From: Jan <igniting@flash.net> Subject: IP: IRS, White House above the law? by Joseph Farah Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 19:54:10 -0500 To: Ignition-Point <ignition-point@majordomo.pobox.com> Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 14:31:36 -0600 From: Robert Huddleston <cabhop@highfiber.com> Subject: IRS, White House above the law? by Joseph Farah between the lines by Joseph Farah FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 18, 1998 http://www.worldnetdaily.com/btlines/980918_btl_irs_white_house.html IRS, White House above the law? Last week, we had our first court hearing in our $10 million lawsuit against White House and Internal Revenue Service officials we believe conspired to use their government power to harass and intimidate my organization, the Western Journalism Center, for exposing Clinton administration scandals for the last four years. This was a procedural hearing in Sacramento before U.S. Judge Milton Schwartz, a Carter appointee, who seemed to be preparing the Justice Department attorney from Washington and our counsel from Larry Klayman's Judicial Watch for a major trial. Nevertheless, the government is trying to abort this trial on the kind of familiar technical grounds we have come to expect from this administration. Interestingly, the Justice Department has yet to dispute the major claims of our case -- that the center was the victim of a politically motivated audit designed to squelch our First Amendment rights. The Justice Department is claiming the one-year statute of limitations expired before we filed the suit. Not true. By any standard, we filed in plenty of time. The audit of our organization ended in May 1997. We were not officially notified until June of 1997. No tax-exempt organization in its right mind would sue the IRS during an audit. We filed the lawsuit in May of 1998 within one year of the audit being closed. The Justice Department is claiming an argument you've heard before from the administration -- that there is "no controlling legal authority" and, thus, no legislative remedy for organizations victimized by political audits. In other words, the president is free to use the IRS to go after his "enemies" and there is no punitive action the victim can take against him or the agents with whom he conspires. Next week, the Justice Department attorneys will be back in U.S. District Court in Sacramento to ask Judge Schwartz to dismiss the case on these specious grounds. I want to go on record right now as saying that no matter how the judge rules on this motion, the Western Journalism Center will not stop in pressing this matter for adjudication and remedy. This is a case far too important to the future of this country and the rule of law to allow it to be dropped. Let's review the basic facts. In 1994, the center began investigating Clinton administration corruption. By December 1994, memos released to congressional investigators show that the White House counsel's office had begun targeting the center for action of some kind. In 1995, the center was a major focus of a White House counsel's office 331-page report called the Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce. I was the only journalist profiled in this mammoth report alleging a wide-ranging media conspiracy against the president. In early 1996, I first began hearing rumors that my organization was being targeted by the IRS. Months later, we were notified that we were under audit and that our tax-exempt status was under scrutiny because of the nature of our investigative work into Clinton administration corruption during an election year. When we questioned the IRS agent about his authority to interfere in our First Amendment-protected activities, he said: "Look, this is a political case, and the decision will be made at the national level." We then exposed this blatant abuse of the IRS against our organization and the pattern of politically motivated audits against other non-profits in the pages of the Wall Street Journal. As a result, Congress began an investigation, and IRS Commissioner Margaret Milner Richardson resigned. Ultimately, the agent in charge was removed from the case, investigated internally by the IRS and a new agent assigned. The nine-month audit was then closed within two days. We demanded our case file, which the "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" states is available to any taxpayer following an audit. It was denied. We then filed a Freedom of Information Act request for it. Again it was denied. The IRS stated that the file would be withheld because it had been through the hands of others within the IRS and possibly outside of the agency and was, thus, protected by "governmental privilege." Having exhausted every available means to document our growing conviction that we were targeted for political reasons, we filed suit. If you believe, as I do, that this is a monumentally important case, I ask for your sincere and unceasing intercessory prayers that justice will be done. A daily radio broadcast adaptation of Joseph Farah's commentaries can be heard at http://www.ktkz.com/ Joseph Farah is editor of WorldNetDaily.com and executive director of the Western Journalism Center, an independent group of investigative reporters. <@{{>< <@{{>< <@{{>< <@{{>< <@{{>< <@{{>< <@{{>< SOCIALIST 1. socialism ( Noun ] : social organization based on goverment control of the production and distribution of goods. ***** ************************************************* "But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood." 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