NR, Two Days Ago: IRS May Have Planted Question That Publicly Revealed Scandal
Miller, Today: IRS May Have Planted Question That Publicly Revealed Scandal

Why would they set up a question for Lori Lehrner to answer? I image so they could claim they'd disclosed the matter themselves, and apologized for it, in advance of an IG report that was about to blow up.

Kevin Williamson flagged the question as likely planted two days ago.

The question at the ABA conference came from Washington-based tax lawyer Celia Roady, a lobbyist in the firm of Morgan Lewis. Roady is certainly well-versed in the issue at hand: She was named to the influential Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities in 2010 by Douglas Shulman, at that time commissioner of the IRS. Lerner is the director for tax-exempt organizations at the IRS. Roady was serving on the Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities while tea-party groups and other conservative organizations were being targeted by the IRS. Not exactly a question out of the blue — Capitol Hill sources described the question as “planted” and say the IRS has informally admitted as much.

And today Miller confirms this.

Miller indicated today that Roady was in fact instructed by the IRS to ask the question, and the Lerner knew about the question in advance.

“Who told her to ask the question?” asked Republican representative Kenny Marchant.

“I don’t know, actually, I’m not sure, might have been Lois Lerner,” Miller responded. He went on to say that the IRS intended simultaneously to inform Congress, but admitted the agency only inquired about the congressional calendar.

The planted question reveals coordination at high levels of the IRS with regard to the disclosure of the sensitive information. Lerner and Miller testified before Congress two days before Lerner addressed the ABA, but said nothing about the IRS’s scrutiny of Tea Party groups.

Nonetheless, Miller maintained, “I always answered questions truthfully.”

So when Congress asked, they said nothing about it, but then when the IG Report was about to embarrass them, they created a fake question in order to appear they were being forthcoming and candid in answering random questions from a crowd.

Draw your own conclusions.

posted by Ace at 01:44 PM

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