Why the Treasury (IRS) IG Report is a Whitewash

You can download the report here.

For the most part, the report merely validates the multitudes of complaints by TEA Party and other politically conservative groups that they were harassed. However, it does not answer the key question: who gave the orders to start this process in the first place? Such efforts do not magically appear out of thin air from career, GS pay schedule employees.

[page nos. are of the PDF file viewer, not the printed page numbers on the report]

Note 17 (page 12): 

“During interviews with Determinations Unit specialists and managers, we could not specifically determine who had been involved in creating the criteria”.

Page 13

“We asked the Acting Commissioner, Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division; the Director, EO; and Determinations Unit personnel if the criteria were influenced by any individual or organization outside the IRS. All of these officials stated that the criteria were not influenced by any individual or organization outside the IRS. Instead, the Determinations Unit developed and implemented inappropriate criteria in part due to insufficient oversight provided by management. Specifically, only first-line management approved references to the Tea Party in the BOLO listing criteria before it was implemented.”

Conclusion: I see no evidence that the OIG made a serious effort to determine who gave the initial order to commence.

Also sprach Zarathustra

The most obvious way to determine Genesis is to examine the first action, from whence we might get a clue who/what is behind it. Sadly, the OIG does not supply this key datum in the report they released to the public.

Page 19, Figure 5: Timeline of Events and Delays Involving the Processing of Potential Political Cases.

Initial entry redacted.

Page 36, Appendix VI, Timeline of Written Criteria for Identifying Potential Political Cases.

Initial table entry (Feb 2010) redacted.

Page 37, Appendix VII, Comprehensive Timeline of Events

Initial table entry [E-Mail] (Feb 25, 2010) redacted.

Classic “BO” subterfuge

• he seems to have thrown the current acting IRS commissioner under the bus by announcing his immediate resignation. Problem: he began his IRS term after the TEA Party scandal events ended, and had nothing to do with it.
• these events occurred in the EO Division of the IRS. The Director of this unit during the scandal is now the director of the IRS unit assigned to enforce Obamacare. This might be a good time to grab the air sickness bag in the pocket in front of your seat.