Seek Interviews of 13 Officials Involved

◼ Benghazi Investigation Deepens: Lawmakers Seek Interviews of 13 Officials Involved - Stephen F. Hayes/Weekly Standard

◼ Who Outed the CIA Annex in Benghazi? - Eli Lake/Daily Beast

In a classified hearing, a House panel is trying to figure out how the attack transpired. Did the attackers know that secret location, or did they learn it that night?

◼ White House Spins Obama’s Role in Benghazi: From Competence to Irrelevance (VIDEO) - Helle Dale/Heritage Foundry



◼ Obama nominates Nuland for assistant secretary of state - Politico

President Obama on Thursday nominated Victoria Nuland, a State Department official involved in the editing of the administration's talking points on Benghazi, to be the next assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.

Nuland, a career foreign service officer who was until recently State's top spokesperson, had long been expected to be nominated the post to replace Philip Gordon, who Obama picked to serve as Middle East coordinator for the National Security Council.

Nuland's nomination -- which requires Senate confirmation -- could come under scrutiny from Republicans who see her as playing a central role in shaping the talking points that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used when she appeared on Sunday shows several days after the attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead.

“Fox News has changed its slogan from ‘Fair and Balanced’ to ‘See, I told you so!’”

Says Jay Leno

Sen. Ted Cruz: This Debate is About One Thing -- The Debt Ceiling

◼ Ted Cruz Eviscerates McCain On Pretty Much Everything, But Especially Process And The Debt Ceiling - Tammy Bruce

What does ICYMI mean?

ICYMI is "In Case You Missed It" TAFN (That's All For Now)

Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesperson, told POLITICO, “To our knowledge, the Justice Department has never ‘compromised’ Ms. Atkisson’s computers, or otherwise sought any information from or concerning any telephone, computer or other media device she may own or use.”

◼ The Sharyl Attkisson approach - Politico

“...You ask what makes Sharyl tick: It’s that she’s highly skeptical of people in power, and right now the people in power are Democrats,” one source said. “I don’t see her as an agenda-driven reporter.”

“[Attkisson believes] that public officials and federal officials work for us, and that it’s gotten to the point where they don’t believe that they should be held accountable,” another source said. “That’s not partisan.”

BREAKING: DOJ Confirms Holder Personally "Vetted" Rosen Warrant

"In regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material. This is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy." Eric Holder

◼ A damaging Friday news dump before a holiday weekend? Who could have seen that coming? Dump away, Justice Department: - Guy Benson/Townhall

The Justice Department said on Friday that officials up to Attorney General Eric Holder vetted a decision to search an email account belonging to a Fox News reporter whose report on North Korea prompted a leak investigation. In a statement emailed to Reuters, the department said the search warrant for the reporter's email account followed all laws and policies and won the independent approval of a federal magistrate judge.

We're apparently supposed to feel better about everything because the DOJ "followed all laws and policies" and secured their warrant from a judge. That would be the same warrant that designated journalist James Rosen as a potential "criminal co-conspirator" in order to keep it secret. Details about the breadth of the investigation continue to emerge. Via The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza, another eye-opening scoop:

The Obama Administration fought to keep a search warrant for James Rosen’s private e-mail account secret, arguing to a federal judge that the government might need to monitor the account for a lengthy period of time...Ronald C. Machen, Jr., the U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a former State Department adviser who allegedly leaked classified information to Rosen, insisted that the reporter should not be notified of the search and seizure of his e-mails, even after a lengthy delay...He argued that disclosure of the search warrant would preclude the government from monitoring the account, should such a step become necessary in the investigation. Machen added that “some investigations are continued for many years because, while the evidence is not yet sufficient to bring charges, it is sufficient to have identified criminal subjects and/or criminal activity serious enough to justify continuation of the investigation.” The new details indicate that the government wanted the option to search Rosen’s e-mails repeatedly if the F.B.I. found further evidence implicating the reporter in what prosecutors argued was a conspiracy to commit espionage...In addition to Rosen’s correspondence with Kim, the government wanted to know about Rosen’s contacts with other government officials, including “records or information relating to the Author’s communication with any other source or potential source of the information disclosed in the Article.”

One stunner after the next. The Justice Department wanted to "repeatedly" monitor Rosen's personal emails for a "lengthy period of time" -- years possibly -- in order to track his "contacts with other government officials" beyond the source at the center of the North Korea leak investigation.

◼ We already knew that he signed the warrant for Rosen’s e-mails. Now we know for sure that it wasn’t pro forma. President Good Government announced yesterday that he’s ordered the Attorney General to review the DOJ’s guidelines for snooping on reporters. Imagine how dismayed Eric Holder will be when he finds out what Eric Holder’s done. - Allahpundit/HotAir

That’s not all. Per Ryan Lizza, the DOJ appealed and won in 2010 after a district court judge ruled that they couldn’t keep their e-mail snooping a secret from Rosen. Why was the DOJ so worried about Rosen finding out? Because: They wanted to maintain access to his e-mail accounts, indefinitely if necessary, to flush out more evidence of leaking. And that’s why Rosen didn’t find out until a few days ago that he was being spied on.

◼ HOW PROSECUTORS FOUGHT TO KEEP ROSEN’S WARRANT SECRET - Ryan Lizza/The New Yorker

◼ Yup. Eric Holder Perjured Himself. - The Right Sphere

None of these can be viewed in isolation. For 5 years we have endured wide-ranging attempts to suppress conservative political speech. The IRS scandal is just one part of it.

◼ Team Obama’s dirty war against conservatives - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

◼ Conservatives Became Targets in 2008: The Obama campaign played a big role in a liberal onslaught that far pre-dated Citizens United. - Kimberley Strassel/Wall St. Journal

The White House insists President Obama is "outraged" by the "inappropriate" targeting and harassment of conservative groups. If true, it's a remarkable turnaround for a man who helped pioneer those tactics.

On Aug. 21, 2008, the conservative American Issues Project ran an ad highlighting ties between candidate Obama and Bill Ayers, formerly of the Weather Underground. The Obama campaign and supporters were furious, and they pressured TV stations to pull the ad—a common-enough tactic in such ad spats.

What came next was not common. Bob Bauer, general counsel for the campaign (and later general counsel for the White House), on the same day wrote to the criminal division of the Justice Department, demanding an investigation into AIP, "its officers and directors," and its "anonymous donors." Mr. Bauer claimed that the nonprofit, as a 501(c)(4), was committing a "knowing and willful violation" of election law, and wanted "action to enforce against criminal violations."

◼ A Culture of Hooliganism… Obama Goons Threatened 10,000 GOP Donors With Legal Trouble for Donating to Republicans - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit

The Bauer onslaught was a big part of a new liberal strategy to thwart the rise of conservative groups. In early August 2008, the New York Times trumpeted the creation of a left-wing group (a 501(c)4) called Accountable America. Founded by Obama supporter and liberal activist Tom Mattzie, the group—as the story explained—would start by sending “warning” letters to 10,000 GOP donors, “hoping to create a chilling effect that will dry up contributions.” The letters would alert “right-wing groups to a variety of potential dangers, including legal trouble, public exposure and watchdog groups digging through their lives.” As Mr. Mattzie told Mother Jones: “We’re going to put them at risk.”

Obama has a history of threatening and harassing political opponents.
The IRS scandal should surprise no one.

Did Eric Holder lie in Congressional testimony last week?

◼ That’s the question asked by Katie Pavlich and Jim Hoft after the revelation that Attorney General Eric Holder personally approved the application for a warrant on Fox News’ James Rosen as a potential co-conspirator in espionage. - HotAir

Last week, under relatively friendly questioning from Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) about the Department of Justice seizure of Associated Press phone records, Johnson asked about the potential to prosecute reporters under the Espionage Act of 1917. ”You’ve got a long way to go to try to prosecute the press for publication of material,” Holder responded. Later, though, he returned to the topic unbidden, ...(at the 5-minute mark): "In regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material. This is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy."



As it turns out, Holder not only heard of it, he personally approved it. The warrant in the Rosen case specified that he was considered a potential suspect in the leak of classified material, the reason that the DoJ didn’t bother to follow the existing Watergate-era statute in coordinating the records request with Fox News. And note that Holder’s testimony in this case wasn’t produced by some sophisticated perjury trap sprung by a Republican, but as a freely-offered representation to no particular question during the question period of a Democrat.

There is no other way to view this except as a lie. Even if Holder wasn’t under oath, that would constitute a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. It certainly should produce at least a resignation, and almost assuredly would require the appointment of a special prosecutor, especially since the next person down in the organization, James Cole, is suspected of doing the same thing with reporters.

◼ Did Eric Holder Lie Under Oath? - Katie Pavlich/Townhall

◼ HOLDER LIED TO CONGRESS On His Role in Investigating News Reporters (Video) - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit



◼ BREAKING: DOJ Confirms Holder Personally "Vetted" Rosen Warrant - Guy Benson/Townhall

A damaging Friday news dump before a holiday weekend? Who could have seen that coming? Dump away, Justice Department:

The Justice Department said on Friday that officials up to Attorney General Eric Holder vetted a decision to search an email account belonging to a Fox News reporter whose report on North Korea prompted a leak investigation. In a statement emailed to Reuters, the department said the search warrant for the reporter's email account followed all laws and policies and won the independent approval of a federal magistrate judge.

We're apparently supposed to feel better about everything because the DOJ "followed all laws and policies" and secured their warrant from a judge. That would be the same warrant that designated journalist James Rosen as a potential "criminal co-conspirator" in order to keep it secret. Details about the breadth of the investigation continue to emerge. Via The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza, another eye-opening scoop:

The Obama Administration fought to keep a search warrant for James Rosen’s private e-mail account secret, arguing to a federal judge that the government might need to monitor the account for a lengthy period of time...Ronald C. Machen, Jr., the U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a former State Department adviser who allegedly leaked classified information to Rosen, insisted that the reporter should not be notified of the search and seizure of his e-mails, even after a lengthy delay...He argued that disclosure of the search warrant would preclude the government from monitoring the account, should such a step become necessary in the investigation. Machen added that “some investigations are continued for many years because, while the evidence is not yet sufficient to bring charges, it is sufficient to have identified criminal subjects and/or criminal activity serious enough to justify continuation of the investigation.” The new details indicate that the government wanted the option to search Rosen’s e-mails repeatedly if the F.B.I. found further evidence implicating the reporter in what prosecutors argued was a conspiracy to commit espionage...In addition to Rosen’s correspondence with Kim, the government wanted to know about Rosen’s contacts with other government officials, including “records or information relating to the Author’s communication with any other source or potential source of the information disclosed in the Article.”

◼ Yup. Eric Holder Perjured Himself. - The Right Sphere

Now, a majority of Americans are saying that they’d rather go back to life under that crappy 2009 system than be forced to live under Obamacare.

◼ Obamacare poll is even worse than it looks - Philip Klein/Washington Examiner @philipklein

Guy Benson ◼ points to a new Fox poll with findings that he describes as “brutal” for President Obama’s health care law. Specifically, Benson highlights this question:

22. Do you think it would be better to leave the new health care law in place, or would it be better to go back to the health care system that was in place in 2009?

Better to keep law: 34 percent
Better to go back to previous system: 56 percent

Those numbers are bad enough on the surface, but they’re even worse when compared with polling data from 2009, which shows that Americans weren’t exactly thrilled with the status quo. In a Pew survey taken in June 2009, in the early stages of Obama’s health care push, 30 percent of Americans said they thought the health care system required “fundamental changes” and 41 percent responded that it needed to be “completely rebuilt.”

◼ The unwelcome role of the IRS in Obamacare - Michael Gerson/Washington Post

...the IRS is not merely implementing Obamacare. It engaged in a regulatory power grab to ensure that it could implement Obamacare....

As the implementation of health care reform moves forward, Congress may need to take another look at the law anyway. The unintended effects of Obamacare now seem unavoidable: higher premiums in employer plans; additional burdens on a Medicaid system already struggling with quality issues; cost controls in Medicare that will drive out providers; a perverse incentive structure that encourages businesses to dump employees on the exchanges while discouraging the young and healthy from signing up, eventually raising costs.

But the IRS power grab is a reminder of how shoddy the law really is. The whole enterprise is precariously perched atop a flimsy bureaucratic excuse. And the agency providing that excuse is a discredited mess.

Jon Stewart skewers Obama over DOJ spying, press freedom

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

◼ In case you missed it last night, The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart played a medley of clips of President Obama giving lip service to the freedom of the press…then squashing it. - conservativeintel.com

The London Terror Attack Was More Than 'Unforgivable' (Warning: Video Content may Be Disturbing)

◼ Britain has been in denial about the Islamist threat. Time to face it down. - Douglas Murray/Wall St. Journal

How many ignored warnings does it take? That is one question that should hang over Britain after the horror of the daytime murder of a British soldier on the streets of south London. On Wednesday afternoon, Drummer Lee Rigby was killed in Woolwich by two men wielding large knives and shouting "Allahu akbar"—God is great.

Islamists have been saying for years they would do this. They have planned to do it. And now they have done it.

The attack itself is not surprising. What is surprising is that British society remains so utterly unwilling not just to deal with this threat, but even to admit its existence. Politicians have called the Woolwich killing "unforgivable" and "barbarous." But expressions of anger should not really be enough....

Now comes the attack in Woolwich, which the perpetrators—as with the earlier cell—wished to be observed and even filmed. Reports suggest that they invited people to capture their actions on video. The perpetrators gave interviews, machetes in hand, to bystanders with cameras. This horrific scene is something that will stick in the memory.

But it should also have been foreseen. Instead we entered the stage of denial. For there is already, in the reaction to events, more than a hint of what I have previously termed "Toulouse syndrome." The term is named after the attacks last year carried out by a jihadist called Mohammed Merah, who killed three French soldiers in a rampage that concluded with the murders of four French Jews at a school in Toulouse.

In the early stages of the attacks, when little was known, there was significant speculation that the culprit was a far-right extremist. At that stage everybody knew what they were going to say. But once the culprit turned out to be an Islamist, the gaze nearly fell away completely. "Nothing to see here, please move on" was the order of the day.

◼ MI5 admit they KNEW about fanatics who 'slaughtered soldier': Police raid house in Lincolnshire village as friends say British-born suspect became 'obsessed with radical Islam as schoolboy' - Daily Mail

Two men who allegedly slaughtered a soldier in a Woolwich street were known to security services, it emerged today.
David Cameron revealed that authorities were looking into what was already known about Drummer Lee Rigby's alleged killers, but it is not thought they were considered to be an immediate threat.

One of the men, believed to be Michael Adebolajo, is believed to have been arrested after he went to Somalia to join banned Islamist group al Ahabaab.

Eyewitness Jamie France, 29, said that his mother had seen Adebolajo preaching as recently as last week.

He said: 'She said she'd seen him last week preaching in Woolwich town centre. She said she remembers him because he'd been really angry and was saying all this political stuff.'

In an extraordinary day of events, Scotland Yard announced that another 1,200 police officers were being put onto the streets and several houses were raided as part of the investigation.

◼ RAW VIDEO: MUSLIM BUTCHERS CHARGE LONDON POLICE WITH A GUN AND BLOODY CLEAVERS - Atlas Shrugs



◼ Woolwich Attack: British soldier Lee Rigby died 'in the most horrific way possible,' says relative - NY Daily News

◼ ‘Better me than a child’: Cub Scout leader and mom of 2 says she was ‘never scared’ while standing up to cleaver-wielding terrorists who beheaded British soldier - NY Daily News

IRS Official Lois Lerner Placed on Administrative Leave as Scandal Grows

◼ Lois Lerner, one of the officials at the center of the IRS scandal, has been placed on administrative leave (with pay) - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion
◼ IRS Source: Lerner Placed On Administrative Leave - Eliana Johnson/National Review
◼ Convenient! IRS’ Lois Lerner placed on paid ‘administrative leave’; Ace smells a ‘pivot’ - Twitchy

Wow Lois Lerner placed on admin leave right after @ezraklein and @joshmarshall suggested something like that, right after WH visit.

— DepressiveBlogger69 (@AceofSpadesHQ) May 23, 2013

.@aceofspadeshq @ezraklein @joshmarshallO had the "Pundits" over to lay out the talking points/strategy to try to disappear the scandal!

— Matt Harrison (@MathewSHarrison) May 23, 2013

I was such a conspirasaurus to ask whether the WH had tipped them this was their next gambit, and asked them to "call for it"

— DepressiveBlogger69 (@AceofSpadesHQ) May 23, 2013

◼ Criminality Appears To Lie at the Heart of the IRS Scandal - Larry Kudlow/New York Sun

When you get right down to it, the political targeting and stalling of tax-exempt applications by the IRS was an effort to defund the Tea Party. Rick Santelli, one of the Tea Party founders and my CNBC colleague, was the first to make this point. I’ve taken it a step further: The IRS was taking the Tea Party out of play for the 2012 election, as it looked to avoid a repeat of 2010 and another Tea Party landslide.

There are a lot of numbers out there. Some say Tea Party applications for tax-exempt status averaged 27 months for approval, while applications from liberal groups averaged nine. In one extreme case, according to the Washington Post, the IRS granted the Barack H. Obama Foundation tax-exempt status in a speedy one-month timeframe. Yet some conservative groups waited up to three years, and some still haven’t received approval.

But there can be only one reason for the stalled-out approval process for conservative groups. The IRS was trying to put them out of business. Thus far, there’s not one wit of contradictory evidence.

◼ The IRS scandal and Obama’s culture of intimidation - Mitch McConnell/Washington Post

The Real Voter Suppression of 2012

◼ Voter ID didn’t reduce turnout, but the IRS may have. - John Fund/National Review

...Jim Bopp, the election-law attorney, hopes some good will come out of the IRS scandal. “What’s clear is that bureaucrats and regulators can abuse the system when there aren’t bright lines. This should teach us we have to nail down exactly what the permissible level of political activity for a non-profit is. That will make it harder for arbitrary and capricious bureaucrats who might want to misuse their power.”

It won’t be easy to discover whether the “voter suppression” engaged in by the IRS was malicious and political. But we have to make every effort to find out before the American people start losing confidence in the integrity of our elections.
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SAVE THE DATE: John Fund will be Keynote Speaker at Humboldt GOP's fundraiser, June 20th at Blue Lake Casino's Sapphire Room. Tickets are $45/person