Top Democrat Cummings Releases IRS Transcripts That Prove Nothing
The Obama IRS Scandal involves:
** Nearly 500 conservative groups targeted
** At least 5 pro-Israel groups targeted
** Constitutional groups targeted
** Groups that criticized Obama administration were targeted
** At least two pro-life groups targeted
** A Texas voting-rights group was targeted
** Conservative activists and businesses were targeted.
** At least 88 IRS agents were involved in the targeting scandal
** At least one conservative Hispanic group was targeted
Democrats sooo want this scandal to go away.
Today Rep. Elijah Cummings released information that proved a whole lot of nothing.
The cheerleaders at Politico reported:
Leaders on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are escalating the battle over the investigation into the IRS tea party targeting scandal.
Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the panel’s top Democrat, released hundreds of pages of transcripts today of an interview the committee conducted with a self-described “conservative Republican” IRS nonprofit screening manager in Cincinnati who says one of his employees was the first to single out a tea party group applying for a tax exemption.
And he said he agreed with the decision
“In this particular case, it was apparent that there was not enough information that was allowing [redacted name] to make … the proper determination,” he said. “I told him at that point in time I agreed with this thinking, and to give me the particulars of the case, and that I would elevate that issue to my area manager.”
Though the transcript doesn’t reveal the name of the interview subject, John Shafer is the only screening manager the committee has questioned.
This is the first full transcript of a congressional interview with an IRS employee to be released since the agency became engulfed in scandal last month. The move is bound to intensify divisions between Cummings and Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) that have surfaced in recent weeks.
“I am deeply disappointed that ranking member Cummings has decided to broadly disseminate and post online a 205-page transcript that will serve as a roadmap for IRS officials to navigate investigative interviews with Congress,” Issa said in a statement. “After unsuccessfully trying to convince the American people that IRS officials in Washington did not play a role in inappropriate scrutiny of tea party groups and declaring on national television that the case of IRS targeting was ‘solved’ and Congress should ‘move on,’ this looks like flailing.”
Of course, the fact that one group was asked to fill out some follow-up questions proves nothing. It’s when they start asking groups about their prayers and hold onto their applications for two years that’s the problem.
