IRS Hearings Livestream

Sorry, I've posted this late; I've missed Carter Hall's testimony. @LauraWalkerKC said he was "naming names, like a boss."

Here's a preview.

The star of today’s show will almost certainly be Carter Hull. When his name first popped up, it seemed that Hull might have been at the BOLO nexus, and possibly the key to the scandal. His testimony in depositions didn’t disappoint, either. Instead of being a driver of the effort, Hull told investigators that he had been placed in the “demeaning” position of having his approval authority stripped on Tea Party cases, which went to Washington and the IRS chief counsel’s office rather than concluded positively for the applicants, as he would have determined.

Expect Issa and Republicans to spend a lot of time with Hull, drawing him out on those points, and with Elizabeth Hofacre as well. She has been a gold mine of information on the lower-level operations, and will likely serve to rebut Democrats’ attempts to show equivalence between treatment of conservatives and progressives in the tax-exempt unit.

I mentioned Hull's testimony earlier; he claims that he was told to put Tea Party cases through Lerner and her Obama-appointee lawyer Wilkins. Hofacre, meanwhile, complained of interference from on-high in the course of her regular duties.

Hofacre said that she integrated questions from Hull into her follow-ups with Tea Party groups, and that Hull had to approve the letters seeking more information that she sent out to those organizations. That process, she said, was both unusual and “demeaning.”

...

“I thought it was over the top,” she added, in interviews held by investigators in both parties from the House Oversight and Ways and Means committees. “I am not sure where it came from, but it was a bit unusual.”

So, Hofacre said that Carter Hull had interfered with her regular job duties, instructing her to ask the Tea Party all sorts of improper questions; and Hull, in turn, says his directives actually came from Lerner and Wilkins.

Here's what the Democrats are saying: 1, "rush to judgment," 2, "politicized," 3, Darryl Issa called Jay Carney a "paid liar," boo hoo hoo, 4, "this isn't much of a scandal," 5, progressives were targeted too.

They're not seeking any information, just flacking and attempting to divert.

posted by Ace at 11:50 AM

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