The ex-IRS official accused of targeting conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status once floated an audit of a teen pregnancy nonprofit that contracted former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R) daughter as a spokesperson, according to a Senate report released Wednesday.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) cited an email Lois Lerner sent to advisers in 2011 about Bristol Palin’s compensation from the Candie’s Foundation as evidence of what he said was Lerner’s “interest in conservative organizations.”
“Thoughts on the Bristol Palin issue? I’m curious that a [private foundation] can pay any amount to someone who is not a [disqualified person]?” Lerner wrote (brackets are the report’s). “It is a [private foundation] right? Even if it were a [public charity] – would that be private benefit – what are the consequences? I’m asking because I don’t know whether to send to Exam as a referral.”
The report said that Lerner was spurred to inquire about the audit by news reports that the Candie’s Foundation, which focuses on teen pregnancy prevention, paid Palin $332,500 for her advocacy. Palin famously announced her pregnancy in 2008, at the age of 17, while her mother was running as the Republican Party’s vice presidential nominee.
The report did not state that a referral was ever made for an audit of the Candie’s Foundation. Still, Hatch said that his staff found no evidence Lerner acted on news reports to make a referral for an audit of a progressive organization.
“In its review of nearly 1,500,000 pages of documents provided by the IRS, Majority staff did not find any instances where Lerner referred a progressive organization for audit based on a news article,” the report read.
The bipartisan report found that poor management led the IRS to improperly single out conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status for scrutiny, but Republican and Democratic leadership on the committee differed as to whether any political agenda motivated the targeting.
YES!! Bring up Bristol and ALL the Palins. BRING IT!!!
"“In its review of nearly 1,500,000 pages of documents provided by the IRS, Majority staff did not find any instances where Lerner referred a progressive organization for audit based on a news article,”
And they found only 1 instance of it occurring for a conservative organization? What does that tell you?
If it tells there was some massive conspiracy against conservative groups, you need to be lobotomized with Occam’s Razor.
Quite frankly, this also looks to me like nothing more than someone asking a legit question about something that raised red flags. Bristol Palin is a nobody. At the time this occurred, she was what…21 years old? She has poor educational attainment, no job experience, no expertise in anything whatsoever except maybe putting her ankles behind her ears, limited world experience, nothing, etc., and yet this private tax exempt organization is paying her almost $350,000? FOR MOTHERFUCKING WHAT??? Why should that $350,000 escape all sorts of taxes? Why WOULDN’T or SHOULDN’T that kind of transfer of wealth to a politicized figure by a “non-profit” or “charity” raise red flags? WTF PLANET IS THIS?
Improperly? Didn’t it also investigate liberal groups?
Why is this story getting this slant?
I’m not sure there was even one referral. What Lerner wrote was: “I’m asking because I don’t know whether to send to Exam as a referral.”
So from what she wrote, it seems she was only THINKING about making a referral. So what Lerner seems to be guilty of is a thoughtcrime.