This Is Why Americans Don’t Trust Their Government

This Is Why Americans Don’t Trust Their Government by The Elephant's Child

January 14, 2014, 8:43 pm
Filed under: Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Law, Politics, Progressivism, Regulation, The United States | Tags: FBI Says No Criminal Charges, Investigation in Name Only, No Trust in Government

The Federal Bureau of Investigation says that criminal charges in the IRS abuse scandal will not be filed:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation doesn’t plan to file criminal charges over the Internal Revenue Service’s heightened scrutiny of conservative groups, according to law-enforcement officials, a move that likely will only intensify debate over the politically charged scandal.

The officials said investigators didn’t find the kind of political bias or “enemy hunting” that would amount to a violation of criminal law. Instead, what emerged during the probe was evidence of a mismanaged bureaucracy enforcing rules about tax-exemption applications it didn’t understand, according to the law-enforcement officials.

Oh please! This was such obvious malfeasance, deliberate targeting of conservative, Christian and Tea Party groups, who might have been able to raise funds that would interfere with Obama’s reelection, that such a whitewash says more about the FBI than about the IRS.

The president himself at least set the tone, he put William Wilkins in the IRS counsel’s office — which was responsible for developing the guidelines that led to the targeting of the president’s opponents.. Mr. Wilkins met with President Obama just two days before his office handed out the guidelines that IRS agents used to target groups who opposed his reelection. The president met with the head of the IRS workers union just a day later.  IRS then commissioner Doug Shulman was reported to have attended 118 meetings in the White House across the period of IRS abuse. All just a coincidence? They were enforcing rules about applications they didn’t understand?

The IRS did not attack just groups politically opposed to the president, it attacked individuals as well.

Catherine Engelbrecht founded King Street Patriots and True the Vote to monitor and stop voter fraud. She and her husband operate a small manufacturing business outside Huston that employs about 30 people. Her actions involved training citizens to monitor polls on election day. She received 4 rounds of IRS questioning, her business was audited, as was her family’s personal finances. She was also audited by the OSHA, which found minor problems for which she was subjected to $25,000 in fines. Her business was subjected to an unannounced audit by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and explosives.

Obama appointed one of his financial backers to “investigate” the IRS. His contributor says “nothing to see here, just move along.” Treasury Secretary Jack Lew calls the abuse a “fake scandal.”

So the IRS is to be a tool of partisan politics for the foreseeable future. And no one who criticizes the president is safe from harassment and abuse from a federal agency. Did you wonder why many businesses are hesitant about expanding and hiring?

Paul Caron who has faithfully been documenting the revelations about the IRS Scandal, day by day, and this is Day 250.

Congressional probers say FBI director James Comey has refused to provide details about the resources it has devoted to the probe, though such basic information would not interfere with the investigation. Cleta Mitchell, a prominent lawyer who represents several conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status, reports that the FBI hasn’t contacted any of her clients. That’s like investigating a burglary without interviewing the burgled.

Not every scandal is a crime, but if the report is right it means no one will be held accountable in any meaningful way for the misuse of the taxing power of the state. This is why Americans don’t trust government.

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