Let’s cut to the chase here: The IRS is obstructing justice because it doesn’t want the truth to come out . The agency has been caught red-handed targeting opponents of the Obama administration, including the tea party, pro-Israel groups and conservative news media.
It purposely delayed issuances of tax-exempt status to nonprofit groups and held investigations entirely outside its own mandate.
What the IRS is hiding is bound to be the work of malicious political operatives cloaking themselves as impartial civil servants, plotting among themselves against their political enemies through email.
The stiff-arms given by the IRS at every juncture — from Lerner’s invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination at a House hearing to this latest claim about preventing duplicates — is consistent with that scenario.
I’d say it’s already been full rogue for many months.
My thoughts on today’s anniversary, over at PJMedia. I haven’t been posting much because I’ve been attending a mini-conference on the subject, which was fascinating. I learned a lot of history from a lot of learned people. Sadly, it’s a history that we have not been teaching our youth. It doesn’t fit the narrative.
It’s almost the 800th anniversary of the signing, and there will be a ceremony in Runnymede on Monday, with Daniel Hannan. But if you’re in the Los Angeles area you can participate via satellite with him by attending this conference tomorrow and Monday. Looks like an interesting line up of speakers, if you’re interested in things Anglospheric.
Sadly, the Department of Justice can probably annoy everyone a great deal before it either loses or gives up trying. “The government doesn’t need reasonable suspicion or probable case to use grand jury subpoenas to seek information,” White confirms. “Regrettably, the government can probably abuse the Grand Jury subpoena power this way.” What it almost certainly cannot do, though, is win in court. Indeed, it is especially bizarre that the DOJ would pick this fight given that just last week the Supreme Court made it clear that, in order for a person to be found guilty of issuing “true threats,” prosecutors must demonstrate not only that a reasonable person would construe the words at hand as a “threat” but convince a jury that he knew what he was doing. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Roberts concluded that “federal criminal liability generally does not turn solely on the results of an act without considering the defendant’s mental state.” Under this standard, jokes, hyperbole, and rank stupidity in the comments section of a website are, frankly, not going to cut it. Good old mens rea would make sure of that.
Mens rea doesn’t seem to mean much any more. Few people are aware of the multiple federal felonies per day that they are probably committing.
Because, you know, the only way to “play it straight” is to agree with him.
I don’t think we’ve ever seen a president so contemptuously dismissive of the motives of anyone who disagrees with him. He is almost constitutionally unable to grant good will to what he views as his only enemies, which are domestic, not foreign.