In 2012 it was revealed that Obama administration officials used pseudonym email accounts to hide their communications.  EPA head Lisa Jackson became embroiled in a scandal when it was discovered that she subverted FOIA concerns by using an account under the name “Richard Windsor”, a name attributed to her dog.
Later, as the EPA scandal evolved, Lisa Jackson quit her position. 

Now, it appears that IRS official Lois Lerner was doing the exact same thing.  Using the email name “Toby Miles” to hide her in house, and ex parte, communication.  The IRS plot thickens.
WASHINGTON DC – The IRS admitted to a federal court there was a second personal email account that Lois Lerner, the official at the heart of the Tea Party targeting scandal, used to conduct agency business.
The email account apparently was set up under the name, “Toby Miles,” which sources tell Fox News is the name of Lerner’s dog.   (more…)

Pass the popcorn, stuff is finally getting serious…

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the U.S. State Department to request that Hillary Clinton and her top aides confirm, under penalty of perjury, that they have produced all government records in their possession, return any other government records immediately, and describe their use of Hillary Clinton’s email server to conduct government business.

[…]  The text of Judge Sullivan’s minute order, which was issued at 5:46 pm:

♦ As agreed by the parties at the July 31, 2015 status hearing, the Government shall produce a copy of the letters sent by the State Department to Mrs. Hillary Clinton, Ms. Huma Abedin and Ms. Cheryl Mills regarding the collection of government records in their possession.  These communications shall be posted on the docket forthwith.

(more…)

…The wind began to switch – the house, to pitch – and suddenly the legal hinges started to unhitch.

What happened then was rich. The lie began to pitch; the lawyers sniffed a snitch.  The courtroom took a slitch; landing on the Wicked Witch while hiding in her ditch.

Which was not a healthy sit-u-ation for the Wicked Witch….

Via Judicial Watch […] During the a status hearing today, Sullivan warned that the failure to follow his order was serious and the IRS and Justice Department’s excuses for not following his July 1 order were “indefensible, ridiculous, and absurd.”

He asked the IRS’ Justice Department lawyer Geoffrey Klimas, “Why didn’t the IRS comply” with his court order and “why shouldn’t the Court hold the Commissioner of the IRS in contempt.” Judge Sullivan referenced his contempt findings against Justice Department prosecutors in the prosecution of late Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) and reminded the Justice Department attorney he had the ability to detain him for contempt. Warning he would tolerate no further disregard of his orders, Judge Sullivan said, “I will haul into court the IRS Commissioner to hold him personally into contempt.”

Judge Sullivan then immediately issued a “Minute Order“: (more…)

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained documents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that confirm that the IRS used donor lists to tax-exempt organizations to target those donors for audits.

The documents also show IRS officials specifically highlighted how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce may come under “high scrutiny” from the IRS.  The IRS produced the records in a Freedom of Information lawsuit seeking documents about selection of individuals for audit-based application information on donor lists submitted by Tea Party and other 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations (Judicial Watch v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:15-cv-00220)). (more…)

The DOJ’s use of the IRS to target political groups opposed to President Obama’s fundamental change policies remains one of the biggest scandals ever in the history of U.S. politics.  Yet few within the national media have ever attempted to broadcast the story.

(Via Daily Caller) The Internal Revenue Service found 6,400 more Lois Lerner emails — but they’re not handing them over in court.  The IRS’ latest excuses are nothing short of infuriating.

Department of Justice lawyers Geoffrey J. Klimas and Stephanie Sasarak, acting as counsel for the IRS, submitted a U.S. District Court filing June 12 in the case Judicial Watch v. Internal Revenue Service.

The court filing, provided to The Daily Caller, claims the IRS received new Lerner emails from the Treasury Department’s inspector general (TIGTA) but can’t fork over the emails to Judicial Watch, a nonprofit group suing to get the emails. Why? Because the IRS is busy making sure that none of the emails are duplicates  – you know, so as not to waste anyone’s time. (more…)

(Via The Hill) An inspector general investigating the IRS’s improper scrutiny of Tea Party groups has found thousands of emails from Lois Lerner, the agency official at the center of that controversy, according to committees involved in the probe.
Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration (TIGTA) said it found roughly 6,400 emails either to or from Lerner from between 2004 and 2013 that it didn’t think the IRS had turned over to lawmakers, the congressional committees said. The committees have yet to examine the emails, aides on Capitol Hill said. (more…)

Overnight thread – Long video but worth watching if you have time.

Judicial Watch hosted a panel at its headquarters discussing Hillary Clinton’s email scandal with Joseph E. diGenova (Founding Partner, diGenova & Toensing, LLP), Daniel J. Metcalfe (Adjunct Professor of Law, American University), and Paul Orfanedes (Director of Litigation, Judicial Watch). Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch’s president, moderator.

As you read the following media report it is important to remember: ♦ Hillary Clinton has previously stated, unequivocally, that no classified communication traveled through her self-created personal communication network. 

So what exactly is there to review?  Either the U.S. government believes the statements by the Secretary of State to be true, or they do not.

Second, ♦ the government knowingly allowed the secret communication network to exist and allowed all the construction issues therein to take place.  Therefore the burden of any administrative compliance issue should reside upon them to reconcile expeditiously.

(The Washington Times) The Obama administration told a federal court Monday that it needs “several months” more to go through former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s government emails, saying it’s proving time-consuming to sort out exactly what information they can release to the public,

Justice Department lawyers also bristled at accusations that the government perpetrated a fraud by hiding the existence of the emails, as Mr. Obama’s team begins to fully grapple with the legal complications Mrs. Clinton has left them. (more…)

Yesterday the White House spokesperson Josh Earnest suggested that President Obama first knew of the existence of a secret Clinton email account after reading about it in the recent papers.  Today President Obama confirmed that espousal:

In interview with @plantecbs, Pres Obama says he learned of Hillary Clinton's private e-mail use "the same time everybody else learned it."

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) March 7, 2015

Today, Politico is reporting the White House knew specifically about the email accounts in August of last year (2014), and the Clinton aides asked white house officials not to immediately act on anything:

(Politico) The White House, State Department and Hillary Clinton’s personal office knew in August that House Republicans had received information showing that the former secretary of state conducted official government business through her private email account — and Clinton’s staff made the decision to keep quiet.

Sources familiar with the discussions say key people in the Obama administration and on Clinton’s staff were aware that the revelation could be explosive for the all-but-announced candidate for president. But those involved deferred to Clinton’s aides, and they decided not to respond. (link)

Further in the Politico article it cites the timeline of August 2014 notification came as a result of the Select Committee on Benghazi and their inquires into communication within the State Dept. between Hillary and other officials. (more…)

A new batch of emails show how IRS official Lois Lerner intentionally tried to stop inquiry about the IRS Targeting scheme back in April of 2012, and how the IRS was seeking to block congressional inquiry into the activity of the prior two years.
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released a new batch of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) documents, including a series of emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner to then-Tax Exempt and Government Entities (TE/GE) Division Deputy Director Joseph H. Grant strongly objecting to his planned visit to the IRS Cincinnati office “smack dab in the middle” of congressional inquiries into the IRS targeting of conservative groups. Lerner also expresses concerns about a pending investigation by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) into the IRS’s handing of Tea Party applications. (more…)