Special Counsel Investigating Trump Was Major Figure In IRS Targeting Of Conservative Non-Profits

(Liberty Bell) – Jack Smith, the special counsel that has been appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to look into former President Donald Trump’s possession of classified information, just so happens to be a central figure in the now infamous Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative non-profit organizations, according to a report published in 2014 by the House Oversight Committee.

“On Oct. 8, 2010, Smith, then-Chief of the DOJ Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section at the time, called a meeting with former IRS official Lois Lerner ‘to discuss how the IRS could assist in the criminal enforcement of campaign-finance laws against politically active nonprofits,’ according to testimony from Richard Pilger, then director of the section’s Election Crimes Branch and subordinate of Smith’s, to the Oversight Committee. Lerner eventually resigned from the IRS in 2015 following criticism of her targeting of conservative groups when denying or delaying tax-exempt status,” the Daily Caller’s Arjun Singh wrote.

“This seems egregious to me – could we ever charge a [18 U.S.C. §] 371 conspiracy to violate laws of the USA for misuse of such non-profits to get around existing campaign finance laws + limits?” Smith stated in an email that was sent to colleagues.

The email made the sinister suggestion to have the department begin looking into conservative non-profits that might have reportedly been in violation of campaign finance laws, as per the New York Times.

The motivation for the meeting was former President Barack Obama’s public criticism of the Supreme Court for the ruling that was issued in the Citizens United v. FEC case.

“The Times’s article described how 501-registered charities, with ties to conservative lawmakers, were receiving donations from corporations and interest groups. At the time, these groups were also lobbying the same lawmakers on Capitol Hill, the Times writing that ‘The sponsors – AT&T, Chevron, General Dynamics, Morgan Stanley, Eli Lilly and dozens of others – contribute millions of dollars annually in gifts ranging from token amounts to a check for $5 million,'” Monroe said.

Not long after the article came out, Smith had his meeting with Lerner. Smith also pushed for the IRS to be “more vigilant to the opportunities from more crime in the … 501(c)(4) area.”

IRS officials, under the leadership of Lerner, later participated in picking groups that were associated with words and phrases like “tea party,” “patriot,” or “9/12” in their names for audits, following the meeting between Lerner and Smith.

“The IRS’s scrutiny of non-profit 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) tax-exempt statuses applied for by these groups prevented them from fully participating in the 2012 presidential election between Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney, as admitted by the agency in 2013,” Monroe continued.

“Lerner later resigned from the IRS and pled the 5th Amendment when questioned about her actions by the Oversight Committee, which led to her being held in contempt of Congress. However, Smith and his team had ‘serious conflicts of interest stemming from their interaction with the IRS,'” the report went on to claim.

“In his role as special counsel, Smith will oversee two investigations into Trump. One is regarding whether he or his affiliates ‘unlawfully interfered in the transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election,’ per the order of appointment,” the publication continued.

The other is about former President Trump’s possession of classified materials located at his private Mar-a-Lago estate following the end of his term in the Oval Office, which the FBI alleges is a violation of federal law. It’s that claim that led to the FBI raiding his home back on Aug. 8.

Trump himself has repeatedly said that the FBI unlawfully seized materials from his home that were covered by attorney-client privilege and has filed a lawsuit to have the documents reviewed by a Special Master to determine whether they could be used in the Justice Department’s criminal investigation of him.

“Based on recent developments, including the former President’s announcement that he is a candidate for President in the next election, and the sitting President’s stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel,” Attorney General Garland wrote in a DOJ press release. Trump has made it clear he has no plans of participating in the investigation.

Copyright 2022. LibertyBell.com

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