[EL] IRS Mess

BZall at aol.com BZall at aol.com
Tue Jan 14 05:32:22 PST 2014


And just to clarify a bit further, I believe Cleta was talking specifically 
 about internal agency investigations (though she can correct me), not the  
on-going congressional investigations. 
 
Reminds me of the 1990's IRS political targeting of audits scandal, when  
the large coalition, led by the late, great Bill Lehrfeld, gathered in my  
conference room at Williams & Jensen and, among other things,  discovered that 
we had all received questionnaires with essentially one  question: 
 
"Please send us all material the IRS has in its files about your  
organization." 
 
We blinked, looked at each other, and responded "Don't YOU have that in  
your files?" 
 
 

Barnaby Zall 
Of Counsel 
Weinberg, Jacobs & Tolani,  LLP 
10411 Motor City Drive, Suite 500
Bethesda, MD 20817
301-231-6943  (direct dial) 
bzall at aol.com  
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In a message dated 1/14/2014 12:13:03 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
Mark.Scarberry at pepperdine.edu writes:

To put Cleta Mitchell's comment in context, I believe she had just said  
(as quoted in the WSJ story) that none of the investigators had contacted any  
of her clients, which led her to believe there was no real  investigation.


I have no way of knowing whether the investigation is being done in a  
thorough way, but perhaps a failure to talk to the alleged victims (her  
clients) might lead a reasonable person to be skeptical.


Mark Scarberry
Pepperdine 

Sent from my iPad

On Jan 13, 2014, at 8:25 PM, "Rick Hasen" <_rhasen at law.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu) >  wrote:







...
_Quote of the Day:  IRS Mess Edition_ (http://electionlawblog.org/?p=57911) 
 
 
Posted on _January 13,  2014 5:25 pm_ (http://electionlawblog.org/?p=57911) 
 by  _Rick  Hasen_ (http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3)  

 
“As far as I can tell, nobody has actually done an investigation. This  has 
been a big, bureaucratic, former-Soviet-Union-type investigation, which  
means that there was no investigation….This is a deplorable abuse of the  
public trust, but I am not surprised.” 
–Cleta Mitchell, quoted in WSJ’s _Criminal  Charges Not Expected in IRS 
Probe_ 
(http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303819704579318983271821584) , which begins: 
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.
...
-- 

Rick Hasen

Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science

UC Irvine School of Law

401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000

Irvine, CA 92697-8000

949.824.3072 - office

949.824.0495 - fax

_rhasen at law.uci.edu_ (mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu) 

http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/

_http://electionlawblog.org_ (http://electionlawblog.org/) 


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