Empiezan los sacrificios de becerros para salvar al idolo de ebano...

Tarde que temprano iban a mandar a alguien al cadalso por este traspie...

Tax Scandal Fells IRS Chief


Head Ousted Over Scrutiny of Conservative Groups; Obama Pledges Safeguards








<H3 class=byline>By JOHN D. MCKINNON,EVAN PEREZ and DAMIAN PALETTA


The acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service was forced to resign Wednesday in connection with the inappropriate targeting of conservative political groups.


"Americans are right to be angry about it and I'm angry about it," President Barack Obama said in announcing that Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew requested and received the resignation of acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller, who took over the post in November. "The IRS has to operate with absolute integrity."
Mr. Obama said new leadership at the IRS would help restore confidence in the agency, and he promised to work with Congress to ensure new safeguards are put in place. He also said the laws that affect tax-exempt organizations should be clarified. (por lo visto las leyes que habian sido claras por decadas, no lo eran para los obamanitas...)

Earlier on Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder raised the possibility that IRS officials could face criminal prosecution if they made false statements to Congress about the IRS targeting of conservative groups.


Republican reaction mixed praise with skepticism. GOP lawmakers signaled a broad investigation of the matter won't be slowed by the administration's actions.
"More than two years after the problem began, and a year after the IRS told us there was no problem, the president is beginning to take action," said Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.). He called on the president to work with Congress on investigating the scandal, with "no stonewalling, no half-answers, no withholding of witnesses."

House Republicans gearing up for the first hearing on Friday said that Mr. Miller, who was deputy commissioner for services and enforcement before assuming the top job, is still expected to testify.

Mr. Obama's announcement followed the release of an inspector general's report Tuesday that found "ineffective management" at the IRS had allowed improper scrutiny of tea-party groups' tax-exemption applications to continue for 18 months. Lawmakers also were unhappy that top officials, including Mr. Miller, kept the problems quiet for months last year, after learning of them in May.

In an internal message to IRS employees, Mr. Miller said he was departing "with regret" and that his assignment would end in early June.

"This has been an incredibly difficult time for the IRS given the events of the past few days, and there is a strong and immediate need to restore public trust in the nation's tax agency," he said.

Mr. Holder's comments earlier in the day underscored the possibility that higher-ups and not just lower-level employees could be held accountable. When asked during a House Judiciary Committee hearing what possible violations might be investigated, Mr. Holder said "criminal violations in the civil rights statutes."






'Americans are right to be angry about it and I'm angry about it,' the president said about the IRS targeting.
He added, "There's also the possibility of…false-statement violations that might have been made, given, at least, what I know at this point."

Making false statements to Congress can carry penalties of up to five years in prison. Mr. Holder didn't specify which statements he was referring to.

The House Ways and Means Committee—one of several congressional committees investigating the matter—sent a letter to the IRS this week previewing the grilling to come at a hearing Friday.

"Who knew about the targeting of conservative groups, when did they become aware of such activities, when did you find out, and what actions did you take upon learning of these activities?" said the letter.

Lawmakers were probing for possible IRS scrutiny of other political groups, such as pro-Israel entities, as well as for any signs of Obama administration involvement.

"My question isn't about who's going to resign; my question is who's going to jail over this scandal?" House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said Wednesday.

Many lawmakers are angry at Mr. Miller for failing to disclose the problems in two letters to Congress as well as in testimony last year—all after the IRS says he learned of the problems in May 2012.

The IRS, meanwhile, moved to squelch speculation that its chief counsel, William Wilkins, might have learned early on of the agency's targeting of conservative groups and passed the information on to Obama administration officials.

Similarly, former Treasury general counsel George Madison, to whom Mr. Wilkins reported when the activities occurred, said in an interview Wednesday that he didn't learn about the matter while in office.

The inspector general's report included a note that led investigators to speculate that Mr. Wilkins—one of two political appointees at the agency—may have attended an Aug. 4, 2011, meeting where the matter was discussed. Mr. Wilkins reports to the IRS commissioner but also reports to the Treasury general counsel on tax policy matters.

But the IRS said in a statement Wednesday that Mr. Wilkins "did not participate in any Aug. 4, 2011, meeting relating to tax-exempt applications," and "did not discuss [tax-exempt] applications with the Treasury general counsel."

The IRS said the discussion that day of tax exempt social-welfare groups "involved staff attorneys several layers below Wilkins." The IRS noted that the chief counsel office has about 1,600 attorneys. It's common practice at the IRS to refer to any communication with a chief counsel's attorney as a contact with chief counsel.

Similarly, Mr. Madison said in an interview the issue never crossed his desk.

Mr. Wilkins didn't learn about specific conservative groups being singled out by name until earlier this year, the IRS said.

In addition to the IRS uproar, the White House has been dogged in recent days by rolling disclosures about a terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, and the Justice Department's seizure of journalist phone records as part of a criminal investigation.
</H3>