That took three to four years and in some cases is still not over. Number two, the line agents in the irs had their work disrupted and halted by washington. In 2010, true the volt filed its application for c 3 status and did not obtain that c 3 status until we sued the irs. So in september they granted it. People shouldnt have to sue to get their taxexempt status. When lois lerner and president obama accused line agents in cincinnati of being responsible, ladies and gentlemen, that is a lie. I knew when lois lerner said that in may of 2010, when she admitted that it was happening, after we knew it was happening its sort of like we knew we were targeted its just that she finally admitted it. I knew it hadnt happened in cincinnati because the first time i really became aware of this was with a group that i represent. We filed for taxexempt status in october of 2009. Besides cashing our check for our filing fee, we did not hear from the irs again until june of 2010 and we didnt hear from cincinnati. We heard from washington. That group did one thing. It lobbied against obama care. In the fall of 2009, spring of 20 10rks something a 501 c 4 organization is permitted to spend 100 of its Program Expenditures doing. We didnt get the taxexempt status for that organization until july of 2013. When i took on the representation of Catherine Engelbrecht and her two organizations in the fall of 2011 this is now a year after she has sent her application to the irs and shes heard nothing, and when i talked to the assigned agent in cincinnati in october of 2011 saying were going to supplement the application to try to help make it easier for you to process, he told me at the time, oh, theres a task force in washington. We cant do anything until we hear back from washington. Number three, this scandal is not over. The lying has not stopped. I represent one tea party group, Tea Party Patriots who applied in december 2010. They still dont have their c 4 status. There are lies upon lies in this ugly episode. The commissioner of the irs lied to congress i believe it was this committee 234 march of 2012 or april of 2012 when he said there was no targeting. How many communications from the irs to members of congress who inquired about the status of applications and whether there was targeting, how many communications were there in which agents of the irs told congress that there was no targeting . Those are lies. Lying to congress is a crime. Department of justice refused to investigate who it was who was responsible for releasing the confidential Tax Information of Coke Industries to the president s economic adviser who in turn released it to the press or released the National Organization of marriages tax return, i represent nom. We sued irs to try to get to the bottom of why our confidential Tax Information was made available to our political opponents. Where is the fbi in investigating . That is a criminal offense. Its a criminal offense also for the irs to have released to confidential donor information of the texas Public Policy 230u7b dags and the republican governors Public Policy council, conservative organizations whose donor information was released by the irs. Thats a criminal offense. Who is investigating that . And then finally the lies again, it is a lie, it is a felony to lie to a federal agency, and yet the irs on the day after thanksgiving in proposing these regulations, the agent from the irs who transmitted those proposed regulations in the formal publication says that there are no related documents. Thats what it says on the website. Related documents, none. Yet, i have submitted a fouryear request on behalf of Tea Party Patriots for turned lying background documents, they said we cant get your those documents until april. The Public Comment period closes february 27th. So there are no documents but it will take them until april to get them to us. Thats a lie. They also lied when they transmitted those regulations and said that the the purpose of the regulations was the tip that report. There are too many lies, mr. Chairman. Its time to get to the dog, time for the fbi to investigate those criminal acts. Its time for the irs to cooperate as we try to get to the truth of why its happened and how to make it stop. Thank you. Thank you, ms. Mitchell. Ms. Garretson. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me here to speak. I cant tell you how much i appreciate you holding this hearing. Unfortunately im not hear to carry a message of joy or thanksgiving. Im in absolute grief for my be loved country. Eight months ago i along with five other victims laid out our cases about irs abuses in a Committee Just like this. At that hearing we learned details about the irs leaking confidential donor information to opposition groups when proven this is a felony. We learned of serious constitutional violations of the first and fifth amendments. We witnessed multiple violations of the administrative spreed your act as well as the Internal Revenue code. Louis learner outright lied to the American People blaming the scandal on a few rogue agents in cincinnati knowing full well that the targeting involved irs offices across the country including her very own office in washington, d. C. Lois lerner took the fifth for a reason. Government employees dont go rogue en masse. Their orders originate somewhere. Yet even with all these known violations of the law, no one has been blamed, shamed, fired, arrested or brought to justice. Because of that i have to ask how many people in congress are taking this seriously. Since my last testimony in congress, i still have not been contacted by the fbi. The fbi told the wall street journal that no one would be charged with a crime, yet they havent even interviewed the witnesses. Are you going to let them get away with this . If so, then i must say it again, my government has forgotten its place. It appears that many in washington fear regular citizens standing up for constitutional limited government. Why in america is it now considered a threat to our government to study the founding documents and to advocate for responsible spending. Why is giving out copies of the constitution, discussing pending legislation or even creating legislative score cards a threat to this administration . Obviously these activities are viewed as subversive to their agenda. Otherwise, they wouldnt have tried to stop us. In my previous testimony i explained that our application was complete and accurate. We easily qualified for a 501 c 4 status, yet that did not stop the irs from demanding information they were not entitled to. Unconstitutional requests that violated even their own rules. The information they demanded from us had nothing to do with our tax status. Why must the irs know who is coming to our meetings . Why did they need to have copies of every speech ever given and the credentials of those speakers . Why did they need to know who our donors were . Theres clearly something wrong with this. The irss targeting of the wet tum ka tea party and other conservative religious groups is profoundly disturbing. Im offended a member of congress of the United States senate would continually request the irs to go after americans like me because they do not agree with our values. This sun precedented. Never before has the federal government tried to muzzle Everyday Americans solely because of their political view. The governments of third world nations intimidate and harass dissenting citizens. It does not happen in the land of the free until recently. Its shocking. Its pathetic. Its infuriating and depressing. But most troubling of all is congress has not stopped this. Its actually gotten worse. During these past eight Months Congress has quietly sat by while the irs has proposed to cover up their targeting by rewriting the rules for 501 c 4 s, rules which are an ardent attempt to shut us down completely. One of our most sacred fundamental rights in this country is freedom of speech. But the irs under this administration wants to strike out 226 years of history with a key stroke. Under these new rules, we are not allowed to use the words oppose, vote, support, defeat or reject. Were not allowed to mention on our website or in any communication that would reach over 500 people even the name of a candidate who is running 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election. We are not allowed to mention the name of a Political Party if they have a candidate running for 60 days before an election. No more Voter Registration drives, no more conducting get out the vote drives. No creating or distributing voter guides outlining incumbents voting records oopsz. We cant even host candidates for debates or forums less than 60 days before a general election. Our officers and our leaders cannot speak publicly about incumbents, legislation and or voting records without jeopardizing our tax the tus. Does this sound like the land of the free or the home of the brave to you . The political targeting carried out by the irs is a fundamental transformation of the america we all grew up in. Like catherine, im not here as a victim because i refuse to be a victim. I am a Born Free American woman, and these abuses of power put all americans liberties at risk. Our government is using its agencies as weapons against its own citizens, and history shows that unaddressed abuses of power lead to greater abuses of power. I, along with my fellow americans are looking to you on this committee to restores the faith that you really do represent us. We implore you to use the full force of the law to stop these abuses immediately and to bring to justice not only those who gave the orders, but all who helped carry them out. I want the federal government to know and the irs to know that you will not divide us, you will not conquer us, and we will not be silenced. Thank you. Thank you mrs. Garretson. Mr. Sakhalin. Chairman and Ranking Members, members of the committee, on behalf of the American Center for law and justice, thank you for allowing me to participate in todays hearing. I represent 41 organizations that have filed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue service. My first job out of law school was with the office of chief counsel of the ir sfrmts. I was a trial lawyer for chief counsels office. Im proud of that heritage in my legal career. Im disappointed and dismays with what the irs is doing. I have prepared comments. Id like those to be made part of the record. Im going to deviate from those for the moment because of a recent revelation. Before i do that, mr. Cartwright id like to give you information about the progressive groups that were targeted. However, this is the irss own statistics through july 29 of last year. 104 conservative organizations, according to the irs were targeted. They were asked 1552 questions. The average question per group was 15, that did not include the subparts. 48 were approved which was an overall Approval Rating of only 46 . Indeed seven progressive groups somehow got caught up in this drag net because of their names. They were asked a total of 33 questions or 4. 7 questions per organization. Seven of them were approved. Thats 100 . This wasnt an equal opportunity discrimination. This was targeted discrimination coming from the Internal Revenue service. What id like to address now is that our view is that that determination came from the highest ranks of the Internal Revenue service. Just yesterday it was brought to the publics attention that an email had been sent by lois lerner, the former head of taxexempt. She pled the fifth amendment. Based on the evidence that came out yesterday, if i was her lawyer, i would have told her to plead the fifth also. Here is why. An email from lois lerner with ruth mad grill from the office of tax policy, United States department of the treasury. It went to janine cook, Deputy Division counsel and associate chief counsel of the irs taxexempt and Government Entities division. I went to victoria judson, Division Counsel, associate chief counsel, taxexempt and Government Entities division. It went to nancy j. Marks, Division Counsel and associate chief counsel for taxexempt and Government Entities and a Senior Adviser who conducted a probe for stephen miller, by the way, with hole by paz into the impropriety months before this email. What was this email . It was an email we will work, quote, off plan, to device rules to curtail the activities of 501 c 4 organizations. Offplan. Thats very different from saying two rogue agents in cincinnati. If i was lois lerners attorney, i would have told her to plead the fifth amendment, too, because theres serious liability. With regard to the facts of this case, we have 41 clients. Late in december i haves i was contacted by the United States department of justice, the fbi and ms. Bosser man was on the call as well. They requested at that point they might want to after the first of the year interview three of our 41 clients. They said theyd get back with us after the first of the year. They did. And about the same day they got back with us, of course, the announcement about ms. Bosser mans political contributions was made public. That was followed up by a statement to the wall street journal by an fbi source that there was indeed no criminal investigation. My offices comment back, the lawyer in my office tasked with dealing with this issue is a former assistant United States attorney. If there is no criminal investigation, why do you need to speak to our comments . No comment. They said they will not discuss the on going investigation. The next question which i think is a very serious one is the fact that the fbi, in desiring to speak with our client, we raised the concern of barbara bosser man. Mr. Cartwright with due respect, its not because of her capabilities as a lawyer. Im sure shes a fine lawyer, a career lawyer. You cited an ethics rule. Chairman jordan, you cited the rule. The obligation is not on the department of justice. Its on the lawyer. The lawyer has to avoid the appearance of impropriety. If youre heading up the investigation and were assuming she is. Know one has ever been very clear on that. You cant head up the investigation in an impartial method if the public thinks theres even a potential for bias or an inappropriate position. It was very simple for the department of justice to solve this. They didnt have to go in and ask for her political position. She should have the she has the affirmative obligation to tell her supervisor, i could be compromised in this, it would be best if someone maybe from public corruption took a look at that. Im just saying that for the record so were clear on the evidence. But what we have right here in the few moments i have left. She may have said she could have said that and the department say no, we want you to head the investigation. Thats my hunch. Thats why im saying that i dont want to impugn her integrity. I dont think its fair to do that. I agree. I agree. I dont know what statements she made. She did have the obligation. Let me say this, the irs attempt now to change the rules falls on two systematic problems. Number one, you dont get to change the rules for a posthoc justification of your prior bad and illegal comment, number one. Number two, remember that the acting commissioner, when this first broke, proposed a scenario where he would do a 40 Self Certification to grant exemptions to the c 4 organizations if they would self certify that no more than 40 of their activity was deemed political. My clients do not exercise that. If some client of some lawyer did exercise that, there are over 300 of these groups targeted, if they did exercise that, how would you like to be the lawyer that told their client to exercise the 40 rule and then nine weeks later the irs say, by the way, 40 , weve changed the definition of political activity. You dont get to change the rules in the middle of the game to justify your bad behavior. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Through, mr. Sec low. We appreciate that. Recognize the choice chair of the committee. Thank you, mr. Chairman and thank you to the witnesses. This targeting issue is obviously very concerning. But understanding the government being what it is, understanding human nature, people are apartment to abuse their power. Whats even more concerning for me is that once you have an admission of that, once you have somebody taking the fifth amendment, theres zero interest in rectifying any of this, in what the irs has done, what the fbi has done, the Justice Department, gri with the witnesses. This is a total sham and the American People arent getting the answers. Ms. Engelbrecht, you mentioned in your statement but it bears repeating, you had 20 years in bids, zero issues with any agencies. You file for king street and true the vote for status and youre visited by how many different agencies . Which ones . Fbi. Fbi, irs, bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms. Atf. Osha. Osha. And the texas branch of the epa. You mentioned very eloquently youre going to keep fighting, and i see that obviously. When you have to deal with this, you have a business, other things, trying to impact the country in a positive direction, when you have to deal with these agencies like this, it makes you less effective in pursuing your message. It has to. Am i right . It certainly gives one pause to think there is interagency collusion against private citizenses. Its the weaponization of government. Do you think people similarly sit rated to you may look at what happens to people to speak out and decide i dont want to deal with that and im just going to remain silent