[EL] BOLOs, TAGs, and Drums

JBoppjr at aol.com JBoppjr at aol.com
Sat Aug 10 05:21:08 PDT 2013


A c4 can engage in "substantial" political activity.  Most election  law 
lawyers say 49% and the IRS grants a safe harbor for 40%. 
 
So these c4s you reference could very well be operating perfectly  legally.
 
But your point does reveal a problem with c4s applying in the first  place. 
 What I have seen is exactly what you suggest should happen -- that  the 
IRS holds the application and then peppers the group with questions about  
their ongoing activities to see if they are operating as a c4.  9  years in the 
case of the Christian Coalition.  Thus the IRS used the  application as an 
excuse to conduct an ongoing audit of the group's activities  over 9 years.
 
Well, my advice to new c4 is to not apply for exemption since it is not  
legally required, seems to provide no real benefit, and subjects the group  to 
all the partisan and illegal scrutiny now being exposed. Jim Bopp
 
Of course, the IRS says that a group should apply
 
 
In a message dated 8/9/2013 11:55:16 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
tpotter at capdale.com writes:

Another aspect of the IRS c 4 issue is the ( according to published  
reports) number of groups that applied for exemption stating they would engage  in 
"no" campaign activities, and then engaged in very substantial political  
activities. This would logically lead the IRS to think that it should look 
for  other indicators of likely campaign activities in applications for c 4 
status,  as the "political activities" question on the application was proving 
an  unreliable indicator of such activity. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 9, 2013, at 11:14 AM, "Mark Schmitt" <_schmitt.mark at gmail.com_ 
(mailto:schmitt.mark at gmail.com) >  wrote:



      
There's a direct parallel to your farmers market story in the current  
controversy -- that is, the inclusion of "open-source software" among the  
"emerging issue" tags. A number of open-source projects (e.g. the  Mozilla 
Foundation, which produces Firefox) are organized as non-profits,  which seems 
reasonable since they give away their product and rely on  volunteer efforts. 
But many also sell support services. So the IRS seems to  have been paralyzed 
about whether these are legit non-profits, or the  non-profit face of a 
lucrative support business. After all, many for-profit  entities use the same 
structure -- free software, pay for support.
 
These non-political examples are good reminders that, faced with new  
models and structures, the IRS has a hard time figuring out what to do. It  
shouldn't, it's a pain and disruptive for organizations that just want to do  
their work. But it's the reality -- not only across ideologies, but even  
across non-political and political efforts. Electorally-heavy c(4)'s, or  c(4)'s 
linked to explicit electoral efforts such as "Tea Party," were also  new 
models, and apparently produced a similar confusion as  open-source.
 
 
------ Original Message ------
From: "Legal Works of Marc Greidinger" <_mpoweru4 at gmail.com_ 
(mailto:mpoweru4 at gmail.com) >
To: "Trevor Potter" <_tpotter at capdale.com_ (mailto:tpotter at capdale.com) >; 
"Joe La Rue"  <_joseph.e.larue at gmail.com_ (mailto:joseph.e.larue at gmail.com) 
>;  "Smith, Brad" <_BSmith at law.capital.edu_ (mailto:BSmith at law.capital.edu) >
Cc: _law-election at department-lists.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:law-election at department-lists.uci.edu) 
Sent: 8/8/2013 12:24:27 PM
Subject: Re: [EL] BOLOs, TAGs, and Drums

 
 
Several  years ago, an organization beginning to put together local farmers 
markets  I was on the Board of applied for 501(c)(3) status. It had been  
specifically encouraged to do this under a Department of Agriculture  program 
designed to promote farmers markets as a boon to local farmers,  local 
economies, and nutrition. The IRS apparently had not gotten the memo  from the 
Department of  Agriculture, and papered the organization to  death with 
hundreds of written interrogatories and requests for production  under tight 
deadlines. We found out that the IRS was also doing this to  many other similar 
farmers market organizations, apparently out of some  unknown IRS official’s 
misguided belief that Farmers’ Market organizations  were inherently 
businesses posing as non-profits.  
The  IRS’s unofficial attitude toward farmers markets in general caused the 
 Farmer’s Market organization I was involved with to abandon its effort to  
organize under 501(c)(3), even though, as far as I could tell, the  
organization was of the kind that 501(c)(3) status was designed to help,  and was 
doing things consistent with public policies promoted by the  Department of 
Agriculture. 
These  BOLOs and “IRSgate” have always impressed me as similar stupidity 
to the  above, not conspiracy. The Republicans must be getting rather 
frustrated  at this point, having invested so much time and effort into trying to  
connect the Obama Administration to a juicy scandal – hopefully against  the 
right – c to be foiled by a mundane explanation at every turn. But  even in 
the absence of conspiracy, if we are going to have (c)(4)s  involved in 
issue advocacy, it should not matter what type of  organizations the “key words”
 screening pulls out: any such screening is  likely to chill, and will 
disadvantage someone’s voice which is likely  representing an interest, or 
competing with someone elses. If we are going  to maintain the advantages 
organizations benefit from under (c)(4) there  should be no such screening. A more 
interesting question  is whether  in general it makes sense anymore for 
issue advocacy organizations to  enjoy the advantages available to them under 
(c)(4), and whether issue  advocacy orgs posing as (c)(3)s should continue to 
benefit from tax  advantages with so little critical IRS scrutiny. 
Marc  Greidinger 
Attorney  at Law 
https://www.facebook.com/GreidingerLegalWorks?ref=br_tf 
(703)  323-4661     
 
 
From: _law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu)   
[mailto:_law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu_ (mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu) ]  On 
Behalf Of Trevor Potter
Sent: Thursday, August 08,  2013 10:40 AM
To: Joe La Rue; Smith, Brad
Cc: _law-election at department-lists.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:law-election at department-lists.uci.edu) 
Subject:  Re: [EL] BOLOs, TAGs, and Drums

The scandal  was supposed to be that IRS employees targeted conservative 
groups because  of their political beliefs. That is in fact a scandalous 
accusation for  what is supposed to be a non-partisan agency strictly above 
politics and  which needs the trust of the American people to function.   
Joe LaRue  says: 
“And I continue  to beat my  drum and say: it doesn't matter whether it was 
all  conservative groups, or all progressive ones, or a mixture of each 
that  was targetted.” 
I disagree. If  it turns out that the IRS challenged both progressive and 
conservative  groups, delayed their c4 applications, put them in dead-end 
piles, audited  them after complaints were received, and general poorly managed 
their  status, then we have a completely different issue. If this turns out 
to be  the case—whether through “BOLOS” or “emergent issues”—then the 
question  becomes why did this happen. Was it from mismanagement, 
understaffing,  poor training or leadership, or an  inability of the IRS to address  the 
status of highly political c4s under current rules and in the midst of  a 
partisan battleground where members of Congress of both parties are  
regularly attacking the agency for favoring the other party? In other  words, have 
they just frozen in the midst of battle? That would be a  scandal of 
maladministration, not the political vendetta that has been  alleged. Because, after 
all, the IRS does HAVE to determine whether groups  qualify for 501 c 4 
status, and then whether they are in compliance with c  4 standards of conduct—
that is the agencies job, whether the groups are  progressive or 
conservative. 
Trevor  Potter 
 
From: _law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu)   
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu]  On Behalf Of Joe La Rue
Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2013  10:15 AM
To: Smith, Brad
Cc: _law-election at department-lists.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:law-election at department-lists.uci.edu) 
Subject:  Re: [EL] BOLOs, TAGs, and Drums
 
 
Brad,  Brad, Brad. Didn't you hear? The IRS only targeted  progressive, 
liberal groups. Or perhaps it is that no group was  targeted; the IRS was just 
doing its job. Regardless, there was no targeting of  conservative groups. 
The extra scrutiny applied to them, as well as the  delays they experienced, 
was all warranted. It doesn't matter what the IRS  says. After all, if we're 
going to revise history, and ignore the IRS's  admissions against interest 
(which is what some are doing), then we might  as well do it on a large 
scale. Go big or go home, right? So let's beat  the drum together that the IRS 
got it all wrong when it admitted it had  improperly targeted conservative 
groups. 
 

 
My only  question, I guess, is why is that a drum that anyone would want to 
beat?  Are some so politically driven that we cannot acknowledge that  
something dreadfully wrong happened here, simply because it happened to  the 
other side? If the IRS can do it to conservative groups in the  mid-2010s, then 
they can do it to progressive groups if the White  House (or even just the 
IRS) becomes more conservative. And I  continue to beat my  drum and say: it 
doesn't matter whether it was all  conservative groups, or all progressive 
ones, or a mixture of each that  was targetted. What happened was wrong. And 
I remain shocked that  that is  not something that we can all agree on. 
 

 
Joe 

 


 
 

 
Joe
___________________
Joseph  E. La Rue
 
cell: 480.272.2715 
email:  _joseph.e.larue at gmail.com_ (mailto:joseph.e.larue at gmail.com) 
 


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On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 9:31 PM, Smith, Brad <_BSmith at law.capital.edu_ 
(mailto:BSmith at law.capital.edu) >  wrote: 
 
 
Where does  this idea come from that they were evenly distributed? That's 
not what the  IRS says. 
 
 
Bradley A.  Smith 
Josiah H.  Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault 
Professor of Law 
Capital  University Law School 
303 E. Broad  St. 
Columbus, OH  43215 
_614.236.6317_ (tel:614.236.6317)  
http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx

 
 
  
____________________________________
 

 
From: _law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu)   
[_law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu_ (mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu) ]  on behalf 
of Mark Schmitt [_schmitt.mark at gmail.com_ (mailto:schmitt.mark at gmail.com) ]
Sent:  Wednesday, August 07, 2013 10:54 PM
To: _law-election at department-lists.uci.edu_ (mailto:law
-election at department-lists.uci.edu) 
Subject:  Re: [EL] BOLOs, TAGs, and Drums
 
 
 
This seems like a very new  drum indeed. You seem to be saying that the 
very idea of a "BOLO" list, or  what I've also heard called an "emerging 
issues" list, is illegitimate. I  don't have the knowledge of IRS procedures that 
you do, but this is not an  argument I've heard before.
It really doesn't seem complicated. Groups with the  word "progressive" in 
their names or descriptions were getting some extra  scrutiny based on 
long-established practice. That makes sense: The  Progressive Policy Institute 
was established in 1991. Center for American  Progress and the c(4) American 
Progress Action Fund in 2003. Progressive  States Network,  Progress Now and 
a bunch of "Progress [state]" c(4)s  in 2005-2007, continuing to recent 
years. Those are the ones that jump to  my mind, but there are others.  The IRS 
had a lot of time to absorb  and consider those groups, and still their 
applications took many months.  "Tea Party," as we know, was not a term that 
organizations were using  before 2009-2010. And rather than the slow growth 
curve of "progressive"  c(4)'s, a lot of groups using Tea Party and related but 
also new terms  were created quite rapidly. Hence, it was an "emerging 
issue," or  something to look out for, on which a formal protocol had not yet 
been  established, but might need to be.

What am I missing here? Both  "progressive" and "Tea Party" groups were 
flagged for scrutiny, One term  was old, the other was new. Both faced delays, 
questions and obstacles.  Maybe those delays were themselves "wrong," as 
some have alleged, or maybe  not, but they were evenly distributed. If one came 
from  one kind of  list, and the other from another list, why do we  care?
 


Mark  Schmitt
Senior Fellow, _The Roosevelt  Institute_ 
(http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/) 
_202/246-2350_ (tel:202/246-2350) 
gchat  or Skype: schmitt.mark
twitter: mschmitt9 
 
On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 2:02 PM, <_BZall at aol.com_ (mailto:BZall at aol.com) > 
wrote: 
 
 
Sigh,  not to continue Prof. McDonald's "drum" analogy further, but  there 
seems to be a continuing error of conflation in these  discussions, both on 
the Hill and in this thread. If Glenn Kessler  ("The FactChecker" from Jeff 
Bezos's newspaper) can figure this one out,  so can those looking for the 
difference between  treatments:
 

 
"Meanwhile,  Democrats have highlighted information that they say undercuts 
the thrust  of the Inspector general’s report. While that report focuses on 
scrutiny  of “tea party” and related groups — which had been placed on “
be on the  lookout” (BOLO) lists — Democrats released _documents_ 
(http://democrats.waysandmeans.house.gov/sites/democrats.waysandmeans.house.gov/files/N
ovember%202010%20BOLO%20IRS0000001349-IRS0000001364.pdf)   showing that the 
term “progressive” had been part of a “TAG [touch-and-go]  Historical” 
list." 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/explainer-sorting-through-charges-and-countercharges-in-the-irs-probe/2013/07/02/1cc2f520-e352
-11e2-aef3-339619eab080_blog.html
 

 
There  is a difference between a BOLO list and a TAG list ("Touch and Go"). 
See,  e.g., http://www.irs.gov/irm/part7/irm_07-020-006.html,  explaining 
Touch and Go as a standard processing term in many  highly-problematic areas. 
(Note: the Internal Revenue Manual is the  internal description of standard 
procedures and can be relied on in  certain tax or legal proceedings.) Real 
TAG analyses are generally  reserved for abusive transactions (many of 
which involve exempt  organizations) and have a very specific chain of command 
and authority,  plus review. Potential terrorism issues, for example, are on 
TAG  reviews. You can imagine the reviews those generate.  "Compliance" 
project reviews are generally not worthy of the full TAG  panoply. IRM 
7.20.6.1.2.1. 
 

 
To  the extent we even know what they are/were, BOLOs, on the other hand, 
are  a new and unreported (and apparently badly supervised) version of TAG  
lists that raised many of these issues. Like TAGs, BOLOs use key words in  
the database to identify possible transactions, but the differences are in  
the structure, supervision, and probably the choice of terms as being  
recognized for a particular definition of what the problem is. Who  generated the 
terms? We don't know. Who reviewed the terms? We don't know.  Who reviewed 
the selections based on those terms? We don't know. What was  the process used 
once a selection was made? We don't know. Etc. What we do  know is that 
everyone passed the buck or said they didn't know.  
 

 
In  other words, TAG reviews are what we expected the IRS to do if there 
had  really been a problem; BOLOs are not. BOLOs are, for want of a better  
description, rogue TAGs, and no one wanted to grab that leash to bring  them 
under control. THAT is the scandal; not that groups' applications  were 
scrutinized, but that the process was overwhelmingly one-sided and  unrestrained. 
 

 
There  is no IRM entry for BOLO lists, nor will there be, despite Cong.  
McDermott's entreaties. 
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/06/27/rep_mcdermott_irs_should_keep_bolo_lists.html.  Having seen them in action, I 
would be surprised if EO or any other part  of IRS made the term "BOLO list" a 
routine part of the IRM in the future.  
 

 
As  I understood the more informed (or less utterly-clueless) of the  
discussions, the liberal groups were mostly on TAGs; the conservatives  (and a 
few unlucky progressive exceptions) were on BOLOs. Note that in the  
attachments to the House Dems' complaint, pages 1-9 refer to TAGs; only  after P. 10 
is there a reference to BOLOs, but all the listings cited say  they are for 
BOLOs. 
http://democrats.waysandmeans.house.gov/sites/democrats.waysandmeans.house.gov/files/August%202010%20IRS0000002503.pdf The  same is true through 
the next few "BOLO" listings; it's really TAGs and  BOLOs without 
discrimination. 
 

 
Both  inclusions were undoubtedly mistakes, but one was quickly resolved  
through a quick look at the TAG rules; the other was not and it grew and  
grew and grew. 
 

 
Doesn't  mean Prof. McDonald is wrong, and he'll undoubtedly explain why 
his drum  still thrums alone, but it does add another beat to the mix.  
 

 
Barnaby Zall 
Of Counsel  
Weinberg, Jacobs & Tolani, LLP 
10411 Motor City Drive, Suite  500
Bethesda, MD 20817
_301-231-6943_ (tel:301-231-6943)  (direct dial) 
_bzall at aol.com_ (mailto:bzall at aol.com)   
_____________________________________________________________ 
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Any U.S. federal tax advice included  in this communication (including 
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_____________________________________________________________   
 

 
 
In a message dated 8/7/2013  1:20:46 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, 
_mmcdon at gmu.edu_ (mailto:mmcdon at gmu.edu)   writes:

The IRS issued  BOLOs that used the keyword search approach to identify 
liberal groups,  just as they did conservative groups. Unless, you mean to say 
that  liberal and conservative groups were flagged as a general course of  
business, in which case I am inclined to agree with you. I say  "inclined" 
since there is an outstanding question as to why more  conservative groups 
were flagged than liberal (something I am sure  someone will say to beat their 
drum). A likely non-nefarious explanation  is that a greater number of 
conservative organizations filed for status,  which is my belief until 
contradicting evidence comes to  light.

The evidence that continues to come to light is entirely  consistent with 
my initial postings on this matter. I'm in the fortunate  position of only 
ever needing one drum to beat since I've never had a  drum taken away.

============
Dr. Michael P.  McDonald
Associate Professor
George Mason University
4400  University Drive - 3F4
Fairfax, VA  22030-4444

phone:   _703-993-4191_ (tel:703-993-4191)  (office)
e-mail:  _mmcdon at gmu.edu_ (mailto:mmcdon at gmu.edu)        
web:     _http://elections.gmu.edu_ (http://elections.gmu.edu/) 
twitter:  @ElectProject


-----Original Message-----
From: _law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu)   
[mailto:_law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu_ (mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu) ]  On 
Behalf Of Smith, Brad
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2013 12:45  PM
To: _law-election at department-lists.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:law-election at department-lists.uci.edu) 
Subject:  Re: [EL] Lerner in her own words - "everyone" "screaming"

I'm  surprised that Michael keeps thumping this drum since the Inspector  
General, and the IRS itself, have said quite clearly that conservative  
groups were targeted. The fact that some liberal groups were also  snared, either 
in the criteria used to scrutinize conservative groups,  or in the general 
course of business, really doesn't change that, and  numerous analyses the 
numbers have verified the impact.

But  having said that, it doesn't matter. Even if Michael were correct, 
that  would change only the nature, and not the fact, of the scandal. And  
that, again, represents the problem. 

Bradley A. Smith
Josiah  H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault
Professor of  Law
Capital University Law School
303 E. Broad St.
Columbus, OH  43215
_614.236.6317_ (tel:614.236.6317) 
http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx

________________________________________
From:  _law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu)   
[_law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu_ (mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu) ]  on 
behalf of Michael P McDonald [_mmcdon at gmu.edu_ (mailto:mmcdon at gmu.edu) ]
Sent: Wednesday,  August 07, 2013 11:43 AM
To: _law-election at department-lists.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:law-election at department-lists.uci.edu) 
Subject:  Re: [EL] Lerner in her own words - "everyone" "screaming"

I  remained silent with the "I told you so" when a litany of media reports  
finally came out showing how liberal organizations were flagged and  
treated the same as conservative organizations. But this is the story  that will 
not die so here we go...

Where this logic fails is that  the IRS included liberal groups in their 
treatment such as those  advocating for the Affordable Care Act. When did the 
president or  Democratic members of congress ever indicate that they wanted 
the IRS to  go after groups advocating for Obama's signature legislative  
accomplishment? Or was that Republican members of Congress sounding  those 
alarms? Perhaps when Lerner says "everyone" she means *everyone*  and not just 
the president and his congressional allies. And if everyone  was clamoring 
for action against their political opponents, how could  any action taken by 
the IRS not be alleged as singling out a political  opponent of someone?

============
Dr. Michael P.  McDonald
Associate Professor
George Mason University
4400  University Drive - 3F4
Fairfax, VA  22030-4444

phone:   _703-993-4191_ (tel:703-993-4191)  (office)
e-mail:  _mmcdon at gmu.edu_ (mailto:mmcdon at gmu.edu) 
web:   _http://elections.gmu.edu_ (http://elections.gmu.edu/) 
twitter:  @ElectProject

From: _law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu)   
[mailto:_law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu_ (mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu) ]  On 
Behalf Of Smith, Brad
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2013 11:17  AM
To: Trevor Potter; Jason Torchinsky; 
_law-election at department-lists.uci.edu_ (mailto:law-election at department-lists.uci.edu) 
Subject:  Re: [EL] Lerner in her own words - "everyone" "screaming"

And  that is, to me, what the scandal has always been about. It's not that  
there was some White House order (although that wouldn't overly shock  me). 
It's that the White House and the President publicly and repeatedly  
sounded the "alarm," and the need to get after these groups. It's that  members of 
Congress repeatedly wrote to the IRS to demand that it take  action or 
inquire  why it hadn't (and we know what such an inquiry  means). It is that 
Democrats held show hearings all over Capitol Hill,  wherever any committee 
could with any remote legitimacy claim some  jurisdiction, to excoriate these 
groups. It is that Democrats publicly  and private pressured the SEC and the 
FCC, as well as the IRS, to take  action because the FEC would not and 
Congress was unable to pass  DISCLOSE.

Of course the IRS responds to such posturing,  inquiries, and vilification. 
That is the problem. And it continues, as  Sen. Whitehouse held a hearing 
this spring openly accusing groups of  violating the law, with no evidence; 
as Senator Levin promised to  "investigate" these conservative organizations; 
as Senator Durbin sent  out mass letters yesterday demanding to know if 
various persons and  groups had in any way funded ALEC.

There was what reformers would  call "an astroturf" campaign, headed up by 
prominent Democratic  officeholders and aides, to drum an aura of crisis 
about the political  participation of their political opponents, and then to 
demand that the  huge federal bureaucracy step in to "do something" about it, 
in light of  the fact that Congress could not muster the votes.

That is the  problem, and it is exactly what we've been warning about for 
years would  be one of the many problems with campaign finance  regulation.

Bradley A. Smith
Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M.  Nault
Professor of Law
Capital University Law  School
303 E. Broad St.
Columbus, OH 43215
_614.236.6317_ (tel:614.236.6317) 
http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx
________________________________________
From:  _law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu)   
[_law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu_ (mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu) ]  on 
behalf of Trevor Potter [_tpotter at capdale.com_ (mailto:tpotter at capdale.com) ]
Sent:  Wednesday, August 07, 2013 11:04 AM
To: Jason Torchinsky; _law-election at department-lists.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:law-election at department-lists.uci.edu) 
Subject:  Re: [EL] Lerner in her own words - "everyone"  "screaming"
Jason

I know you are relying on a Breitbart piece,  and it has an obvious point 
of view. However, even that piece does not  say that there was any pressure 
from the "White House" on the IRS, and  Breitbart is fair enough to note that 
there was a great deal of press  coverage and editorials in 2010 about new 
501 c4s which appeared to be  doing  nothing but huge amounts election 
activity in 2010. As the  article states:

"TIGTA's report contains a few key redactions  which conceal precisely how 
the scrutiny of Tea Party groups began.  Reading between the lines it seems 
media attention played a role. Plans  by a Tea Party group to create a new 
501(c)(4) were featured in stories  at the NY Times and NPR just a couple 
weeks after Obama's statements  about Citizens United. These stories apparently 
caught the attention of  the IRS which regularly monitors news stories to 
be aware of developing  issues."

Thus, the "everyone" wanting the IRS to "do something"  in context appears 
to refer to the quite public and common outrage  reported on in the press 
that essentially political entities were using  501 c 4 status to avoid 
disclosure of their donors which would be  required under election law.

Trevor Potter

From: _law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu)   
[mailto:_law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu_ (mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu) ]  On 
Behalf Of Jason Torchinsky
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2013 10:47  AM
To: _law-election at department-lists.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:law-election at department-lists.uci.edu) 
Subject:  [EL] Lerner in her own words - "everyone" "screaming"

http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/08/06/Lois-Lerner-Discusses-Politica
l-Pressure-on-the-IRS-in-2010

In  case anyone missed this, here's Lois Lerner in her own words from 2010  
explaining that "everyone" wanted the IRS to "do something."

This  video according to the report was taken in the fall of  2010.

Implications of this?  I thought the IRS and the White  House have 
maintained there was no pressure on the IRS.

-   Jason Torchinsky

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penalties under the Internal  Revenue Code, or (ii) promoting, marketing, or 
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penalties under the Internal Revenue Code, or (ii) promoting, marketing, or  
recommending to another party any tax-related matter addressed herein. This  
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