From: "Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 21:56:47 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: IP: IRS, White House above the law? by Joseph Farah
Message-ID: <199809200247.TAA12078@netcom13.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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From: Jan <igniting@flash.net>
Subject: IP: IRS, White House above the law? by Joseph Farah
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 19:54:10 -0500
To: Ignition-Point <ignition-point@majordomo.pobox.com>

Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 14:31:36 -0600
From: Robert Huddleston <cabhop@highfiber.com>
Subject: IRS, White House above the law? by Joseph Farah 

between the lines
by Joseph Farah
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 18, 1998
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/btlines/980918_btl_irs_white_house.html

IRS, White House above the law? 
                   
Last week, we had our first court hearing in our
$10 million lawsuit against White House and
Internal Revenue Service officials we believe
conspired to use their government power to
harass and intimidate my organization, the
Western Journalism Center, for exposing Clinton
administration scandals for the last four years. 

This was a procedural hearing in Sacramento
before U.S. Judge Milton Schwartz, a Carter
appointee, who seemed to be preparing the Justice
Department attorney from Washington and our
counsel from Larry Klayman's Judicial Watch for a
major trial. 

Nevertheless, the government is trying to abort
this trial on the kind of familiar technical grounds
we have come to expect from this administration.
Interestingly, the Justice Department has yet to
dispute the major claims of our case -- that the
center was the victim of a politically motivated
audit designed to squelch our First Amendment
rights. 

The Justice Department is claiming the one-year
statute of limitations expired before we filed the
suit. Not true. By any standard, we filed in plenty
of time. The audit of our organization ended in
May 1997. We were not officially notified until
June of 1997. No tax-exempt organization in its
right mind would sue the IRS during an audit. We
filed the lawsuit in May of 1998 within one year of
the audit being closed. 

The Justice Department is claiming an argument
you've heard before from the administration -- that
there is "no controlling legal authority" and, thus,
no legislative remedy for organizations victimized
by political audits. In other words, the president is
free to use the IRS to go after his "enemies" and
there is no punitive action the victim can take
against him or the agents with whom he conspires.

Next week, the Justice Department attorneys will
be back in U.S. District Court in Sacramento to ask
Judge Schwartz to dismiss the case on these
specious grounds. 

I want to go on record right now as saying that no
matter how the judge rules on this motion, the
Western Journalism Center will not stop in
pressing this matter for adjudication and remedy.
This is a case far too important to the future of this
country and the rule of law to allow it to be dropped. 

Let's review the basic facts. In 1994, the center
began investigating Clinton administration
corruption. By December 1994, memos released to
congressional investigators show that the White
House counsel's office had begun targeting the
center for action of some kind. In 1995, the center
was a major focus of a White House counsel's
office 331-page report called the Communication
Stream of Conspiracy Commerce. I was the only
journalist profiled in this mammoth report
alleging a wide-ranging media conspiracy against
the president. In early 1996, I first began hearing
rumors that my organization was being targeted
by the IRS. Months later, we were notified that we
were under audit and that our tax-exempt status
was under scrutiny because of the nature of our
investigative work into Clinton administration
corruption during an election year. 
When we questioned the IRS agent about his
authority to interfere in our First
Amendment-protected activities, he said: "Look,
this is a political case, and the decision will be
made at the national level." 

We then exposed this blatant abuse of the IRS
against our organization and the pattern of
politically motivated audits against other
non-profits in the pages of the Wall Street Journal.
As a result, Congress began an investigation, and
IRS Commissioner Margaret Milner Richardson
resigned. Ultimately, the agent in charge was
removed from the case, investigated internally by
the IRS and a new agent assigned. The nine-month
audit was then closed within two days. 

We demanded our case file, which the "Taxpayer
Bill of Rights" states is available to any taxpayer
following an audit. It was denied. We then filed a
Freedom of Information Act request for it. Again it
was denied. The IRS stated that the file would be
withheld because it had been through the hands of 
others within the IRS and possibly outside of the
agency and was, thus, protected by "governmental
privilege." 

Having exhausted every available means to
document our growing conviction that we were
targeted for political reasons, we filed suit. 

If you believe, as I do, that this is a monumentally
important case, I ask for your sincere and
unceasing intercessory prayers that justice will be
done. 
                   

                    A daily radio broadcast adaptation of Joseph Farah's
                    commentaries can be heard at http://www.ktkz.com/ 

Joseph Farah  is editor of WorldNetDaily.com 
and executive director of the Western Journalism Center, 
an independent group of investigative reporters. 

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