PBS NewsHour - IRS Investigation: "This Should Not Be an Inquisition"

News Article

By Unknown

Wanted to make sure you saw Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sandy Levin's (D-MI) interview with Rep. John Mica (R-FL) yesterday on PBS NewsHour to discuss the Republican-led investigation into the IRS. You can watch the segment here.

Lois Lerner's crashed hard drive:

"There's zero -- zero -- evidence that there was any intentional effort by Lois Lerner or by anyone else."

"At our hearing, there was dragged out a letter going back to 2011, and the claim was that [Lois Lerner] was tipped off, and therefore the implication was that she destroyed her computer. It turned out that letter had nothing to do with the inappropriate criteria that were being used."

A "culture of cover-up":

"They say there's no evidence then make charges. They talk about a culture of cover-up, a White House enemy's list. There's been zero, zero proof of that, and they continue this desperate effort to connect this to the White House, and they should stop. This should not be an inquisition."

A "legitimate concern about the use of 501(c)(4)s":

"There is a legitimate concern about the use of 501(c)(4)s, because they're supposed to relate to social welfare predominantly, and you have today the use of 501(c)(4)s for essentially political purposes… In 2006, there was $1 million used reported to the FEC for political purposes by 501(c)(4)s, that jumped to $250 million by 2012. Half of it came from Karl Rove and Koch Brother organizations."

Source