The American Pundit

More good news from Washington today. CNN reports federal law enforcement has lost track of two known terrorists who participated in the Witness Protection Program. And they may have left the country.

The U.S. Marshal Service has been “unable to locate” two former participants in the federal Witness Security Program “identified as known or suspected terrorists,” states the public summary of an interim Justice Department Inspector General’s report obtained by CNN.

The Marshals have concluded that “one individual was and the other individual was believed to be residing outside of the United States.”

The news comes from an audit of the Witness Security Program by the IG’s office , which states that “the Department did not definitively know how many known or suspected terrorists were admitted into the WITSEC program,” among other “significant issues concerning national security.” The report makes 16 recommendations.

The “Interim Report on the Department of Justice’s Handling of Known or Suspected Terrorists Admitted Into the Federal Witness Security Program” notes that while in the midst of an audit of the WITSEC program, the Inspector General felt the need to notify the Justice Department of national security vulnerabilities, and the IG’s office “developed the interim report to help ensure that the Department promptly and sufficiently addressed the deficiencies we found.”

Oh, also, the Department of Justice forgot to add their names to the no-fly list.

Attorney General Eric Holder is under increasing pressure from the left to resign his office…or be fired.

First came Esquire, which called on Holder to go. Then Daily Kos (Kos linked it from Facebook).

And now liberal talk show host Bill Press:

I still haven’t heard a legit justification for the subpoenaing the AP phone records. They didn’t notify AP, they didn’t narrow search.

What “breach of national security” are we talking about re the AP story? It’s BS and Holder should be fired.

For once we agree.

Yep.

Not only did IRS employees improperly target groups based on politics, but they also improperly demanded a host of details about the groups’ activities, according to a report on the abuses by a Treasury Department inspector general.

Some groups, including several interviewed by The Washington Post, were asked to provide names of donors or membership lists, which experts say the IRS cannot legally do. The agency also demanded names of board members, copies of meeting minutes and résumés, details of community organizing efforts and numerous other details, according to questionnaires obtained by The Post.

It was a mixture between stalling in the hopes the group would go away, and trying to intimidate people into silence. Coincidentally, almost exclusively critics of their bosses in the Obama Administration.

We’re supposed to be impressed that Barack Obama had his Treasury Secretary ask for the resignation of IRS Commissioner Steven Miller. Miller agreed and is now out at the agency. This supposedly shows the worsening scandal is being taken seriously by the president.

But hold on.

It turns out Miller was set to resign next month anyway.

‘Lew took the first step by requesting and accepting the resignation of the acting director of the IRS,’ Obama said.

‘It’s important,’ he added, ‘to institute new leadership that can help restore confidence going forward.’

But in an email to IRS employees, Miller claimed he would only be leaving next month because his assignment would be over.

So basically he’s leaving a few weeks early. That’s a sufficient response to the revelation that a federal agency engaged in political persecution for years?

Penny Pritzker, Barack Obama’s nominee for Commerce Secretary, made $54 million last year from a Bahamian trust fund.

The official at the Internal Revenue Service who oversaw the department responsible for illegally targeting conservative organizations received more than $42,000 in bonuses over three years. That according to an FOIA disclosure by the agency.

Lerner received $17,220 for 2009, $24,691 for 2010 and $10,620 for 2011, the most recent year for which the IRS said data was available.

That would be Lois Lerner, who admitted on Friday her department improperly targeted conservative groups.

Just now from his testimony on Capitol Hill before the House of Representatives.

The Attorney General was asked when he recused himself from the Justice Department’s investigation into Associated Press reporters. His answer? He doesn’t remember.

But that should be simple enough to fix. Just go back and look at the paperwork. Oh, wait, there is no paperwork. He then told Congress his recusal isn’t actually written down.

So Holder doesn’t remember when he recused himself from the growing scandal, and there’s no actual evidence that he did recuse himself in the first place.

Update: Via Twitter, federal law actually requires the Attorney General to put his recusal down in writing.

The biggest question surrounding the worsening scandal at the Internal Revenue Service is: Who initiated the multi-year mass conspiracy, involving hundreds of agents in multiple offices, to target political opponents of the Obama Administration?

The Treasury Department’s Inspector General report has been issued, but throughout the report exactly how the targeting initiated is redacted. When asked for specifics, an IRS spokesman referred questions to Treasury. The Treasury forwarded the Washington Examiner reporter to the IG. The IG didn’t return requests for comment.

The rest of the report references dates earlier than February, 2010, in laying out how the IRS came to target Tea Party groups. But the reference to February in both appendixes indicates something particularly noteworthy happened then in the evolution of the IRS’s policy. What was it?

What, or more specifically who, initiated the targeting? Why a sudden, and apparently systemic, shift in handling conservative applications?

The Internal Revenue Service approved “dozens” of applications for tax-exempt status made by liberal political organizations while not approving a single application by conservative groups over a 27-month period. That according to a review of data by USA Today.

WASHINGTON — In February 2010, the Champaign Tea Party in Illinois received approval of its tax-exempt status from the IRS in 90 days, no questions asked.

That was the month before the Internal Revenue Service started singling out Tea Party groups for special treatment. There wouldn’t be another Tea Party application approved for 27 months.

In that time, the IRS approved perhaps dozens of applications from similar liberal and progressive groups, a USA TODAY review of IRS data shows.

As applications from conservative groups sat in limbo, groups with liberal-sounding names had their applications approved in as little as nine months. With names including words like “Progress” or “Progressive,” the liberal groups applied for the same tax status and were engaged in the same kinds of activities as the conservative groups.

These left-wing organizations intended to engage in the same activities under the same tax code provision as their conservative counterparts. Only difference being their political ideology. If you supported the Obama Administration’s political ideology, you were approved swiftly. If not, you sat in limbo for more than two years.

The IRS did not respond to follow-up questions Tuesday.

Yeah, I would imagine they didn’t.

For the record, the IRS is now under criminal investigation.

Tough day for Democrats when a top Congressional leader is asked about one scandal and confuses it with another scandal.

At Rep. Steny Hoyer’s weekly meeting with reporters on Tuesday, the Maryland Democrat was asked if he was concerned about the DOJ seizing phone records from Associated Press journalists working in the House press gallery in the Capitol building.

Hoyer’s answer was well-delivered: Articulate, clear, firm and precise.

One problem: He responded to the wrong scandal.

“The IRS activity was inappropriate, inconsistent with our policies and practices as a country, very concerning, needs to be reviewed carefully,” Hoyer, one of the top-ranking House Democrats, said in response to a question from Fox News’ Chad Pergram about the DOJ. “We need to ensure that this does not happen again, and we need to find out how long it continued, when it was stopped. It is my understanding—there was a front-page story on this at the [Washington] Post—it’s my understanding that [IRS official] Lois Lerner, who was apparently overseeing this, at some point in time found out about this and said …”

When Hoyer named Lerner, Pergram interrupted.

“We’re talking about two things,” Pergram, who apparently had not heard the first mention of the IRS, said from across the table, “You said Lois Lerner and the IRS.”

Another reporter sitting closer to Hoyer, Public Radio International’s Todd Zwillich, learned over and said softly, “He’s talking about the AP story.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, excuse me,” Hoyer said, pausing briefly. “Whatever happened, we need to find out why it happened. But clearly it should not have happened. I don’t know enough about whether there was a warrant sought.”

He wasn’t done.

“I don’t know fully the rationalization or justification that was being used, but the president’s statement that it was outrageous, that there was no place for it and that they have to be held fully accountable is a statement in which I agree,” Hoyer went on to say.

The only problem is that President Barack Obama didn’t comment about the DOJ story. And he certainly didn’t call it “outrageous.” In fact, the White House has declined to say much of anything about the DOJ investigation. Was he talking about the IRS story again? Yup.

Hoyer continued: “He then points out in another statement with which I agree: ‘I can tell you that if you’ve got the IRS operating in anything less …’” Hoyer’s voice trailed off. “Oh I keep going IRS. I’m really fired up on the IRS.”

Yikes.