The involvement of the IRS in preventing the tax-exempt status of conservative groups during the 2012 campaign has erupted into excuses and revelations about the ongoing scandal around Barack Obama.
Here are 10 quotes from different people involved in the controversy that targeted conservative and Tea Party organizations.
1. “I first learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this.”
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President Obama, in a now familiar explanation during a press conference after the story broke in 2013
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2. “I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations.”
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Lois Lerner, then head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, told a congressional hearing in May 2013. Emails later showed she had targeted Tea Party groups.
3. “They never asked a single set of questions.”
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Chris Littleton told
Politico about when applying for tax-exempt status for Ohioans for Health Care Freedom. Yet he didn’t receive the same status when applying for the Ohio Liberty Coalition and American Junto. The IRS stalling was so long, he gave up.
4. “To be tax-exempt as a social welfare organization described in Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 501(c)(4), an organization must be primarily engaged in the promotion of social welfare. The promotion of social welfare does not include any unrelated business activities or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office.”
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IRS officials, in a statement to inquiries about its activities published by
The New York Times
5. “Well, congratulations, President Barack Obama. Conspiracy theorists who generally can survive in anaerobic environments have just had an algae bloom dropped on their f—ing heads, thus removing the last arrow in your pro-governance quiver: skepticism about your opponents.”
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Jon Stewart, host of "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," said following the May 2013 Barack Obama scandal revelations
6. “With the recent push to grant federal agencies broad new powers to mandate donor disclosure for advocacy groups on both the left and the right, there must be clear checks in place to prevent this from ever happening again.”
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Michael Macleod-Ball, chief of staff at the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office, said after the IRS apologized for its actions against Tea Party and conservative groups
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7. “These kinds of things keep on surfacing, in part because you and your TV station will promote them.”
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President Obama, to
Bill O’Reilly of Fox News, February 2014. Obama also said there was “not even a smidgeon of corruption” in the actions by the IRS.
8. After the IRS “misplaced” or “lost” thousands of emails relating to the Barack Obama scandal,
this 2009 tweet from the company that worked with the IRS resurfaced in 2014:
9. “This revelation that the IRS sent 1.1 million pages of nonprofit tax-return data — including confidential taxpayer information — to the FBI confirms suspicions that the IRS worked with the Justice Department to facilitate the potential investigation of nonprofit groups engaged in lawful political speech.”
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U.S. Reps. Darrell Issa and Jim Jordan of the House Oversight Committee, in a letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen
10. “The administration and its fronts in the Senate accomplished what Richard Nixon wasn’t able to accomplish, which was the suppression of an entire movement against him. That’s how you steal an election; you make sure your political opponents can’t open an office.”
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Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, which has sued the IRS to obtain documents related to the controversy
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