Thursday, May 16, 2013

IRS Official Who "Resigned" Over Scandal Was Already Leaving in June


Last night President Obama made a statement to the country promising to hold those responsible for inappropriate targeting of conservative groups at the IRS. He announced that his Treasury Secretary had asked and received the resignation for Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller. Sounds great right? Wrong. Apparently Miller was leaving anyway...at the end of June. Not to mention, Miller had only been in his position as acting director since November 2012. Six months after the election and two years of harassment toward conservative groups.
In an email to IRS employees, Miller claimed he would only be leaving next month because his assignment would be over.

'It is with regret that I will be departing from the IRS as my acting assignment ends in early June,' Miller wrote. '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.'
Accountability! The question now is whether Miller will receive a full pension and how many others will be "held accountable." The real people to be looking at are: 
-Douglas Shulman: he was in charge of the IRS as Commissioner until November 2012 and lied to Congress about ongoing harassment of tea party groups
"Yes, I can give you assurances [tea party groups aren't being targeted]"  -March 2012
-Lois Lerner: the director of Exempt Organizations at the IRS and the woman who admitted to and apologized for inappropriate targeting of tea party groups last week. By the way, she received $42,000 in performance bonuses.
Lois Lerner, the senior executive in charge of the IRS tax exemption department and the federal employee at the center of the exploding scandal over the IRS targeting of conservative, evangelical and pro-Israel non-profits, was given $42,531 in bonuses between 2009 and 2011.
-Nan Downing: the director of Examinations for the Exempt Organizations division of the IRS

UPDATE: As Ed Morrissey points out, Miller isn't totally innocent here and served as the deputy commissioner for Services and Enforcement before taking the position as acting commissioner in November 2012. He knew about harrassment of tea party groups in May 2012, but didn't say anything about it.

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